Page 115 of Liberate Us

He gave me a small smile. “Yeah, I am. Thank you for asking. Areyou okay?”

“Ye—No.” I picked at a fuzz on my leggings. “I’m not.”

Sammy wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into hisside. “I got you and I will take care of you. If you want to just sit insilence, that’s fine and I will do that. Just do it with me, Red. Don’t shut meout.”

My chin wobbled, fresh tears rolling down my cheeks. I huffed,roughly wiping them away. “I’m sick of crying,” I mumbled.

“To be fair, you are pregnant with twins,” Cyrus pointed out.“Your hormones are going to be extra crazy right now. Besides everything elsethat’s happened of course.”

“Thank you. All of you,” I said as we pulled past the gates andinto the long driveway that led to the large house.

Cyrus parked the SUV, his eyes catching mine in the rearviewmirror. “We’ll talk later,” he told Sammy. “You need some rest, Amber.”

I nodded, following Sammy out of the back of the vehicle.

“I just got a text from…Krew, Tiny’s prospect,” Cyrus said,coming around to our side of the SUV. “They brought your mom to the funeralhome. They’ll get her taken care of, but I imagine you would want her to wearsomething of her own.”

“Yes, I would.” I grabbed Sammy’s hand. “We’ll have to go to herhouse.” I started thinking of all the things I needed to do and people I neededto contact. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“I’ll help you.” Sammy brought my hand up to his mouth. “We allwill.”

“He’s right.” Cyrus gave me a small smile. “I never met your momand I only just started getting to know you but you’re family, Red. And you’recarrying my nieces or nephews or one of each.”

I laughed lightly, wiping away a lonely tear that ran down mycheek. “Thank you. We can start planning tomorrow, but I would like my mom tobe buried at the same place as your parents. She said she had friends backhome, but I think they were just using her. I should have gone home. I shouldhave done a lot of stuff but now I can’t. I—”

“You need some rest,” Sam said, his tone leaving no room forargument.

“I need a shower first.” I looked down at myself, wishing Icould have changed so many things, but I couldn’t, so I would have to move on.I was just thankful that our babies were okay. They were safe. That was allthat mattered.

Sammy

As soon as Ileft my bedroom, I let out a heavy breath. Itwas like all of the weight from the night came crashing down on my shoulderswhether I wanted it to or not. I leaned against the wall, sliding down until myass hit the floor.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I blew out another breath. She wasfine. They were fine. Our babies were strong. My girl was strong. It only mademe feel a little better as the minutes ticked on. Amber had become quiet. Eversince she slipped into my shower and started the water, I could hear hermuffled cries as she tried keeping them at bay, but it didn’t help.I couldhear her.

“How’s she doing?”

My head lifted, finding Cyrus coming down the hall toward me.

“I don’t know.” I leaned my head back against the wall, bringingmy knees up to my chest. “She’s quiet. I’m not used to her being quiet and Idon’t like it. I tried getting her to talk. About shooting Will. About herthigh. About her mom. Just…about something…but she’s closed up.”

Cyrus sat on the floor beside me, mirroring my pose. “She needstime.”

“Will carved his name into her thigh,” I blurted.

My brother stiffened beside me, his gaze searing into the sideof my head.

“Shit.” Cyrus blew out a slow breath. “Listen, I know youhaven’t asked for advice but I’m going to give it to you anyway. First off, youneed to be patient.”

I grunted.

“Second, whatever she wants, whether it’s to talk or just sitthere in the dark and be quiet, she’s going to need you to be there with her.”

“I don’t want her to shut me out.” I looked at him then. “Ican’t handle it if she did.”

“It wouldn’t be intentional, Sam. But she has to figure out howto deal with this on her own too. Our women are strong. They don’t want to haveto depend on us to take care of them. As much as we insist on trying.”

“She hasn’t said much since we’ve been…home…” Was it even herhome? Was that the issue? Maybe I should bring her back to her apartment. Orbetter yet, I could bring her to her mom’s sooner than she planned. I coulddrive and she could sleep.

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