The second the sky cracked with early lights, I got dressed and waited, watching my brother sleep, wondering, remembering. I felt so sorry for leaving him. My absence, my abandonment got him into this mess. He had been alone, surviving one battlefield after another. He needed someone to come home to. Someone to talk to. Someone to care.
If I had been just there, none of this would have happened. He wouldn’t have thrown himself into the first family that took him in and got swallowed by it. The Blood Demons MC wasn’t a family but a hell pit. And Slasher was the lord of the demons that dwelled in it.
I stroked Malcolm’s hair, listening for his breath. His chest wasn’t moving, his skin colder than usual. My heart leapt to my throat as I shook him. “Malcolm. Malcolm!”
He stirred, grumbling, and I could breathe again.
“Morning,” he said, his voice thick with sleep. “What time is it?”
I winced, blinking away the tears. “It’s way early. Go back to sleep.”
He yawned as he flipped on his side. “You good?”
“You were cold and not breathing. I freaked out. But I’m okay now.”
Suddenly too alert, he bolted upright. “You sound like Mom. When did you get all paternal?”
“Maternal,” I corrected, smiling.
He uttered a sound that was a mix of a snort and a grumble.
“Maybe I’m ovulating,” I teased.
“Eeew, dude.” His mouth twisted as if he was having a gag reflex. “You don’t talk to your brother about…that.”
A giggle found its way out of my throat as he stretched his arms. “I’ll wash up real quick and drive you to school,” he said.
“You don’t have to. It’s really early. If you can just bring me my goddamn car from the people holding it ransom, I’ll drive myself.”
He chuckled. “Nobody is holding anything ransom, Reindeer. The Ford has been fixed the same day you arrived. I asked Slasher to lie to you so the brothers would take you to work. I’m sorry, but I felt you’d be safer that way.”
I would have been mad, but I liked that he was finally opening up and telling the truth, even if it was about small things. “Now who was being paternal? Your sweaty balls do that to you, too?”
He grabbed a pillow and hurled it at me before he flipped me on the way to the bathroom.
After a retouch of lipstick and mascara, I gathered my things, excited like a little girl that my big brother was taking me to school.
My anxiety level lowered on the ride. There was something about the rush that induced a calming sensation, and it wasn’t just the adrenaline. Perhaps I was just thrilled that Malcolm was finally snapping out of the brainwash, taking the right step into getting out of trouble.
Slasher was conceited. In my opinion, he wouldn’t acknowledge his sickness and would never ask for help. It was a sign of weakness in his world. He couldn’t afford it. That meant Malcolm would leave with me. We’d start a new life. Just the two of us in a new house—I’d have loved to wait to retake ours, but getting my brother back was more important than some old walls.
“You promised me, Malcolm,” I reminded him as I got off the Harley.
He nodded once. “Come here.”
I approached, and he hugged me so tightly. “I love you, Reindeer. I wish things were different, but it is what it is. We all do what we have to survive.”
The ominous feeling returned and squeezed my heart, my anxiety level shooting to the roof. “What does that mean?”
“It means I hope you love me as much I love you.”
“Of course, I do.”
He broke our embrace. “We’ll see. Take care now.”
With that he left me, a million questions hurting my head. I went on with my classes, half there, anticipating the end of one of the longest working days of my life.
I was finishing up my lunch break, not that I could let anything enter my stomach, when Rav texted me.
