Page 87 of Where We Promise

I winced at how loud it echoed. Max began barking from upstairs. Wes walked toward Silas, telling him to get the fuck out, when there was suddenly someone running down the stairs. I assumed it was Max, but it was Natty who barreled past me. Her eyes were wild, her hair flying behind her.

“Silas, get the fuck out, now!” Wes pulled a black handgun from a side drawer near the entry, but Natty ran past me, Killian and even Wes and threw herself at Silas.

He caught her, his hand came to her hair in a soothing fashion, his eyes were desolate. A dark beast who’d been deprived of sunlight and air, only to finally be released into the wild.

He was murmuring something into her ear in another language. She was saying something back in a similar fashion…

Killian moved next to me, then Wes, hand going slack, the gun still gripped but pointing at the ground.

“Was that Latin?” Killian whispered, and I merely shook my head because I had no fucking clue.

The women all began filtering back downstairs, quietly and cautiously. Callie had her palm on Max’s head, who seemed to want to jump forward but remained at her side.

Silas had pulled Natty back the smallest bit, to where he was holding her face with both hands. I could see tears sliding down her cheeks. The two were still whispering in their language, and then Silas pulled her into another hug. Finally, his gaze cut to us. His wince spoke volumes, as if we were never meant to witness this.

His only weakness.

Silas began pulling away again, but Natty tried to grab him again, to hold on, but he pushed her away, shaking his head. I saw tears fall from his lashes, and the devastation there did something to me.

“Non possum,” Silas rasped, turning away from her.

Natty stood there trembling. “Yes, you can.”

His head dipped, but he was out the door in seconds. Natty brought her hand to her mouth, as if she were trying to pull all of her emotions back into herself. She spun away from the entry and darted for the guest bathroom.

Killian, Wes and I all moved outside, going after Silas while the women all went after Natty.

“The fuck was that?” Wes yelled, jogging down his steps.

Silas was pushing a hand through his hair, blowing out a ragged breath.

Once we were all close enough, he held up a photo of Natty working at the bakery.

“This was nailed to my door this evening—where I live. Where no one, not even my mother, knows the address.”

“We know who it’s from?” Killian asked, his eyes narrowing on the photo.

We all seemed to notice it at the same time, the small story book, dripping with blood stamped into the center of the image.

“Fable,” Silas muttered.

“Your father is going after her?” I asked, tucking my hands under my armpits, trying not to shiver from the cold. Should have grabbed my coat.

Kilian scoffed. “Mine went after Laura.”

“I can’t risk losing her.” Silas sounded pained as he confessed it, and I felt the echo of that pain wind through my own heart.

It had me rethinking my earlier position on the text I found on Penny’s phone.

“Luke reached out to Penelope….”

Silas looked hopeful. So, I pushed on.

“He wants to meet up with her.”

“What did Penelope say?”

Shaking my head, I felt the guilt creep up on me again. “I clicked into the message so she wouldn’t see it as a new notification. If she read it, she hasn’t told me. We’ve been…preoccupied so I doubt that she has.”

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