Maybe Silas had hit the nail on the head.
Maybe I really was looking for trouble.
Because I couldn’t do anything but edge out from behind the counter.
Couldn’t do anything but peer like a creeper through the window, hooked on the action as he rose from where he’d been leaned over a car’s engine and strode toward Elena and Kai.
Kai waved both hands, whipping that motorcycle around with a thrill.
Silas took him.
Swung him up in the air, his affect easy, but his body still rippling with menace and intimidation as he moved to where a bunch of motorcycles were situated in the far bay.
He swung onto one, taking Kai with him and settling the child so he was straddling the seat.
Kai’s little arms stretched out to grip onto the middle portion of the handlebars since they weren’t even close to being long enough to make it to the grips.
My chest squeezed. Squeezed in a way that I couldn’t fathom.
I couldn’t stop staring. Watching as joy filled Kai’s cherub face, and I thought it was sheer protection that took over Silas’s as he dipped down and pressed a tender kiss to the little boy’s head.
A surge of unequivocal loyalty ruptured out.
Beneath it was violence. The clear evidence of what would happen if anyone tried to hurt the child.
I tremored in the magnitude of it, nearly blown back when Silas lifted his penetrating gaze and laid it on me.
Green, roiling flames.
Harshness slashed into the savage angles of his face.
He kept staring at me. His nostrils flared, and I swore there was some kind of hidden message in it.
The muted sound of Elena’s laughter broke the bubble, and I stumbled back because I refused to be the fool who got lost in the trap.
NINE
BRINLEY
I’d never takenmyself for a masochist, but here I was.
Slipping out from what might as well have been a cell and edging down the exterior steps like a thief in the approaching night.
Wearing heeled boots and tight jeans and the sexiest blouse I owned tucked into the waist.
The shirt plunging at the neckline and slinking all over my upper body.
Last night I was sneaking. Tonight, I was strutting.
I decided I wasn’t about to let Silas Mercer back me into a corner. Wasn’t about to allow him to leave me submissive and afraid.
On top of that, the freaking dry as hell ham and cheese sandwich that had been delivered to my room didn’t compare to the mouthwatering scent of barbecue wafting up from below.
Twilight wisped through the cover of the trees, and voices and laughter carried on the gentle breeze.
The air was tinged in a faint coolness that clashed with the sweat that slicked my skin.
I inhaled it.
