Page 82 of His Boys to Protect

“No see dead?” Ward asked.

“Oh shit,” Dakota gasped as his face drained of color. “Charlie?” He threw off his seatbelt and leaned forward, grabbing his brother's arm. “Hey, Charlie? It's okay. Nobody's dead. We're fine.”

No look! No look! No look!

“Oh,” Skylar whispered, then looked at Ward with wide eyes. “He's saying hecan'tlook. He's afraid to look.”

“Charlie,” Ward murmured. He carefully cupped the boy's face with both hands. “We're fine. Everybody's fine.” When Charlie shook his head, Ward tried again. “Charlie, you can hear my voice, right?”

Charlie paused, rocking a few times before he finally nodded.

“Look at me, buddy,” Ward gently ordered. “Put your hands down. Come on. It's safe. Look at me.”

It was a long moment before Charlie slowly lowered his hands and opened one eye, peeking up at him. Charlie shivered and grabbed Ward's wrists.

“See? Everything's fine.”

Charlie kept rocking. He made a sign that Ward didn't recognize.

“I don't know what that means,” Ward said, then looked at the other boys. “Something with a letterD, I think.”

“That's my name sign,” Dakota said.

“Charlie? Dakota's fine. You can hear him, too, right?”

The boy gave a tiny nod, then scrunched up his face, hunching his shoulders like he was bracing for pain.My Sky?

“Sky's right here. He's okay, I promise. Charlie? I swear. He's fine.”

Skylar got out and wedged into the space at Ward's side. “Charlie? I'm right here. We're safe. Everything's okay.”

Charlie hesitantly looked. He choked out a cry of relief and threw himself at them, then flailed an arm towards the back seat, reaching for his brother.

It was several minutes before Charlie showed any signs of calming down. Then it was several more minutes before they could convince him to continue the drive home. Ward had to go slowly, keeping both hands firmly on the wheel. He felt Charlie's gaze fixed on them the whole time.

When they got back to the house, Charlie had to touch all three of them again, making sure they were safe. It was all Skylarcould do to steer the boy inside, insisting they go up to the room for a while to have some quiet time.

Charlie refused to go without Ward.

“He'll come in a minute,” Dakota said. “I need to talk to him first.”

Ward's heart sank.Shit. So much for that acceptance he'd felt earlier. He was pretty sure he'd just ruined it.

Charlie hesitated, but when Dakota insisted, Charlie let Skylar take him inside, looking back over his shoulder the whole way.

Before Dakota could say anything, Ward blurted out, “I'm so sorry–”

Dakota waved a hand. “It's not your fault. Well, not entirely. I'll need to have a talk with him about how dangerous it was to grab at you like that.” He paused. “But you shouldn't have touched your phone while you were driving.”

Ward winced. “You're right. I'm sorry. It was stupid and dangerous.”

Dakota swallowed hard. “I told you my sister died in a car accident.”

Ward's heart clenched.Shit. “Yeah.”

“She got hit by a drunk driver,” Dakota explained, “but she was also texting while driving, so she wasn't paying attention, either. If she had been…”

Ward felt his whole body flush with guilt. This just kept getting worse.

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