“What does that mean?” I finally managed, going back to what he’d said.
I wanted to know how and why it was his duty to protect the vulnerable when I was pretty sure he was little less than the grim reaper blazing through town.
I needed to understandthis.
“Why am I really here?” Here I was, the vulnerable one, all but pleading it.
In contemplation, Silas’s tongue stroked over his plush bottom lip.
Gaze burning a hole right through the middle of me.
A battle of trepidation and conviction crawling through his expression before he gritted, “Because I have a deal with your brother. I protect you as long as he delivers what I want.”
Okay, so I was completely at fault that I was crushed by his answer.
Gutted, really.
I set myself up for it, after all. Letting him swindle his way under my skin.
Bringing me here.
To his family.
Promising me he would protect me like it actually meant something to him.
Anger boiled to the top, snuffing out the hurt.
“So Iamthe means to an end? A bartering chip? A job?” Plainly, it wasn’t completely snuffed out considering my stupid, unreliable voice cracked onjob.
I rammed my hands against his chest to shove him off.
A frenzy took me over as I fought to get away.
I had to get out of this place before he completely wrecked me.
I was already showing severe signs of terminal spinelessness.
Only he grabbed me by the wrists, and he pinned them to the pillow on either side of my head.
A scream rolled my throat, but I subdued it since it wasn’t his family’s fault that this guy was a complete bastard, and instead, it left me on a hushed shriek.
“You might as well let me go,” I spat between clenched teeth, thrashing below him. “I’m as good as dead, anyway, aren’t I? I’ll make it easy on you so once you’re done with my brother, you don’t have to make the effort to drag me off your property to throw me to the wolves.”
I expected defamation and slander considering he was finally being halfway honest with me.
Not for him to angle in closer, fury whipping off his tongue. “Never. I will never fucking let them get to you.”
It ripped all the reproach and blame I wanted to hurl at him right out of my lungs, and I sucked in a shattered breath when he dropped his forehead to mine.
I was pretty sure it was pain bleeding out of him as he murmured, “Wildfire.”
Shocked, I froze, all the fight I was trying to dispatch arrested by the promise he made.
I was fully aware I should try to reassemble that fight.
This time, for wholly different reasons. Or unholy, really.
Because heat was suddenly saturating me through.
