Page 237 of Branded
That was the moment I decided to stop trying to be polite and turned to leave.
A hand gripping my arm tightly halted me.
Slowly, I spun back to face them, glancing from the boys—whose focus was still on the game—back up to the woman.
There was something…almost familiar about her, something that pinged into the back of my mind, something that prickled along my spine.
“Let go of me,” I said carefully, taking a step back, away from the top of the stairs, away from the woman, even though she still gripped my wrist. Which meant that my arm was now awkwardly stretched out.
But hopefully making clear to anyone who so much as glanced at me that I was not happy about this contact.
“Let go of me,” I said louder.
Loud enough that the usher turned to us, concern entering the slender blond woman’s face. “Excuse me, are you okay?”
“I’d like her to let go of me—” I began.
The fingers on my arm tightened. “You need to bring him back to us.” My body jerked as the woman yanked at my arm. “You need to have him talk to me.”
The usher stepped closer, pulled out her radio.
“Who?”
“My Raphael. You need to get him to talk to me. Not for me. For my boys?—”
Boys who were now distracted from the ice and staring at me and their mother and?—
The woman jerked my arm again, hard enough to send pain shooting up that arm. “You have to,” she said, leaning close enough that I could see every line in her face, could see every shade of blue in her eyes.
Her. Eyes.
And that was when I put the pieces together.
And that was when…my happy disappeared.
Thirty-Five
Raph
She wasn’t waiting at the bottom of the elevator like we’d arranged.
My hair was wet. I’d skipped out of the locker room as soon as I could…and she wasn’t there.
I grabbed my cell from my pocket and jabbed the button to call the elevator.
Worry was back, clenching my insides.
All I knew was that I needed to get up there. She needed me, and I had to be there. I jabbed at the button again, using my other hand to dial her number.
It rang and rang.
Voicemail.
“Fuck,” I hissed, jabbing the button a third time.
“Um, Raph?”
I turned, saw Cas was there. “What?” I snapped.
