A life that’s left her rail-thin and scarred and flinching at abrupt movements.
A life that has her stealing things and wearing disguises and carrying air freshener like it can be used as a weapon.
I open my mouth to tell her there’s no fucking way I can let her walk out the door, but before I get a word out…
There’s a knock on the other side of the door.
TWELVE
BRIAR
My stomach twists,and I curse myself for getting lost in those gorgeous brown eyes of his.
But when he goes to draw me away from the door, reaches for the knob, I grab his wrist. “No,” I say, bile burning the back of my throat. “Don’t open it.”
The Lyons will have followed me here.
They must have.
If I were thinking clearly, I might have realized that’s dumb, that of course they won’t come here.
That they won’t strike out now.
No. They’ll wait until the precise moment to do the most damage with the least risk of exposure.
Brooks stills and I can see in his eyes that I’ve revealed too much.
“Yo!” I hear bellowed through the wood. “You’d better not be eating all the pizza without me.”
Brooks curses.
“What?”
“It’s Jace.”
Jace.
Jace?
This cannot be happening.
I shake my head, lips parting to tell Brooks that under no circumstance should he open the freaking door, but he’s already pulling me behind him and turning the handle and?—
“What the fuck were you doing in here?—?”
It would be funny—the comical way Jace’s mouth drops open when he spots me standing behind Brooks—except that he’s here.
And I’m here.
And Brooks is here.
Fuck, I really need to go.
“I’ll let you two catch up,” I say, slipping out from behind Brooks and making a beeline for the open door.
Jace blocks me, stepping forward at the same time. “Holy shit, Briar. Is that you?” He moves close, as though he’s going to hug me, and…
I flinch.
