Page 11 of Newton

I can tell she's trying to fight the urge to seek comfort, but her body isn't her own right now. It's demanding comfort and seeking it wherever it can find it. It's not specific to me. I could be anyone else right now.

At least that's what I tell myself when I begin to grow a little territorial over her.

I've only spent twenty minutes with the woman and I already know I'll ask Kincaid to let me go wherever she's taken. Protecting her feels like something I have to see through to the end.

The trip back to the clubhouse is somehow too short and too long all at the same time.

Scooter parks in the front parking lot.

"We'll debrief in twenty," Jinx says through our mics. "Farmington PD is going to deal with Xan and evidence collection."

Brielle stays close to me as I climb out of the SUV, and, despite her stiffening for the briefest of seconds before climbing the porch steps, she doesn't argue.

I guide her to my room, unsure of where else I can take her. I'll know more shortly, but for now, my options are limited.

"I have to go debrief," I tell her when I step inside and turn on the lights.

Her eyes dart all over the room, and the sight of her doing it is very familiar.

She's trying to determine if she's going to be safe in here. I also know I have to let her decide that on her own. Words of assurance are as weak as they are brief, so I don't waste the energy.

"I'll be back," I tell her, a little disappointed that she releases me immediately rather than holding on to me tighter and asking me to stay.

My skin grows itchy the second I step back into the hallway, and I'm fighting the urge to scratch at it by the time I make it into the conference room.

Before long, every Cerberus member who helped out today is in the room.

The debrief doesn't take long, and, despite my urgency to get back to Brielle, I don't argue when Jinx lists me as one of many who needs to get across town and help evacuate the shelter. The location is no longer safe for the women and children there.

"There has always been more than one contingency plan," Jinx explains. "We just always hoped we'd never have to use them."

I can't look down the hallway when we file out of the room because I know doing so would force me to feed that part of me that needs to go and check to make sure that she's okay.

Another part of me, a selfish part, makes me wonder if she won't be moved from here before I return. If that happens, I don't know how I'll react. Honestly, I can't explain the draw to her that I feel. All I know is my gut is telling me to keep her close, and if I can trust anything, it's that instinct.

It screams at me all the way outside of the clubhouse, and it doesn't relent with each mile of distance that is put between us.

Chapter 6

Brielle

I feel twitchy as I pace the floor in the big bedroom.

This is his space, not something I can, for a second, deny with his scent lingering in the air.

The bed is made to perfection, the corners crisp with military precision.

The only thing that even hints that this room is lived in is the book about the Roman Empire on the bedside table. There are no clothes hanging out of drawers. There isn't a spot of dust on the hardwood floor surrounding the large area rug that dominates most of the room.

I sit in the oversized chair across the room, but it doesn't last long. I'm antsy, feeling like a sitting duck in this room.

Although there was no sign outside, I have to assume this is Cerberus MC's headquarters.

I heard the guy who drove me here ask where he should take me, but I never heard the answer. There's no telling what sort of conversation traveled through those headpieces they were both wearing on the fifteen-minute drive from the house my stepbrother died in to here.

I shake my hands out down by my hips, but it doesn't stop the tingling in my fingers. I make fists, clenching them and reopening them over and over, but it only helps a little.

Something tells me to run, but there's another voice that also screams at me to stay.

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