Page 100 of Serpentine

“Just leave,” I tell him, my voice even and calmer than I expected it to come out.

“Be careful with them, Aella, for all our sakes. I love you,” he adds.

Surprise becomes me as he steps closer, and his arms hug me to his chest. His suit smells like the one I remember when I was a child. When Mom would make us take one posed Christmas portrait every year, I was on his side, snuggling next to his body, a fake smile on my face.

I say nothing. I don’t hug him back, either.

I don’t realize I’m crying until I return to the room, and Miles rushes to me, wiping the tears off my face.

“What happened? What did he say?” Brax says, groaning as he tries to get out of the bed. Neither Miles nor I have the energy to fight him, so we stand in one another’s arms as I let the overwhelming feelings break me down. Tears flow out of me like rain, and it’s poetic. This is the turning point in our journey together, the collective us that I’d have to become a new me to mold into this new life with them—shed my old skin as I grow and change like the Cobra I’ve become.

“I’m fine,” I finally say, pulling away from Miles and shoving Braxton back on the bed. He hisses and growls in annoyance as I cover him with the covers. “I don’t think he did anything to her. My gut when I questioned him didn’t feel off at all. I’m not saying he doesn’t know something, though…”

“The way he spoke about her in the present tense…” Miles trails off, turning and beginning to pace.

“I caught that, too,” I tell him. “We stay on track. I’ll keep working for him. See what it turns up.”

“I don’t know, Aella.” Braxton’s face pulls tight with worry. “He knows now. He’s going to be on high alert.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so. If anything, I think he will give me a wider berth.” My eyes think of the moment my face connected with his face, wincing slightly and closing my eyes.

“I think I need to swap to night shift,” I tell them.

Miles scoffs. “Over my dead fucking body.”

Brax looks away when I swing my gaze at him as if hiding the ghosts in his eyes. The ones that have been haunting him for most of his adult life. “She worked the night shift,” he whispers.

“All the more reason for me to do it. I need to sneak around, and I can’t do that in the daytime,” I tell them.

Miles sits next to me on the edge of the bed, his hand going behind me. But it doesn’t land on me. No, it lands on Braxton’s leg in comfort and boils my blood.

The thing we’re building is something I stand to lose if this goes left, and I don’t know that I can stand it.

“We’re going to have Sully on you at work, then.” Miles’s eyes heat as he relays his orders, and a poisonous shadow in his eyes threatens to strike if I push back.

I nod. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable without a Cobra on my six.”

This makes Miles smirk and lean closer. “Getting used to having venomous snakes protecting you, hm, princess?”

I lick my lips, leaning closer.

“Knock it off, you two, damn.” Braxton’s command isn’t said in anger. The vibrations in the surrounding air of the hospital bed shift, and I smirk as they skim their electric fingers across my skin.

“Baby brother wants us to behave,” Miles says heatedly.

“Fuck, you two are going to kill me. Did you bring me food?”

Miles sighs and stands, grabbing for the fast food bag. “I’ll go find a microwave.”

“Great, turn it even more potent than it already is,” Braxton says.

I climb over him as the door shuts, snuggling beside him where I’ve been sleeping. He turns his face and breathes me deeply as if I’m becoming his gravitational center. The one holding him together when the world is too much to bear.

“If we lost you…” he says, and I close my eyes.

“You won’t.”

“You can’t promise, though. This game—this world—is a dangerous one. When you stepped onto the board, you gave up your safety. Even the idea of it. As much as we want to shelter you, we can’t hide you away for only our eyes.”

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