We made it upstairs.
At her door, she turned to me. “Can you—”
I tapped a finger to lush red lips. “It’s handled. I’m coming in.”
“How did you know I was going to ask that?”
“I didn’t. Nash did and he asked me first.”
Wasn’t quite how it had gone down, but I was learning that these hot motherfuckers were as attuned to each other as they deserved to be. Cos they loved each other that fuckin’ much.
I unlocked Orla’s door, sensing Decoy’s quiet tread on the stairs. He waited with Orla while I checked her place out, then tipped me a silent nod before he left.
Love that dude. Honestly, who wouldn’t? If I could’ve picked Folk’s forever soulmate, I’d never have found someone as perfect as Decoy.
Orla slipped under my arm and into her place.
I followed and shut the door behind me, leaning on it a second, buying myself time to get used to being in her space while she flitted ahead, turning on lamps and lighting candles.
Couldn’t deny it, the candles bothered me. I saw my brother’s face in every flickering flame and it was all I could do not to trail after her and blow them all out.
It’s her space, bro. Let her live.
“Are you hungry?”
I refocused. Orla stood in the doorway of her kitchen, framed by the glow I knew came from the spotlights under the matte black cabinets. “Your brother just fed me.”
“You’re not a dog.”
A scoff brewed in my chest, and she felt it as much as I did. I feltherright in front of me even though she was three feet away.
“You’renot,” she whispered.
“I was aDogCrow, queenie. For seventeen years.”
Confusion flickered in her velvet eyes. “I thought it was eleven?”
“I was a hang-around before I quit the fire service. Club events and barbecues. Dudes and bikes, man. For a while, it was my favourite thing.”
“Then what happened?”
It was apparently Truth Day and I hadn’t got the memo in time to prepare myself for the bitterness I still carried. “Everything changed.”
“How?”
The scars on my back, on my legs, theyburned. As if they were brand new, the strap cutting into my flesh as shackles bound my wrists. Pain I’d take a thousand times to protect the people I loved. “My brother. Logan. He did something that brought him to their attention. I gave them my life so they’d spare his.”
In the dim light, Orla gazed at me, but it wasn’t the unfathomable stare I’d endured from Saint all evening. It was horror as understanding dawned on her.
Empathy.
Love.
She came to me in the dark hallway and stretched up to press her lips to mine. “One day, I need you to tell me the very worst of it. So I can protect you from it when it comes back, because it always does, sweetheart. There’s no light without shade.”
Another kiss, then she broke away, kicking off her boots and padding into her living room, giving me space or trusting I’d follow. Couldn’t tell which, but I appreciated the opportunity for both.
I took a breath, padlocking that nasty shit away for the night. Then I ditched my boots and ventured further inside the spacious flat.
