Page 65 of Pray for the Damned

We’ve been sitting in my car for the last hour in silence, watching her window like the creepers we are. The lights are on, which means she’s still awake, but I don’t think she’s ready to speak to either of us yet.

Hell, I’m not sure she ever will be.

She would have every right to stay as far away from the two of us as possible, but unfortunately for her, that’s not something we’re going to allow.

I’m coming around to the idea of sharing Waverly with Kade. At first it seemed like a terrible idea, but the more I’ve observedhim, the more I’ve seen how much he cares for her, which is no small feat for my brother.

I can’t remember ever seeing emotion in his eyes until I realized he was just as obsessed with Waverly as I am.

“We should go up there,” Kade says. It’s the first time he’s opened his mouth since he got in the car, so I’m not surprised it’s a terrible fucking idea.

“No.”

“The longer she sits up there, the longer she has to make a plan to run. Do you feel like chasing her across the country again?” He raises a brow at me. “Do you know how hard it’s been to convince Dad why I needed to be based in these cities? Keeping an eye on you has only ever given me a partial reason, the rest I have to make up, and Dad’s not exactly the easiest person to bullshit to.”

He’s not wrong. Our father can spot a lie a mile away. Or at least when most people lie, he can. Kade has always had the uncanny ability to slip beneath his defenses, something that will likely come in handy in the future.

“I don’t want to move again,” I admit. I finally feel like I have a place in the world. Helping people find faith has given me purpose other than keeping the woman I’m obsessed with safe, and although I could do it anywhere, I don’t want to start again if I don’t have to.

“And neither does she. This is the most at ease and relaxed I’ve ever seen her. She has a job she seems to like, that pays her well, and that keeps her safe. She’s making actual friends, where she never has before. We can’t let her get in her head about this, because all of us will be miserable if we leave New York.”

I shoot him a glare. “I don’t know if I like you being the practical one.”

He chuckles. “You prefer when I’m the stabby one and you’re the cool, calm and collected one?” I tease.

“What do you propose?”

“I think we ambush her. She won’t expect us tonight, which means her guard will be down and it will be easier to get her to come around to our way of thinking.”

My mind screams at me that this is the wrong course of action, that by pushing her we could lose her altogether, but my heart tells me this is the right move, that my brother is right, and that he’s willing to do anything to keep her the same way I am.

“And what exactly is our way of thinking, Kade? Before we go in there guns blazing, what exactly are we proposing?”

“We both want her, so I think we tell her that, and then we tell her she doesn’t have to choose.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

WAVERLY

Steam billows around me as I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around myself.

After a long shift at the club, that’s exactly what my sore muscles needed. The burning hot water also allowed me to think through the more complicated aspects of my night.

Emmett and Kade have been on my mind since I stepped out from the back room at the club and found them both missing with an obscenely large tip for both Abigail and me.

What is it exactly that they do to have so much money? Because I can’t imagine being a pastor at a community church pays very well, if at all.

Just another question to throw onto the pile, I guess.

I step out of the bathroom, stifling a yawn with the back of my hand before a scream lodges in my throat.

A dark figure stands by the window with a hood tugged over their head, and I take a step backward toward the bathroom, only to back myself into another body.

Another scream tears from me a second before their hand covers my mouth, stopping me from alerting the neighbors that two thugs have broken into my apartment.

Not that they would care anyway. Someone was murdered in the alley that runs down the side of the building, and no one called the police until the body was discovered by the garbage man.

“Shh, Little Temptress, it’s just us,” Emmett murmurs against my ear, and my body relaxes of its own accord. Apparently the fact that the two of them broke into my home isn’t a red flag to my body as much as it is to my mind. “I’m going to take my hand away, but if you scream, I’ll have to find something to gag you with.”

---