My jaw clenched in restraint. Refusing to claim it myself. “She shouldn’t be within five states of this place.”
“And tell me you want her to be anywhere else?” Lulu was all challenge and snark.
“I just want all of this over with.” To put an end to Kent Ellison and his foul, sickening reign.
Ensure my sister was safe from his clutches.
Set Brinley free.
My guts twisted into a snarl of possession with the last.
Soul lashing out in refusal of the idea of her leaving this place.
Because the only real place I wanted her was in my bed.
Lulu angled her head. “And there isn’t a thing else you want to come of it?”
“Nope.” I popped thepbefore I took another swig of my old-fashioned. Hoping it might cover the blatant lie.
Of course, Lulu picked up on it, anyway. Woman as insightful as they came. She never hesitated to make sure I knew it, either. “You just go on tellin’ yourself that, sugar. You think I don’t see it written all over you?”
Disbelief shot from my chest. “And what’s that?”
“Somethin’ that hasn’t ever been there before, that’s what. Somethin’ you’ve been missing since the day I met you. Somethin’ I’m sure has been missing for a long, long time.”
My chest stretched in a flurry of pain and regret.
“You’re seeing things,” I grumbled.
“I sure am, as plain as day. You’re the one who’s not paying attention.”
My head shook. “I don’t know what you’re angling at, but you might as well drop it. Nothing is going to come of it.”
“And why not?”
My teeth ground, and the words were spilling free before I had the good sense to tamp them. “Because I refuse to condemn another person to the calamity that I am.”
I couldn’t believe I let it slide from my mouth. But Lulu had that way about her. Always plucking and picking until she’d peeled the skin back to expose what was rotten underneath.
She scoffed. “Condemn them, huh? Like you did me, coming in to rescue me when I was at my lowest? Saving me and supporting me when I lost my husband? Giving me a home?”
“That’s because we take care of family.”
“And maybe that girl right there needs one, too. Maybe she’s missing that same piece so many of us are when we come here.”
My insides stirred.
Swam and thundered with the music that pounded from the speakers.
Shoving it off, I ground out, “She’s been hurt enough. I refuse to be another. Besides, the last thing I need is another burden on my shoulders.”
I added the last like it could mask what had basically amounted to a confession.
“Huh…” Lulu’s musing cut off the hazardous spiral of thoughts. Only they got so much worse when she muttered, “Maybe someone else will fill that hole for her.”
I whipped around to find Brinley in the middle of the floor, dancing with two prospects.
Two prospects who wanted to get dead.
