Page 48 of Unconditional

“Kyle can go to hell.I’m not going back.”

My teeth ground together painfully.“You need to hear me out.”

What was I going to actually say?I had no idea.But he was cutting me off before I even had a chance to get the words out.Petulant little shit.Leave it to Milo to irritate me in under two minutes.

“No, I don’t.I’m not going back, and Kyle can eat a bag of dicks if he thinks I’m not going to testify.You can, too, for that matter if you think you’re going to be hauling my ass back.”

“Milo…” Misely started, her voice hesitant.

I stopped her with a cutting look, turning back to my brother.“Worry about yourself, Blondie.I can handle him.”

Her jaw snapped shut audibly and when I chanced a look toward her again, I ignored the pinch in my chest at the hurt I saw there.

“It’s not all about you, Milo.There are other people at stake.”

“Yeah?”he asked, arching an auburn brow.“Like who?Our family?What-the-fuck-ever.Do you think this is the family that Mom and Dad wanted for us?”

The anger that lived like an endless well inside of me was so rapidly flooding that I had to blink a few times in surprise.I gripped the chair’s armrests tightly in my hands to keep from standing up and getting in his face.

“What do you know about what Mom and Dad would’ve wanted?You were nine.You don’t remember anythingrealabout them,” I growled, barely holding onto my restraint.“You’ve used them as a crutch to continue acting like a naive little shit for long enough.”

“Hey!”his girlfriend chirped beside him, but Milo’s hand went out to rest on her thigh.He gave her a reassuring look, shaking his head a fraction.She settled back into her seat, fire still lit in her eyes.

“I know that this is not what they wanted for us,” he said it with such a certainty it made the rage inside climb higher.

“Mom and Dad wanted us to be together.They wanted us to look out for each other.”

His nostrils flared, brows turning in.“And is this what you think we’ve been doing?Looking out for each other?”

I didn’t answer him, shame creeping in beneath the fury.

“Well, newsflash big brother.You’re wrong.We haven’t been looking out for each other.We’ve been looking out forhim.For his interests.All at the cost of our own lives and I am done.”Leaning forward, Milo rested his elbows on his knees and ran a hand through his shortened hair.“There is nothing you can say or do that will convince me to give up the life I’ve created here with Birdie.I deserve to have a good life, Talon.”

I felt Misely’s eyes on me, boring through my skin.None of them understood, they couldn't.The couldn't understand the gravity of what—no,who—was at stake.I took in my surroundings again, breathing deeply through my nose.A quaint space, a fireplace with staged wedding photos on the mantle, his and her slippers warming on the hearth.A real fucking home.

“Talon,please.”Misely’s pleading pulled my attention back to her.Her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears, her features taught.

I reached out and flicked a loose drop from her cheek the moment it broke free, hating to see such a strong, fierce woman cry.Brushing my knuckles along her cheek I sighed, turning to the two who sat opposite from us, watching us with unrestrained interest.

“Kyle is threatening my son.”

thirty-five

Misely

Theroomwenteerilyquiet, the only sound coming from the crackling logs in the fireplace.Okay.He’d gone and said it.Talon had taken the hardest step and admitted that there was a real reason—a good reason—that he was here.

That hallow beating in my chest didn’t cease though as my gaze darted from Talon to Birdie to Milo and back around again.Nobody was saying anything.The three of them were just staring between one another and I could feel the tension physically growing.

“He’s getting worse,” I said, inserting myself further into the conversation than I likely had any right to.But they weren’t sayinganything,and I couldn’t take it anymore.“Kyle has been calling nonstop, and if it’s not Kyle it’s your sister.Leo’s mom noticed Kyle sitting outside her house.”

“Leo?”It was Birdie who broke their stalemate, finally meeting my eyes again.

“My son.”Talon sounded defeated.My heart ached.“He’s eight.Kyle’s been stalking him, essentially.”

Milo’s eyes were pure ice.“Eight?Eight years old and you never said anything?Were you ever planning on telling me about him?About mynephew?”

“I wasn’t planning on telling anybody,” Talon ground out.“It was safer for him that way.”

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