Page 23 of What Lies Within

I position myself behind her to read the emotions that cross her face through the reflection.

“What’s in your brain?” Digger asks, still seated on the bed.

“I’m thinking…” Rae starts carefully. “I like how it feels. The weight of it on me.”

“Why?” I need to hear it. I need her reasons for wanting our name on her back.

“Because…” She chews her bottom lip, twisting one way and then the other to get glimpses at the reaper on her back, the top rocker in place that says, 'Property of.' "I don't want to say I feel like I belong because that's not it. I don't. Not yet. I feel… Well…" She sighs, fighting for the words I need to hear so desperately. "As though I'm welcome here." A smile teases at the corner of her lips. "As though I'm wanted. As thoughyouboth want me.”

“Because we do.” Digger echoes the words in my mind.

"It's so sudden, though," she says, spinning to face me with her head tilted back to meet my eye. "Won't people question that?"

“Are you?” I ask.

She shakes her head and then screws up one side of her mouth before uttering, "I mean, maybe. A little."

"Why?" Digger leans back on his palms, a slight frown in place. "Where does your doubt lie?"

Rae’s gaze drifts across the both of us before falling to the floor. “I guess I’m letting my fears win.”

“Fear of what?” I inch closer, ducking my head to try and meet her eye.

"Of the future." She lifts her head, piercing me with her stare. "There's so much you both don't know about me. So many things we've yet to share, to explore, to learn. What if…" She shrugs. "What if those things make you change your mind? What if we all wake up one day with the heavy realization that we resent this thing? That you regret making this choice?” She lifts the hem of the vest, indicating our decision to mark her as ours.

"You got big walls to get past, don't you, baby girl?" I smile, tucking my fingers beneath her chin and stroking the soft flesh beneath her mouth with my thumb. “You gonna give us a chance? Or you gonna spend all day in that head of yours addin’ more bricks?”

Her mouth quirks up on one side. “It’s second nature to.”

“And I get it.” Fuck—with her history, do I get it. “Weget it." Lord knows, my goddamn brother is as plagued by a troubled mind as the rest of us combined. "But you got two choices in life, Rae." She studies me, the slightest crinkle on the bridge of her nose. "One, you can spend your days analyzing the fuck out of everything and do your goddamn best not to get hurt. Or two, you can set that fear aside and follow your heart. One of those options leads to a life full of missed opportunities and regret. The other doesn’t promise no pain, but it does bring you more joy to temper that ache.” I slide the hand from her chin along the slope of her jaw and thread my fingers through her hair. “You know which road you gonna pick?”

Her gaze slides to Digger, and she swallows. “You make it pretty obvious which one I should.”

“Which one doyouwant?" he stresses. "You've gotta make the decision fromyourheart, Rae, not ours."

She fingers the lapels of the cut again, then gently slides it from her shoulders to hold the leather before her, studying the design. “I want to try this.” Her shining eyes find ours. “I want this with you both.”

“Then it don’t matter what anyone else thinks, do it?” Who gives a fuck what others feel about how fast and hard I fell for this little woman. Don’t give a fuck if they have opinions about how I choose to share her with Digger. None of that matters shit when I know howIfeel.

When I see howhefeels.

When I hear howshedoes.

Rae drops her chin, brow pulled taut in a little furrow as she nods, as though cementing something within herself. "Tell me then." She looks to each of us in turn. "What can I do to help bring Maddie home?"

10

MADDIE

Thirty-eight steps, two doors, and one left turn.I map the path we took in my mind, trying to align it with what I know of moving through the Reapers' clubhouse to get some idea of the size of the place. It could be a home, but it could be another industrial shed, somewhere with an office at the front.

Shit.

I've got nothing solid to go on, and even if I did, how could I put that knowledge to use? I've got no phone. No way of contacting anyone to tell them where I am. The location doesn't mean shit when I'm dead.

Think about the stuff that matters, girl.

I attune to the scuff of feet, the gentle sigh as someone sits, then place a chair there in my mind while I focus on how the sounds echo to approximate the walls. Maybe if I can mentally map the room, I can figure how to get the fuck out of here.

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