Page 101 of Serpentine
“I’ve got this, Brax. I’m going to get you answers.”
His eyes lift to mine, and their weight on me is almost too much. It feels like I’m standing bare before him, waiting for him to judge my soul.
“Then what?” he asks, and the look on his face makes more sense.
“What do you mean?” I ask, breathless from the way he looks at me.
He’s different from anyone I’ve ever met before. He gives me the attention I’ve craved for as long as I can remember. One that’s unshakeable. He sees all of me and doesn’t judge a fucking morsel of what he’s looking at.
“What happens after all this shit? When we have the answers, and we’ve settled every single piece of bullshit that’s going on around us?”
What he’s asking hits me hard.
Because, to me, I thought I already gave him enough to know I would be with them. That this thing we’re doing isn’t a fucking meaningless experiment for me.
“Yeah, princess, what comes next?” Miles chimes in as the door closes behind him.
He lays the food out on a tray and rolls it towards us. I sit beside Braxton on the bed, using the button inside the railing to raise him more easily.
“What’s growing between the three of us is what I want. Nothing is going to change that. It’s different and something new to navigate, but I’m already so… attached to both of you. Looking forward, I can’t see myself without you in my life. I’ve changed. I’m different. You two are a part of that.”
Miles and Braxton share a look as Miles shoves food towards Braxton. “Eat.”
The sternness in his voice makes my stomach lurch with heat, but I gulp past it. I hold the burger Miles hands me, feeling the warmth through the tinfoil wrapper surrounding it and letting it keep me to reality.
“It’s too early to know where this is going to go, but wherever the road leads us, I’m all in,” I add.
I look at Miles, and he looks over at us both. He nods.
We both look at Braxton, who shoves a fry in his mouth. “Don’t look at me. I’m in fucking heaven with the two of you.”
I laugh, and tension lifts off the three of us, heading through the ceiling like never before.
“We finish this with your dad, but we’re smart about it. You don’t put yourself in any more danger than you have to,” Miles says, stealing a fry from my carton on the tray.
I nod, biting into my burger and groaning in pleasure. My stomach rumbles in thanks, and I realize how hungry I was.
“When I’m done eating, I’m going home,” Braxton says. “I don’t care if I have to rip these tubes out myself, Miles. So, go make it happen.”
Miles shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “Ever the fucking brat. I’ll go see what I can do.”
“Mmm, do that. Swing your big dick around and make them listen.”
I nearly choke on my burger at Brax’s words, and Miles’s lips lift in a sinful smirk.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Just like that, the tension has returned.
THIRTY-ONE
BRAXTON
Being home regulates me. The sounds and smells are calming. There’s no more beeping or a hard bed. The red lights above me bathe me in the glow of their comforting hands as I lie on my bed and take in the feeling of my safe space covering me like a heavy blanket.
“Do you need anything before I go to sleep?” Aella asks.
If I had any windows, the light would stream in surrounding us. It’s only noon. But Aella swapped to the night shift to get more time in the factory while the administration wing was empty. So far, she hasn’t ventured off the line. Not that I blame her. The shit she volunteered to do for us is dangerous. Part of me wants to tell her she’s done trying to get information for us because there’s always a price and consequence; she doesn’t need to pay it.