Page 108 of Serpentine
The ripples of her kiss move through me like an emotional Band-Aid.
“She’s still getting checks,” Brax adds, finally coming around to what’s happening and needing her to rationalize this for him, too.
“Someone is. We don’t know that it’s her,” Aella tells him, turning her face towards him.
Brax’s hand reaches over, grabbing for mine. I let my forehead rest on the cold wood of the door before me, letting Aella hug me tight and Braxton’s hand slip into mine.
“We’re together. We can deal with this all together,” Aella says.
“The things I’ve done in her fucking honor…”
Her scoff cuts my words off. “No. Don’t you dare do that. You took care of the people in this town. You have helped them when they needed it most. You were their saving grace, as were the rest of the Cobras. Shit, you’ve saved some of them. You’ve done good in this world. Don’t you dare diminish any of it because of this.”
I straighten, turning and dropping Braxton’s hand.
I let my back hit the door, looking between them.
Aella might look like the picture of a model on the front of a bougie magazine, but she’s anything but. She’s the toughest person I’ve ever fucking met.
“How are you so confident we’ll be alright? How are you so fucking strong?”
She clears her throat as she eyes Brax before letting her eyes drift back to me. “I had to be. I didn’t have anyone, Miles. You might have lost your mom, Miles, but you’re so rich in other aspects. You have so much.”
Thinking about my life with Braxton makes me realize she’s right. She was in the limelight while being alone at the same time, which hardened her. Sure, Braxton and I are tough as nails, but we also have a massive support system she’s never known.
The look shared between Brax as he reaches for her makes my heart palpate. There’s love shimmering as bright as the fucking sun between them. It’s in how she lights up when he touches her in comfort.
I fight a smile as I watch them for a moment.
In recent weeks, we’ve been so far off the mission it’s not even funny. It’s all because of one impulsive decision Brax made when he saw the fiery little minx standing before me, beating the shit out of her car.
“What?” Aella says when she sees me smirking.
“Nothing. It’s just… I thought this was the first significant break in Mom’s case in so long. We’ve been so distracted lately that we have made no headway…”
“And?” Braxton adds.
“All I can think about is how you look happy together. This thing between us has been part of why we all got out of focus, but…” I scrub the back of my neck, searching for the right words.
Every time I try to talk to either of them, it’s as if I’m standing before them naked, confessing my innermost feelings. It’s all new to me.
“I think maybe focus shifted where it should’ve been the entire time,” Brax adds. “Being with Aella isn’t a bad thing. I don’t feel it is anyhow. I get you’re all business, Miles, but we’ve been putting ourselves on the back burner for far too long. It’s time to be fucking happy. Especially if we’re right and Mom’s out there living her fucking life unperturbed by what happened to her boys.”
“Maybe I got too far off focus long before Aella,” I grit out, and they both share a look before looking back at me with concern on their features.
“What do you mean?” Aella asks.
“Because she’s been alive all this time, and no one found her. Not even Braxton! What if I was too focused on helping this godforsaken town so much that I missed something?”
Brax turns and walks toward my bathroom, growling something under his breath before putting his massive hands on his head.
His back muscles ripple through his shirt, and I lick my lips before returning to Aella.
“You can’t do this to yourself. We can only go forward from here, right? So let’s do that. We can’t play the what-if game, Miles. We have to take what we’ve found and keep digging. You’re going to drive yourself crazy!”
“I’m going… I need a minute,” Braxton says.
I move out of the way of the door, and Aella captures Brax before he can escape the heaviness in the room.