Clearly on guard duty.
One point Silas.
At least he wasn’t throwing his little sister to the wolves.
Sucking it all down, I lifted my chin and forced myself to move out into the fray.
My heart thundered at my chest. Anxiety woven in every walloping beat.
I’d almost convinced myself to turn around because it would be a whole lot safer to serve out my sentence hidden behind the fortitude of the walls of my room when Elena suddenly glanced in my direction.
Glee lit her face.
“Brinley! You came! I was about to storm up to your room and drag you out here.” She widened her arms in welcome.
The guy next to her swiveled my way as I approached.
A glower took to his brow, and his dark gaze drifted down me like I was a blight.
Clearly, he wasn’t as excited to see me as Elena.
I searched around inside myself for a good excuse for coming down here. “How was I supposed to resist the smell of that barbecue?”
She hiked a coy shoulder. “Why do you think I had Silas send up a boring, bland sandwich?”
“Diabolical.” I couldn’t help but grin.
“I told you I have my ways around here.”
“Where’s Kai?” Was it weird that I felt a little panic that he was nowhere in sight? But I couldn’t imagine Elena would leave him with someone who wouldn’t fully look out for him.
“With Meems.”
My brows lifted. “Meems?”
“Our grandmother.”
“Grandmother?” I didn’t know why it came out so uncertain.
Elena lowered her voice as she glanced around. “We don’t bring Kai to the clubhouse at night.”
She must have seen the spate of questions roll through my mind because she added, “We all live in a house on the backside of the property.”
“Silas, too?” It came out a demand.
Her brow arched. “Are you interested in where my brother sleeps at night?”
I curled my nose. It seemed the appropriate reaction.
She laughed again, then my attention was suddenly stolen by a surging energy that came from across the clearing.
Hot spikes of animosity that arrowed through the night.
Someplace inside me wanted to cower.
Instead, I lifted my chin in a challenge to meet the ferocity staring back.
I guess I shouldn’t have because the force of it nearly blew me back ten feet.
