Page 49 of A Brother's Secret

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Data…

“Shhh, I’ve got you,” I murmured against her ear, but I didn’t try to stop her. This was Mali in a storm. I’d only seen it once before, when she confessed what’d happened to her way back when, and it scared me as much now as it had then. I knew, though, that when she broke this thoroughly, when she lost her shit this completely, it was just temporary. When she came back, it was stronger and better thanever.

“You lied to me,” she warbled into my cut and I smiled but it was a sad thing.

“I know, I’m sorry, and I swear it will never happen again.”

“What happened to no more games? Not between us?” she cried and her pain was almost more than I couldbear.

“I am so fucking sorry, baby. I didn’t want to but I knew you would never agree to this long apart.”

“You promised!” she shuddered and broke down some more and I had to hand it to her, as well as I knew her, as much as I loved her, she still surprised me. Things I fully expected her to be upset over she shrugged like it wasn’t anything. Things I expected she would shrug like it wasn’t anything would stick with her and bother her to no end. I hadn’t known where this one would fall on the spectrum, but I knew now and it predictably, crushed metoo.

“I know, baby, I know and I am so sorry.”

She thrust herself back from me and hit me – granted, ineffectually – twice, in the chest, pushing me back, and screamed at me, “You can’t do that to me, Kyle!”

I knew this about my Mali Rose, too. She couldn’t fight against the things that were really turning her upside down and inside out, so she was picking the thing that she could rage about; the fight that she could win. She was pouring all of the rage, frustration, and pain into that, and I let her. It was like using a thermonuclear device to kill termites, total overkill, but I got it. I got her, so I did what I was supposed to. I let her have what she needed; I let herwin.

She stood there, shaking, trembling like a leaf in a storm and when I was sure that she wasn’t going to try and hit me for real, I went to her and pulled her in again. Cuddling her close, I kissed her temple and breathed her in and swore to her, “Never again.”

She nuzzled into me miserably and I smiled, knowing I’d been forgiven, even as she asked weakly, “Promise?”

“I promise.”

I waited for an accusing ‘you promised last time’ but it didn’t come, and that’s the point I could tell I was forgiven. It wasn’t precisely a game, but it was. One that I played dutifully, and had since we were kids, and one she didn’t even know she had a piece on the board for. She really, genuinely, didn’t know she didit.

“I hate that you know just what to say, sometimes,” she grumbled and I laughed and tipped her face up tomine.

“You love me just for that reason, too,” I chided and she frowned.

“Ass,” she muttered, but she didn’t stop me from kissing her, and all was right in our world again. Truce declared.

I had to guess the guys of The Kraken sort of guessed the coast was clear because the sound of the back slider opening up interrupted our kiss, which to be honest, had gone on a little longer than was polite anyway, so I couldn’t be mad aboutit.

“Y’ all right, darlin’?” Cutter asked and Mali nodded, the blush barely there under her deep, darktan.

“I’m fine,” she grated.

“Good,” Marlin declared. “Means we caneat.”

I met their VP’s eyes and gave a silent nod in thanks. I’d asked in my initial email if they could make sure to eat dinner every night at the table, like a family, for Mali. I knew it meant more to her than she let on; it was another thing I’d known since we were kids. The shaggy blond man lifted half his lips in an awkward smile and gave a nod back. A silent, ‘no problem.’ Mali looked from him to me and I smiled at her and knew I was busted. She didn’t call me out, though. She just shook her head and slipped out of my arms, her hand slipping down my jacket sleeve, fingers tangling with mine. She dragged me gently to a vacant seat next to hers and wesat.

“So how long you stayin’?” Cutter asked, and it wasn’t in any way a pointed way of saying ‘get thee gone, motherfucker’ but a genuine open invitation to stay as long as we’d like, just curious as to how long that wouldbe.

“No more than a day, two at the most,” I said. “We have a life to build backhome.”

“Fair enough,” he said, adding, “Welcome to stay as long as you’d like, take a load off, by the looks of you, you’ve earned some R andR.”

I exchanged a look with Mali and the look she gave me back, plus the tightening of her fingers through mine told me clearly, she just wanted to go home. I smiled down at her; even as tired and absolutely wrung-out as I was, I couldn’t deny her. This homecoming shit was seventeen, going on eighteen years in the making.

“Thank you kindly, Cutter, but I think we’ll get out of yourhair.”

“Not at all, brother,” he said passing a large bowl of salad down the table towards us. “What’re friends for, afterall?”

I smiled and said, “You need anything, you damn sure know where tocall.”

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