Page 33 of Penance

Kyla-Rose Swallow and Maddox Sharpe’s story is not finished.

Not by a long shot.

“I would never,” he growls back. “I couldn’t if I wanted to,” he states sharply, giving me his full attention. “You actually think her love for you is that fickle? She’s got her claws in you so deep, she’s practically a piece of you. She’s not going anywhere you’re not.”

I think on that for a moment, staring at the white ceiling, both of us breathing hard.

“You think she really feels that way?” I ask softly.

I’ve only ever had these sorts of talks with my brothers, never felt at ease with anyone else. Feels weird to be talking about someone, who has at some point in her life, been in love with us both.

“I know she does,” he rasps almost sadly. “That girl loves with her whole being, she doesn’t do anything by halves, that’s why my gran loved her so hard. It’s why I- why Idid. She’s easy to love, easily loves others, the world isn’t kind. I never wanted it to hurt her the way it did, the way itdoes.”

“We’ll find the rest of ‘em, hunt ‘em down, and catch whatever other cunt is harassing her,” I promise, my voice a growl.

“What other?” he queries, his brow drawn, blood seeping from his eyebrow.

“She got anote. She also said she saw someone watching her, two someones actually,” I tell him about the warehouse, and Sidney being the guy in the car park when she was out with Frank. “I don’t know, Hux and I have been keeping an eye on things with the boys. She’s had two other notes sent, a bunch of beheaded roses,” I confess, swiping my hand over my face, twitching my nose as I touch the split bridge of it.

“I take it she doesn’t know about the rest,” he asks with a raised brow, I shake my head in answer. “She’s not gunna like you keeping shit from her, man,” he groans, shifting up onto his elbow, he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“I know, I was gunna tell her, but, well, it was Charlie’s idea. Apparently, he wanted to try and deal with it, so that Jacob didn’t witness any more of hermoments. He was pushing to have her committed last week. Don’t wanna give him anymore ammo. Jacob’s quite good at strongarming his dad apparently, although I can’t see Dee agreeing to that.”

“Unless he thinks it’s in her best interests, to keep her safe,” Nox adds.

His eyes staring off, lost in thought as I sit up, my leg bent so I can rest my arm atop my knee.

“We need to keep her safe, Nox, she won’t survive in a place like that. I’m not putting her there. I don’t want her drugged up and out of it,” I snarl possessively, my top lip curling at the thought of being separated from my mate.

“Too easy for an enemy to attack. She’d be unprotected, vulnerable to a hit, anyone could take her out in the blink of an eye. Patient records are not really theclosedthings everyone says they are, we know that, look at the work we do. How long does it take Hux to hack a hospital record? Five, maybe ten minutes?” Nox sighs. “But we do need her hand fixed, Kace,sheneeds it fixed.”

I nod in agreement, “I think Huxley’s going to work on it, he’s good at talking to her about shit that scares her.”

“She worships him,” Nox comments, his eyes rolling to meet mine. “She used to be afraid of everything when we were younger. Huxley’s afraid of nothing, I see the appeal.”

“He has a certain way with her, he worships her right back.”

“Mmm, as I said, easy to love,” Nox shoulders me with a smirk and I snort.

“How do you think Hux is gunna be tomorrow? Think this has dragged shit up for him?” Nox asks after a few quiet minutes. “I get worried about him when stuff like this is brought up,” he says thoughtfully.

I contemplate his question for a moment, we both know our brother, and how he processes.

“Maybe, but he’s been fine all the other times. He knew right off the bat someone had put his hands on her though, that first night at the house. Huxley justknew,” I roll my eyes over to Nox. “He told me to be careful with her, they didn’t speak for more than five minutes, but he felt something.”

Nox looks over at me, his movements slow and cautious. I let him ponder for a moment, there’s a lot of trauma here. Things we’ll need to pick through carefully if we want a future together without secrets. But then, we’ve always been good at working our way through minefields.

“He’ll tell her,” Nox comments quietly, “she’ll understand better than anyone else ever could, he needs that. He’s got that in Kyla-Rose, he just needs to be honest.”

“He’s not going to add to her stress, he’s too selfless. He’ll tell her when the time’s right.” I nod. “We mustn’t rush him, let him find his own way.”

Silent agreement between us, both bruised, bleeding and lost in thought. We watch the low winter sun steadily make its first dull appearance.

We all have shit to work through, but I truly believe Kyla-Rose could help heal us all. And by heal, I mean understand. She can’t fix us, just like we can’t fix her. I don’t want tofixher, just like I don’t want to be fixed. But slotting our four fragments together, no matter how broken and abused the shards are, could push us all further towards happiness. Whatever that may be for us, whatever it means, I think it starts with her.

Chapter8

Kyla-Rose

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