Page 112 of Under an Endless Moon

Displeasure roiled in Otto, though Raven could feel the worry that underscored his demeanor. “You think this is fun to me? To us? We do it to survive, Haddie. We do it so we can put a halfway decent roof over our heads. So we can provide for you because no one else is going to fuckin’ do it.”

He leaned in closer. “We do it so you and Raven have good lives. And you’re not gonna get that kind of life by comin’ around here. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It was clear she meant it that time.

Pain leached out of Otto’s heavy sigh as he pulled her into a fierce hug. “Need you to listen when I tell you something, Haddie. Need you to hear me. I promise you I’m not makin’ rules for the sake of it, but only to keep you safe.”

Raven met Otto’s intense gaze from where he looked at her from over Haddie’s shoulder, his sister still plastered tight against him. She felt him trying to press the same desperation into her as he was to Haddie.

“Let’s go,” River said, voice low and filled with disappointment.

Haddie sent Raven a look. One of apology. Raven reached out and squeezed her hand. A promise that it was okay, all while she was praying Haddie would actually listen.

“No. No, no, no, no.”

Raven thrashed, flailed and fought.

“No, please, no.”

A wail tore up her throat. She shot upright, and her eyes pitched open to the darkness of her room.

Her hand went to her mouth like she would be able to reel back in the shout that she could still almost hear echoing against the walls.

Like she could hide it.

But she should have known better. Should have known the door handle was going to slowly turn and a massive figure cast in shadows was going to emerge in the doorway.

Only she wasn’t afraid. She was never, ever afraid when it came to him, and right then, she felt both a wash of relief and shame.

Otto’s bare feet creaked over the floorboards as he quietly crept across her room, and like he always did when she had a nightmare, he slid down the side of the wall and onto the floor next to her bed.

Only tonight, his spirit was all different. His own turmoil pulsed and undulated, ricocheting into hers.

“Bad dream?” he murmured into the quiet stillness.

Haddie had been relegated to Otto’s room and he’d taken thecouch. It was the obvious punishment for the two of them breaking the rules.

A sticky sense of dread had followed Raven to her room, and she’d been sure in the moments before she’d finally fallen asleep that the fear was going to follow her there.

Torment her in her sleep the way the memory of her father so often did. Though tonight, that dream had been different.

It had started with her father, the same as always, only his face had changed to Dusty’s.

“Yeah,” she whispered where she’d shifted onto her side so she could look at Otto.

A strained sigh pushed from his lips, and he rocked his head back on the wall as he scrubbed his hands over his face. “Could have been bad, Raven. The things those fuckers wouldn’t have thought twice about doing to both of you.”

Rocks clogged her throat, and she struggled to form the words around it. “I know. I’m really sorry.”

“Wouldn’t make it if something happened to one of you. If you had any idea of how fuckin’ scared I was when I came through that door and found you both there like that…”

He gripped his shirt right over his heart, his face contorting in agony as he swiveled his head to look at her. “If you had any idea, you would never have stepped foot through that door.”

Part of her wanted to say she hadn’t wanted to go in the first place, but she’d never throw Haddie under the bus like that. Haddie was just…going through a phase. Exploring and testing.

Things Raven would also want to do if she had half the courage and balls that Haddie had.

But sometimes when you were so eager to chase the good things in life, you made mistakes along the way. That’s all this was. A mistake.

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