Her eyes settled on me. “Will it?” she whispered, her voice heavy with doubt.
Since I couldn’t make her that promise, I didn’t.
“You’ll keep him safe, right?”
“I will,” I said. “I swear it.”
She nodded again, but didn’t say anything else. I got up to leave, but stopped when she said my name. I turned to look at her as a shy smile spread across her lips. “I’m sorry I shot your truck.”
I chuckled. “I’m not,” I said. “Reminds me how glad I am that you have shitty aim.”
Her light laughter followed me back to the house.
Chapter 10
ETHAN
“Jesus,I don’t think I can do this,” I murmured as I leaned forward in the luxurious seat and wrapped an arm around myself in the hopes I could stave off the nausea that was threatening to crawl up my throat.
Cain didn’t say anything for which I was glad for. Platitudes about how things would be fine wouldn’t make me feel any better.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen them?” Cain asked when I finally straightened.
We were sitting on Ronan’s private jet which had just started its descent and was scheduled to land at a private airport just outside of San Francisco.
Home.
“Almost four years,” I said softly. I held my tongue as Cain got up from his seat and came to sit down next to me. I assumed he’d done it so he could hear me better over the din of the engines. But I couldn’t help but fixate on the way his powerful thighs bunched beneath his snug jeans as he got himself buckled in. Or how close his arm was to mine despite the wide seats.
Things hadn’t exactly worked out according to plan after I’d called Arthur from what Ronan had assured me was a secure,untraceable phone about a week after I’d told Ronan and his men my tale. Arthur had been horrified to have to tell me that my package with Lucy’s phone had inadvertently been mailed to my family two days earlier when Arthur’s daughter had come across it on his desk. Arthur had been in the hospital for a routine procedure so he hadn’t been around to explain that despite the package being addressed and the postage already affixed, it wasn’t supposed to have been sent. I’d assured Arthur that it was okay and that I’d retrieve the package from my family, but as soon as I’d hung up the phone, I’d nearly lost it. Not only had I not seen my family in years, they were about to get a letter explaining why I’d been absent out of their lives for so long including information about what Eric had been doing to me. Worst of all, the way I’d written the letter along with the instructions about what they should do with the phone had made it sound like I was gone.
The only saving grace had been that it had only been two days since the package got mailed to the PO Box my oldest brother, Devon, used for his business. I’d hoped by using the PO Box that I could control how the rest of the family found out the truth. As much as I’d hated dumping all of that responsibility on Devon, I’d known he’d be the best one to see that the phone made it to the right people and to console the rest of my family. I’d been forced to call him right after hanging up with Arthur so I could explain the presence of the package and make him promise he wouldn’t actually open it. To say he’d been surprised to hear from me had been an understatement. Of all my family members, Devon was the strongest, the most sensible and the least likely to let his emotions rule his decisions. But that also meant he took shit from no one, including me. And while he hadn’t made me explain myself over the phone, I had no doubt I wouldn’t be so lucky in person.
“So Devon is your oldest brother?” Cain asked.
I nodded. “I have another brother, Garrett and a sister, Eden. They’re both older.”
“You’re the baby of the family.”
“Yeah. I was kind of unexpected.” At Cain’s questioning look, I explained, “I’m adopted. My mom’s sister was a social worker. Shegot assigned to my case when I was a kid and that’s how my mom found out about me.”
“Your case?”
“Um, yeah, I was found at a bookstore one day when I was three. Someone left me in the children’s reading area but they don’t know who. I only knew my age and my first name so I couldn’t tell them much. No one came forward when they ran my story in the local news.” At Cain’s frown I said, “I don’t remember any of it. And I was really lucky to get the family I did. I had a lot of developmental delays so my parents had to work with me a lot to get me caught up to other kids my age.”
“And then you went on to graduate high school two years early,” Cain pointed out.
I smiled. “My parents were really proud of me for that,” I said. “They were proud of me for a lot of things.”
“But you weren’t,” Cain said softly.
“What?” I asked, startled. “No,” I said quickly. “I was really lucky…”
“But it wasn’t easy for you, was it?”
I was about to deny the comment, but then I remembered Cain’s insistence that he hated liars. I didn’t know why it was so important to me that he didn’t put me in that category.
“No, it wasn’t,” I admitted. “I was a pretty awkward kid. My social skills weren’t great and I had every childhood insecurity you could think of…acne, braces, glasses, a weight problem…I was pretty much a walking, talking cliché. By the time I walked across that stage to accept my diploma, I’d heard every nickname and then some.Freak Showwas the worst,” I murmured.
