There’s another bedroom with an attached nursery on the opposite side, though the layout is slightly different. But another check out the window shows I’d be worse than foolish to attempt making a jump for it.
As soon as I walk into the last bedroom in this wing, I recognize Gray’s style, though it’s changed a lot from when we were kids. The one thing that hasn’t changed, it seems, is her love of canopy beds and the ocean, if the blues and greens covering her bed and other surfaces are anything to go by.
A large silver picture frame catches my attention and I wander over to pick up the photo of Gray’s parents on their wedding day. Emotion wells in my chest, so huge and heavy I think it might smother me. In the photo, they’re exactly as I remember them. Bright and happy and so fucking full of life.
What must it have been like for Gray to watch them being murdered right in front of her eyes? To be sixteen and on the run with six equally terrified older brothers, unsure if they’d ever be able to stop looking over their shoulders, waiting for a man they’d counted on for protection to come find them?
I mourned them, yes, but I was never scared. Never in fear that my own life might be in danger, never worried about who I could trust from one moment to the next.
“Josie!”
Daddy’s voice calling my name jolts me out of my contemplation and I drop the picture frame with a clatter.
“Josephine Elise! Come out here, right now, or you won’t sit comfortably for a week, little girl!”
Fuck.
Panic grips me and I make a dive for Gray’s bed, wiggling beneath the frame and pressing myself as tightly against the floor as I can manage. I am, on some level, aware that they are likely to find me here no matter how well I hide. But I have to at leasttry. Maybe they’ll miss me for now and I can sneak out of Gray’s room and back into Lanie’s nursery and convince them I was hiding there the whole time.
Yeah, right.
As I’m grappling with whether to just show myself or not, the bedroom door swings open and a pair of feet covered in thick socks appear right in my field of vision. Suddenly I’m that girl in every kidnapping movie, slamming my hands over my mouth and nose to smother the sound of my frenetic breathing, praying my would-be captors won’t hear me.
I watch the sock-covered feet move, slowly crossing the room to open a closet, checking here and there. Then they disappear into what I assume must be another nursery and I realize I might actually have a chance to escape unnoticed.
Moving as quickly as I dare while trying to remain as silent as possible, I wiggle out from under the bed, hope beating painful wings at my chest as I stumble to my feet.
But just when I’m a few feet from the door, a hand wraps around my arm, jerking me backward. And I find myself staring up into my former best friend’s dark, furious eyes.
“What the hell, Josie? You’re supposed to be in Lanie’s nursery. What are you doing in my room?”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. “We-we were playing hide and seek.”
Her thunderous expression softens somewhat and instead of fearsome Auntie Gray, I see a glimpse of the girl I grew up with. The girl who used to be right beside me, making trouble, and more often than not leading the charge.
That same hope from before sparks inside me and I cling to it with everything I have. “Please, Gracie. Help me sneak back to Lanie’s room before he notices. I swear I won’t tell a soul.”
I can tell she’s wavering when her gaze darts toward her bedroom door and back to mine. “I really shouldn’t, Josie.”
“Please? For old times’ sake?”
It’s sneaky and underhanded, but I can’t find it in me to feel guilty about it, given everything she and her brothers have put me through.
“I don’t know…”
But before I can push any harder, the door to her room flies open and Daddy steps inside, his furious expression harsh and unyielding.
“There you are, little girl. We’ve been looking for you.”
Bram
Relief floods me at the sight of my sister holding my naughty babygirl by the arm. Everything in me wants to run to her, to scoop her up in my arms and squeeze.
But I force myself to stop in front of them and pin her with a stern look instead. “Where are you supposed to be right now, little girl?”
Eyes downcast, she shrugs, and I have to fight not to smile at how fucking cute she is. Cute or not, she broke the rules and I can’t just let that go. “Look at me, Josephine.”
She huffs out a breath, a clear indication she’s not happy about her circumstances, but she does as she’s told, peering up at me through her lashes. “Yes, Daddy?”
