My throat heats.“He did,” I say, lifting my chin.“And he came back when he knew I needed him.So did Barret.”
“Where is Barret?”Roderick demands.“Because if I’m swallowing this, I want all parties present.”
“Asking for a quorum?”Barret’s voice floats in from the doorway.He’s leaning there with his hands in his pockets, eyes on me first, then Eddie, then my brother.“Sorry I’m late.Kit was helping me with a song I’ve been working on.Came because I heard the commotion and ...I was right, you four were about to start a revolution.”
Roderick groans.“Perfect timing, we can behead both of you.”
“Stop,” I order.
Barret steps inside, gaze pinning Roderick without blinking.“I love her,” he says simply.“I love him too.It’s easy for us and complicated for the world.I don’t expect you to like it.I don’t even expect you to understand.But I won’t apologize for it.”
“You’re four years older,” Roderick fires back.
“And if I were four years younger, you’d call me immature,” Barret says.“So which is it?Because this sounds less like a concern about math and more like you wishing she’d picked someone you could manage.”
Roderick takes another step.“Watch it.”
“No,” I say, meeting my brother in the middle again.“You watch it.You don’t get to protect me by tearing down the people I love.”
“Then tell me how to protect you,” he says, and the question crashes through the room like a window opening in winter.“Tell me what I’m supposed to do when I wake up and hear that you’re no longer with us.When I have to pretend that I’m grieving, but I can’t be here caring for you the way you always cared for us.”
My eyes sting.“You answer when I call.You show up when I ask.You stop trying to make me small so I fit into your version of safe.”
Eddie’s hand tightens its grasp.Barret moves closer, not touching, just there.
Roderick looks at the three of us like we’re a problem he can’t solve without breaking something.“And if I can’t?”he asks.
“Then learn,” I say.“Because I’m learning, too.I’m learning how to love without bargaining away parts of myself.I’m learning how to stay when it’s easier to run.”I swallow.“You don’t have to like them.You don’t even have to look at them.But you have to look at me and see that I’m not asking for your permission.”
Roderick’s mouth twists.“And Dorian?”
“We’re handling him,” Eddie says.
Barret nods once.“There’s a plan, and as we asked you earlier, you just have to pretend that you’re grieving.”
Roderick drags in a breath like he’s trying to swallow fire.“I don’t trust you,” he tells Eddie and Barret.“But I trust her.”
“That’s enough for me,” Eddie says.
“It’ll have to be,” Barret adds, mildly, which only makes Roderick scowl harder.
I step forward and press my palm to Roderick’s chest.“You just have to let the choice be mine.”
He looks at me for a long beat.Then he juts his chin once, a rough nod that signals we’re not done, not even close.
“Fine,” he says.“But if either of you hurts her?—”
“We know,” Barret rolls his eyes, “you’ll hunt us to eternity, blah, blah, blah.”
“I wouldn’t—hurt either one on purpose,” Eddie says.
“It doesn’t matter.”Rhodes glares at Eddie.“We would hunt both of you.”
“Family,” I groan.“God help us.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Cleo
