Page 69 of Serpentine

MILES

When I finally gained the nerve to go down to the basement, I walked in on Aella packing a bag I knew belonged to my brother. She’s stuffing clothes inside it while he snores in soft bursts.

She spies me and wipes a tear from her face before she hefts the bag over her shoulder and heads past me, up the stairs, and out of the door at the top.

I run my eyes over my brother for a moment. His face is the picture of bliss. I have to wonder what happened down here with them. I know what I told her to do, but I don’t know the details.

I saw his bike last night and the shambles it was in. I thought about fixing it, but he won’t want me to. He’ll want to do it himself. As a visual thinker, I know he’s already forming a plan in his brain for where he wants to start. Doing a thing for him at this point will dis-regulate him even further than he already is.

I turn and leave my brother’s room, shutting off the stair light Aella had been using to pack up her meager bag. I’m unsure of where she thinks she’s off to, but I know she won’t get far without the keys to her Lexus that I have tucked away in my safe.

“Aella?” I ask once I reach the kitchen at the top of the stairs, silently closing the door to let Braxton sleep.

She’s pacing in front of the counters, hands in her hair. By the sound of her breathing, she’s headed right towards a panic attack. I’ve seen Braxton have them enough to know she’s the next one who’ll need grounding.

“Talk to me. What’s happening?” I step in front of her, pulling her hands out of her hair and firmly gripping her shoulders.

She looks at me, eyes full of frantic energy. “I have to do this now. I have to go back, and it has to be now.”

I narrow my eyes. “Well, I don’t know if that’s a good idea until we have a solid plan. Having a plan means including Brax on this. If he wakes up and finds you gone…”

“I’m too close. It’s too much. I need to do this now, Miles. Or I’ll never leave.”

Her admission hits me in the gut like a strike of fucking lightning.

“Why?” I know why, though. I can see the building clouds of sadness in her eyes. She’s falling for him. It makes me wonder if the moment we three had shared in the basement had been just that—only a moment. Logic tells me that what we shared in the boutique and the slight touches in the truck were authentic.

Whatever happened between them last night has her wanting to bolt.

A sudden idea bursts into my brain, and I grip her shoulders harder. “You’re running from him. From who he is.”

Anger replaces her panic, and her lip pulls up as she says, “No, the fuck, I am not! I’d never run from him. I can’t say goodbye to him, Miles.”

“But you can say goodbye to me?” I hadn’t meant for it to get out, but it had. Now, it’s floating heavy between us.

Her eyes instantly soften as a tear crests over her bottom lid. “No. I hadn’t planned for you to come down and walk in on me. You were an unforeseen interruption.” She moves forward and lays her head on my chest.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to either of you, but we need to do this. We need to find out what happened to your mom, and I need to know who my father is and what my legacy is. Then we can turn the page on this awful chapter.”

I swallow against her words, closing my arms around her as she snuggles into me.

“What will be in the next chapter?” I whisper.

She sniffles. “I don’t know. Something beautiful, I hope.”

When she picks her head up to look at me, her blue eyes glaze with emotion, the world disappearing in a second. I lower my face to hers, hovering there, imprinting the feel of the moment with her into my brain to relive while she’s away.

“Something beautiful already occurred in this chapter, Aella.” My lips meet hers, softly at first, then it turns frantic when my tongue parts her lips and dances with hers. I turn her, her back hitting the counter before I lift her and set her down atop it.

She pulls back, hands cupping my face tenderly. “A lot of dark happened in this chapter, too.”

I nod. “You can’t have the beauty without the dark, though. Only when you’ve seen the dark, dealing with the tragic side of life, can you appreciate the beauty.”

She shakes her head at me. “Covered in leather, yet hiding such depth beneath it,” she jokes, smiling brightly at me.

I roll my eyes.

“I don’t know what the next chapter will have, but I need to tell you I told Braxton I’d help him get a diagnosis. I know your mom never wanted that for him, and I don’t know how you feel about it, but he wants it. I want to be there for him through this journey.”

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