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Unease gripped me in a fist, and I blew out the strain through my nose. “We all met in LA as teens. Each of us fucked up in our own way.”
A frown carved into her brow, and I reached out with my thumb and smoothed it away as I continued, “We learned to rely on each other. To have each other’s backs. It was how we survived. We became a family, and this is a sign of the pact we made that we would always stand by each other.”
I left a whole fuckton out. Seemed she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t give some pieces of her life. I would one day. I just had to figure out how the fuck I was going to handle this.
Sorrow billowed through her spirit. “Raven told me a little about your pasts. Showed me the scars she has. She said you saved her, but it was a story you needed to tell.”
I took her hand and pressed her knuckles to my lips. “Doubt that’s a story you really want the details of.”
Her caramel eyes were soft, the cinnamon flecks swirling as she gazed at me. “Yet I feel like it defined you.”
My stomach fisted. Couldn’t believe the way this girl could read me. Way she had direct access to who I was.
“Guess it did. The bastard taught me what hate really meant, and he also taught me the lengths I would go for the ones that I love.”
Her nod was slow, like she was piecing it all together without needing the gory details. “And do you think that’s a bad thing?”
A low chuckle rumbled out. “Whole lot of people in the world would label it that.”
Taking justice into my own hands. But I wouldn’t change it. Not after everything we’d been through. Not after the people we’d helped.
“I see who you are,” she murmured. “The way you are with Nolan and Raven. The way you are with me.”
Her fingertips fluttered over my heart like she could inscribe her belief on it.
A heavy sigh pilfered through my nose. “Love them with everything I’ve got.”
A tiny smile tugged at the edge of Charleigh’s sweet mouth. “How could you not? Your sister is amazing and wild and the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met, and Nolan…”
She trailed off, wistfulness climbing into her tone.
I brushed my fingers through her hair. “Kid is the best thing in my life.”
Adoration swam in her eyes. “He stole my heart. I think that first day at the clinic, he stole my heart.”
I pulled her closer, arms wrapping her tight. “Pretty sure he feels the same about you.”
Hell, I was pretty sure she’d stolen mine, too. Ripped it right out of my chest.
I wavered, but there was no missing the melancholy in her gaze. The sadness that was there in the middle of her love. So I broachedthe topic that had been plaguing me in the back of my mind. “How old was your son when you lost him?”
A pained sound hitched in her throat, but she didn’t seem that surprised by my asking it. “He was just a tiny baby.”
My stomach clutched. “Were you in the car accident with him?”
Sorrow blanketed her expression, before she whispered out the words, “No. He was with my parents.” She blinked through what seemed a thousand memories, awash in the torment I could feel lashing her insides. “They were coming to meet me. They were all killed.”
Fuck.
“That’s horrible. I’m so fuckin’ sorry.” I wanted to erase it. Erase it all. But I didn’t hold that kind of power.
Her mouth was pressed to my throat when she mumbled, “It was when I finally got away from my husband. Because he had nothing left to hold over me. The only thing left was my body.”
I couldn’t imagine it, living with that sort of loss with the abuse on top of it. It was so much more than any one person should have to bear.
And here she was—the brightest light I’d ever felt. Spearing through me the second I’d seen her. The first person who’d ever held the power to strike me.
Nothing but a fucking lightning bolt.
