Home > Burn (Crash & Burn Duet #2)(5)

Burn (Crash & Burn Duet #2)(5)
Author: Grahame Claire

“I’m used to it.”

She sagged against me as if her body was finally giving out. I rubbed my hand up and down her spine, torn between angry that she had to deal with this and thrilled she was back where I wanted her. Needed her.

I didn’t know exactly what was happening between us, only that I couldn’t stay away. Didn’t want to stay away.

And tonight . . . I couldn’t remember being so scared. I wasn’t sure what that meant or where this was going. While I seemed to be growing more certain in my feelings, Pepper seemed to be pulling away.

“Tell me about the decision you need to make,” I said against her hair. Even if I couldn’t fix my own life, maybe I could help her sort out hers.

She stiffened but didn’t let go of me.

“You can talk to me. About anything,” I said after she didn’t speak.

When she finally looked up at me, there was so much trouble on her features I could hardly stand it.

“I’m not ready yet.”

Disappointment I hadn’t expected sank into my gut. It stood to reason I wanted her to trust me. Apparently, she wasn’t ready to lean on me.

“Whenever you are—”

“I know.” She placed her hands on my stomach, and for a second I thought she was going to push me away. “Why aren’t you at work? Didn’t you have a twenty-four-hour shift?”

While I appreciated her concern—no, I more than appreciated it—I wasn’t ready to say the words out loud. I could barely think them. And I didn’t want to worry her with things out of her control.

“Maybe it’s time I thought about a new line of work,” I said offhandedly. Maybe I didn’t want to burden her that I’d been fired, but I also didn’t want to lie either.

She jolted. “But you love your job . . . don’t you?”

I slid my hand into her hair. “Yeah. Most of the time.”

She tilted her head to the side.

I kissed her forehead. “Rest. We’ll talk later.” It was killing me not to know where she’d been, why she’d disappeared. I needed the truth, even if I didn’t like it.

Her brow creased. Deep-set lines cratered around her eyes. “Monsters are real.”

 

 

Chapter Six

 

 

Teague

 

 

Click. Click. Click.

Ash trotted down the steps beside me.

I’d been torn between staying with Pepper and letting her rest on her own. I sensed she needed a minute to herself to digest whatever had happened to her.

But it was making me crazy with worry and curiosity.

Three faces jolted in my direction.

“What happened?”

“What’d she say?”

Lincoln and Beau spoke at the same time. Miss Adeline was quiet, knowing Pepper better than any of us.

I lifted a shoulder and lowered it helplessly.

“She’ll talk about it when she’s ready,” she said as she slumped into her chair.

The woman had been up all night too. All this stress couldn’t be good for her.

“You must be tired—”

“Is that your polite way of telling me I look like death warmed over?”

Maybe it wasn’t appropriate, given what had happened, but I smiled, grateful for a moment of normalcy.

“No. It’s my way of saying I’ll take the early shift.” I winked.

“You’re lucky you’re handsome.” She pointed an old, crooked finger at me before she stood. Then she stepped in front of me and cupped my face. “I’m glad you’re around.”

I was too. I hadn’t realized how much until tonight.

“You just don’t know him that well,” Beau chimed in.

“We’ll have to do something about that, won’t we?”

I kissed her cheek. “Any special instructions?”

“Feed Sadie first.” She started up the stairs.

“She’s upstairs with Pepper.”

“That dog will be down for breakfast. Mark my words.”

Once she disappeared, my brother and sister surrounded me.

“What did she say? Word for word.” Beau shoved at my shoulder.

I appreciated that she cared so much about Pepper too.

“Not much of anything.”

Beau narrowed her eyes. “Was she kidnapped?”

I dropped into the chair Miss Adeline had vacated. “I don’t know.”

“Where was she?” My sister sat on the desk beside me.

“I don’t know.”

A growl of frustration that matched how I felt came from her direction. “What do you know?”

“Nothing. She basically said she has a decision to make and that monsters are real.”

Ash put her head in my lap. I hadn’t realized how much I needed her comfort.

“It was him.”

Beau and I snapped our heads toward Lincoln. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Do you know any other monsters?”

His question was loaded. There was nothing our father wasn’t capable of, but this?

I shot out of the chair. “Will you two stay with them for a while?”

Lincoln put a hand on my shoulder when I was almost to the door. “Think this through.”

I spun. “Think what through? He kidnapped Pepper and did who knows what to her.”

All I saw was red. Anger pulsed through my veins like a living and breathing thing.

“If you go to him, what are you going to do?” Lincoln’s grip tightened. “This is what he wants from you. A reaction.”

Oh, I’d give him a reaction all right.

“She didn’t tell you it was him,” Beau said quietly.

“Are you defending him?” I asked incredulously.

“No.” Her answer was quick. Insulted. “I’m saying not to be rash.”

Lincoln and I stared at her. Who was this woman and what had she done with our sister? Rash was her middle name.

“When it comes to him, we have to think carefully,” she said, almost defensively.

Lincoln sighed. “She’s right.”

“If he kidnapped Pepper . . . if he did anything to her, there’s nothing to think about,” I said through gritted teeth.

“So what’s the grand plan? Are you going to abduct him?” Lincoln still hadn’t unclamped his hand from my shoulder.

“If I have to.” I lifted my chin.

“Consider Pepper and what’s best for her,” he argued reasonably.

“I am,” I shouted and immediately regretted when the pile of sleeping dogs all lifted their heads in unison. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

The pitter-patter of paws on the steps caused us all to look in that direction. Sadie trotted over, looked up, and proceeded to bark. And bark.

“It’s that time, huh?” I scratched behind her ears and followed her to the back.

Beau and Lincoln were right behind me.

“How does this work?” Lincoln shrugged off his suit coat and hung it on the rack of leashes.

I glanced at the empty kennels and then to the turned over bowls on a towel next to the sink.

I fed Sadie so we could communicate without shouting.

“Fill these with water and put them in each kennel,” I said, handing them a stack of bowls.

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