No, I wasn’t ok. The monsters were screaming and I couldn’t make them stop. It was so loud inside my head I couldn’t concentrate.
Thorne watched me, confused. I was confused too. My mom didn’t have a boyfriend. He didn’t know what he was talking about. He didn’t see how scared she was.
“Rosebud, I’m sorry. I saw them.”
I could feel the fury building inside me. Why was he lying? Why would he say awful things about our mother? She didn’t leave us. She wanted us. She told us every day about how much she wanted us. How much she loved us. How much she loved being our mom.
The door slammed open, and Cash stood there. I ran to him and threw my arms around him. “He’s lying, Cash,” I cried. “He’s lying.”
“It’s ok, baby. It’s ok.” He rubbed my back and held me as the monsters’ roars subsided. “That’s enough for tonight,” he said.
“She’s my sister,” Thorne growled.
“She’s my old lady,” Cash growled back. He lifted me in his arms and walked out of the room. He jogged up a set of stairs with my face buried in his neck.
I didn’t care where he was taking me as long as he stayed with me. He kept the monsters quiet. Inside the new room, he laid me on the bed. I thought he was leaving me, but he walked to the other side and got on the bed behind me, turning me to his chest.
“Why is he lying, Cash? Why would he say those things about my mom?”
“What did he say, baby?”
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face. “He said she didn’t want us. That she had a boyfriend, and she left us to bewith him. It’s not true. He wasn’t her boyfriend. She was afraid of him. She was protecting us.”
“Shhh, baby, calm down. Take a breath.” He rubbed my back and kissed the top of my head. The screams were so quiet now. “We’ll figure it out,” he mumbled as I drifted off to sleep.
I woke with a start. Sitting up in bed, I looked around the room, unsure where I was at first. I fell back against the pillows when it all came crashing back.
Finding my brother.
Talking to Dr. Jefferson.
Thorne lying about our mom.
Cash holding me while I cried until I fell asleep.
I looked at the empty space next to me. He wasn’t here, but I knew this was his room. My bag was on the dresser, and I looked longingly at the bathroom door.
Did I have enough time to shower and dress before he got back?
You can’t hide from him forever.
Not if you want a life with him.
I listened for sounds outside the door. I vaguely remembered walking up a flight of stairs to Thorne’s room and Cash carrying me up another set of stairs to get to his.
I felt the sheets beside me and they were still warm. That meant he hadn’t left that long ago. He might have gotten a call from King, or maybe he went to get coffee. Either way, he had to travel down two flights of stairs and back up before he would get back.
I was confident I could shower in that amount of time and be dressed before he returned.
The warm water washed over me as I quickly showered. I had just stepped out of the bathroom, realizing I forgot to bring my clothes with me, wrapped in nothing but a towel, when Cash entered the room with two coffees in his hands.
“Fuck, you’re sexy,” he growled. He set the coffee cups on the dresser and stalked over to me. I stood frozen in fear as he reached me. The towel, which hung to my knees due to my small stature, was my only defense.
His hands cradled my face, and his lips pressed to mine. Every thought in my head flew away as he tasted me. His tongue licked at my lips, coaxing me to open for him, and I was powerless to stop my body from reacting.
His hands moved to my shoulders, and I shivered. A visceral reaction to my fear of discovery that he took as arousal. I wouldn’t lie; I was fucking aroused. Every time his lips were on mine, I got lost in him.
Usually, I had clothes on and could let my defenses down just a little. But here in this room, with nothing but a towel hiding my shame, I pulled back.
