Page 116 of Serpentine
“You’re together…”
Dad eyes me over Susan’s head, threat written on his features.
I laugh, unable to help myself. “This just keeps getting better and fucking better. You’re with her. So, not only will James come for her when he finds out what you did. He’ll come for you, too, because you’ve been fucking his wife. Or were you two fucking all along?”
Susan cries harder, likely even more guilt chewing away at her resolve.
“Aella, watch your mouth.”
“Or, what? I’m not five, Dad. I’m a grown fucking woman, and all I’m asking for is the truth. How hard is it to tell the truth?” My face hardens. “Oh, yeah, it’s you two I’m talking about. Never mind, don’t answer that. I’m going home. You two have made your fucking beds. I think it’s high time you laid in them.”
“Aella!” Dad shouts as I slam his office door behind me on my exit. I don’t clock out, only throw off my name tag and bullshit work ID before storming out of the building and toward my car.
The audacity of them.
I can’t believe they were just going to lay all this on me and let me be their fucking secret keeper. How the fuck did they think I was going to watch Braxton and Miles search and run themselves ragged, all the while knowing she was alive the entire time?
Who the fuck do they think I am?
When I realize Dad likely thinks I’m his daughter, and therefore, I can lie just as well as him, I rest my head on my steering wheel. Giving myself a moment of silence, I focus on breathing steadily.
How the fuck am I going to tell them?
THIRTY-SIX
MILES
The phone rings incessantly. Braxton and I have called her repeatedly to no avail, yet we keep trying. We know where she is, but we don’t know why.
“She needed time to herself,” Braxton says for the millionth time. Of course, he’d be the more understanding one of the two of us.
But while I understand his need to dig in, I don’t understand hers. Is this something she does when overwhelmed? She’s had a lot going on in her life, beginning with us kidnapping her and ending with Braxton getting stabbed and about a hundred other things.
“But why? Was she alright when she went to work?” I ask. She’d stopped off in his bedroom after leaving the kitchen with me before she left, telling him goodbye.
He smirks knowingly, remembering some stolen moment between them only he is privy to. “Yeah, she was fine.”
I shake my head, hitting her contact again. This time, it goes to voicemail, and I lift my eyes towards his. She never let her phone die, so she must have shut it off. “See? Something’s wrong.”
He sighs and puts down the bagel he’d been buttering, licking the tip of his thumb clean of butter before pulling his phone out and texting someone with furious fingers.
A slight sound tells me someone replies right back. “She’s still in her old apartment. Hasn’t left.”
“Why don’t you seem worried about this?” Something in my gut tells me that something isn’t right. I don’t think she’s in danger, but I know something’s shifted in her life. Something she’s not ready to divulge to us yet. But fuck that.
We are a unit. We function better together. She knows that.
“I’m going over there,” I announce, and Braxton follows me into the living room, where I slip into my boots, leaving them untied as I grab my bike keys.
“You’re not going over there. You’re going to give her time to decompress. Maybe she had a bad night at work.”
“All the more reason for me to go over there. She needs consoling.”
I open the front door, and he slams his hand on it, shutting it. His body heat melts through me, sneaky little ripples of arousal tingling to the surface, raising the hairs on every plane of me.
“Braxton,” I grumble halfheartedly.
“You’re staying here. With me.” His deep voice makes me close my eyes. He’s not usually this forceful. Unless he genuinely believes in what he’s saying. He has the best gut out of all of us. Even Mom said it once. He’s like a human vibe-detector; he knows when the universe is off—especially his universe. Aella is a part of that universe.