Page 123 of At the Edge of Surrender

While I itched. Going fucking mad with rage and this impossible bond that made me desperate to take it away.

“I should have stopped them from going,” she suddenly choked over a sob. Anger followed in its wake. “I knew it was a bad idea. I just…knew. But instead of begging them to stay, I went with them.”

Dread pinched my brow. “Who?”

“My sister and my best friend. We…” Agony clipped off her confession, and her breaths came short.

These wrenching, stumbling heaves right before she curled in on herself.

Her phone went toppling, flashes of white fabric and purple bedding flickering across the screen before everything went completely black.

In one flat second, I was out of my bed and on my feet. Heart bleeding so fucking bad I might as well have been stabbed.

That violence a simmer in the well of my being, though right that second, there was something else a thousand times more prevalent.

This ache that had struck up in my chest. Arms fucking burning and guts a mess.

I stole to her door, hand shaking in agitation as I reached for the knob and pushed it open.

Faint light illuminated the room, and I nearly came apart when I found her huddled in a ball in the middle of her bed, on her side and silently weeping.

Rocking as she held her knees to her chest.

And there was nothing I could do. Nothing elseI wantedto do. Nothing but move to the enormous bed and climb onto it, voice hushed as I murmured, “I’m right here. I’m right here.”

I didn’t give her some bullshit that it was okay because it obviouslywas not. I just needed her to know she didn’t have to hold it alone, anymore.

So, I pried her apart and pulled her against me, and I laid down with this woman whose muffled sobs wracked her body.

This woman who was afraid I was going to wreck her, but in truth, that’s what she’d done to me.

Completely and wholly wrecked me.

“I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” I murmured as I shifted around to draw the covers over us before I leaned over and snapped off the lamp.

Darkness rained down, and she tremored and shook, and I brushed my fingers through her hair. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you, Emery. Let me hold some of it for you.”

And she did. She let it pour out, her tears seeping onto my bare chest, her body shivering. Freezing cold yet emitting a hundred degrees of heat.

Her hair bunched in my face and her spirit touching me everywhere.

“Kane,” she whimpered.

“I know, baby. I know.”

I might not know the details, but I knew.

I fucking knew.

And she cried like that for what felt like forever. Curled into me while I softly ran my fingers through her hair.

Had no idea how much time had passed before her body went slack. Before all the tension drained and her breaths evened out.

This woman asleep in my arms, our legs tangled and her pulse beating in time with mine.

But she finally gave.

Let me hold it.

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