Page 14 of Even if It Hurts

Outwardly, I wasn’t sure what everyone else was seeing, but a part of me recognized they’d been giving me a wider berth than usual. Internally, I was struggling to take every necessary step and breath because it felt like I was crumbling.

“Briggs.”

I slowly tore my eyes from my desk and glanced over to find Rush standing there, looking equally solemn and expectant. “What?”

“You need to pull it together,” he said unapologetically. “We have clients asking foryou, not the rest of us. The ones we’ve canceled on have understood, but we can’t continue to. No one knows what to do because we’re allhereinstead of at the office.” He gestured to the rest of my high-rise apartment. “And you’re avoiding something huge.”

The only reason I’d let him list every way I was failing was because he’d been my best friend since middle school. We’d served in the military together and been on the same SpecialForces team. Rush had been the first person I’d called and hired when I started my high-profile security company.

But that last part?

My hand slowly curled into a fist as my stare shifted to the glass doors of my home office, searching out thesomething hugehe was referring to. “I don’t know what to do with that.”

“That’s obvious,” he snapped. “But at leastyouknow why her parents aren’t coming back.Shedoesn’t and hasn’t stopped crying. And you’re the only one she knows, so do something.”

“I can’t,” I admitted and worked my jaw when my throat tightened. “This wasn’t supposed to happen, Rush.”

“I know,” he said, softer than before.

“I tried to help him—to keep him clean.”

“Briggs, I know.”

“Then how did I let this happen?”

“You didn’tletanything happen,” Rush ground out, voice firm but no less empathetic. “I watched you raise your siblings when your mom was too busy dipping out or getting high. I watched you fight Wyatt’s demons head-on when he started following your mom’s path. I watched you drain your accounts to get him into multiple rehabs, even when we were overseas. You did everything to help him. He made his choices.”

“If he’s in the ground, then I didn’t do enough,” I said unwaveringly as I rubbed at my chest, wondering if the hollow there would ever heal.

“Look, man, I respect you, so I’m gonna be real with you,” Rush began, crouching down in front of me so he was in my line of sight. “Your life’s been rough, and I hate that everything always falls onto you, but you are the most selfless and protective guy I know because of it. And now, your niece needs you to step up because she’s innocent in all this.”

“I don’t know how to take care of an eight-month-old,” I said with a humorless laugh. “Not anymore, at least.”

“Figure out a way to remember,” he said as he straightened to his full height. “Because even though none of this should be happening, it is, and she’s lucky she hasyou.”

“I’d like to remind you I’m not your personal secretary or maid,” my office administrator said as she came into my office without knocking or bothering to wait for either of us to open the doors.

Then again, she’d always been that way.

I was sure she did it just to get a rise out of me.

“Meaning what, Ada?” I asked even as I watched her come toward me, hand outstretched and filled with pieces of paper because she refused to take down any of our messages on our online system.

Again, I was pretty sure she refused only to irritate me.

“I’ve been picking up your dry cleaning and running your errands...”

“I don’t do dry cleaning,” I muttered as she stopped near me, holding the handwritten messages out of reach.

“I’ve been cleaning your dingy little studio apartment and paying your bills...”

“I got it, Ada,” I said irritably as I stood, my eyes rolling since she was clearly pushing for me to join the rest of my team and thatsomething hugeI’d been avoiding ever since the social worker had dropped her off the morning before.

Kaia.

My niece.

The last piece of my brother I had left.

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