Page 194 of Rage

I wasn’t surprised that he asked. Our last interaction hadn’t been the best.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he pinned me with a hard stare that seemed to contradict the soft way he asked me, “Did you get yourself into trouble? Is that why you’re here?”

I frowned, placing a hand on my hip. “Why do you assume I’m the one who got myself into trouble?”

“Because Mia said you needed help and here you are, fuckin’ up my day by showing up here.”

My eyes widened and my lips parted in surprise. “If I could think of any better option, do you really think I would be here right now?”

“So you do need help,” he deadpanned.

Yes.“No. Not from you.”

Cash pinched the bridge of his nose, his locs brushing his forehead as he did so. “But you just said you needed to talk to all of us, me included.”

“You have an attitude, so I changed my mind,” I spat, feeling like I was a teenager all over again getting scolded by Cash, instead of a twenty-seven-year-old woman.

Honestly, I did need to talk to all of them together, but Cash had a way of getting under my skin in ways his brothers didn’t.

Behind us, the low hum of voices drifted out—Seb’s murmured reply, Key’s laughter at whatever Seb said, Darth’s distinct growl of disapproval. Despite the scene Cash and I were causing, they were all waiting for me to explain myself.

My throat tightened as my carefully rehearsed words evaporated under their scrutiny, replaced by a single, damning thought.What the hell am I doing asking the Solomon brothers for help?

I wasn’t the kind of woman to run from a situation, but my fight or flight was kicking in and flight was winning in spades. I only took a few steps back from Cash before I hit a muscled wall blocking my path.

Gasping, I glanced up at Darth’s imposing presence, wondering how he even stood from his desk chair and made his way over to me without me noticing.

Darth was only a half inch shorter than Key, his tall and imposing stature always surrounded by an aristocratic air. He wasn’t as burly as Cash, but he was brawny and lighter on his feet than many thought.

His smooth and unblemished skin was deep mahogany, matching his meticulously maintained appearance and need for control. His sharp jawline and high cheekbones gave him a regal, almost intimidating presence, while his tapered fade was neatly cropped close to his scalp, with a hint of silver at the temples, enhancing his commanding aura.

He didn’t have a thick beard when I saw him last, but he had one now. Yet, it was his piercing—almost metallic—icy-gray eyes that were capable of stripping anyone bare with one glance.

With Darth, I rarely saw him smile. If he didn’t have something to be grumpy about, I would probably wonder if anything was wrong. Which is why he caught me completely off guard when he said, “Don’t leave, Firefly. Tell us what’s wrong,” doing a complete three-sixty from the man who had spoken to me through the intercom.

There was something in the sweet tone of his voice and the worried lines of his forehead that made me want to tell him every secret I vowed to take to my grave. On the brink of baring my entire soul to these men who had been my entire world when I was a young girl, I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, the determination to change my circumstances back in full force.

“Okay, but maybe you should all sit down for this.”

Darth frowned and clenched his jaw. “I think I’ll stand.”

“Me too,” Cash stated, leaning against a wall as Key sat on top of Darth’s desk and Seb took occupancy in one of the chairs in the room.

You’re okay Nyx. You got this.

Those six words had been on repeat in my mind ever since I had gotten the news a few months ago that shook me to my core. News that had caused me to interrupt several of Mia’s important meetings as I went down an emotional rabbit hole I couldn’t seem to dig myself out of.

“I guess I should start at the beginning,” I told them, removing my jacket and tossing it into an empty chair, my tight jeans and graphic crop tee suddenly too hot for the room.

With my jacket removed, I didn’t miss the way Cash not-so-discreetly checked out my ass, no doubt realizing that the size twelve girl he once knew was now a voluptuous sixteen or eighteen depending on the clothes designer.

He’s always been an ass man. A part of the reason I loved mine so much—even if it did knock stuff over on more than one occasion—was because of the way I used to catch Cash staring at it when he thought no one was watching.

“A few months ago, I took a genetic test that I had been putting off and found out some unsettling news that tilted my world off its axis.”

Seb sat straighter in his seat, while Key and Cash shared a worried look. But it was Darth who asked me, “Are you okay?”

“I will be,” I told him. “But my appointment was a wakeup call, forcing me to come to terms with what I already suspected … That life is short, and we must make the best decisions for ourselves that we can, which is why I’m here today.”

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