Page 33 of The Reckoning
We settle into silence that I hope means she believes we are going to try, but I don’t have high hopes. Even I don’t believe we can make this temporary truce work, but failing her isn’t a fucking option.
Arson draws my attention away from my raging thoughts when he snags a laptop out of a bag off the floor. “I can get started on investigating these guys a little more.”
I scratch my jaw. “What do you mean? You said they were your backers. Don’t you know who you have backing you?”
He levels me with an icy look. “I doubt I need to explain this to you, but sometimes people turn out to be something worse or better than you thought they were. Turns out, I didn’t know these fuckers as well as I thought.”
At least he’s taking accountability for his lack of fucking original research. This partnership should have never happened. It’s strange, watching him take charge. Seeing the man—my brother—working on a plan that might save us all. Part of me wants to resist on principle—to fight his leadership simply because it’s him, but Ijustagreed to keep the peace. It’s necessary for Lilian’s protection that we work together. At least until this more immediate threat is dealt with. After that, we’ll see what happens. One thing I know for sure is that neither of us intends to give her up.
I move to stand on the opposite side of the table. “Tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.” The smile Lilian gives me is worth every insufferable moment I’ll have to endure with mybrother in order to be with her. I want Lilian, and I’m going to prove it to her.
TEN
LILIAN
The next day, Drew drops off a couple more laptops and phones for us. The past twenty-four hours have been a whirlwind of ups and downs, but it appears Arson and Aries have come to an easy truce…or maybe a better word would be anuneasytruce. It doesn’t really matter. I don’t expect them to always get along or to let go of what happened. I know there are unresolved issues and trauma there, but it makes me feel better that they want to put their differences aside, at least for me. After spending a good portion of the day reading over reports. Any mention of the names Arson gave me. Of reports related to Hayes Enterprises, and of the Medical Research Division looking for any inclination or hidden meaning, and very quickly, I want to claw my own eyes out.
Aries approaches me with a smile while I’m sitting at the small kitchenette table. I’m finally in my own clothes, and he is, too. It might seem strange to comment on, but there’s so much comfort in a little bit of normalcy, especially when everything has been far from normal. I wonder if it feels weird to him? To return to his old life, but be a completely different person.
“Hey, you.” I greet him with a smile. He doesn’t greet me with a hello. Instead, he bends down and scoops me up intohis arms like I weigh nothing. For someone who’s spent months in captivity, his strength is surprising—his muscles may have atrophied, but the core power is still there, coiled and ready to be unleashed.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my hands automatically finding purchase around his neck.
“We need to talk,” he says, voice low and determined. “Alone.”
Arson stands at the opening of the hallway, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He shoves off the wall, his posture shifting from casual to threatening in the blink of an eye. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”
I hold up a hand to stop him. “Relax. It’s fine.”
“The hell it is,” Arson growls, eyes locked on his twin. “I’m not letting him take you anywhere alone.”
Aries’s entire body tenses, his arms tightening around me to the point of discomfort.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” he spits out, the words practically vibrating with rage.
The anger in him is so close to the surface these days, bubbling just beneath his skin like lava ready to erupt. It’s nothing like the controlled, measured Aries I grew up with—the perfect Hayes heir who never raised his voice, never lost his cool, never showed anything but calculated charm. That was the man I fell for, but this new Aries makes me crave him even more. He’s raw and exposed, his emotions no longer buried beneath layers of conditioning.
It’s terrifying, but if I’m being honest with myself, it’s also a little thrilling.
“It’s okay,” I tell Arson, trying to defuse the situation before it explodes again. “Give us a few minutes. I’m serious. You don’t get to decide when I spend time with him or you. You both know the rules.”
The way Arson clenches his jaw proves how unhappy he is with the arrangement, but he takes a reluctant step back. The three of us are tensed in a triangle of tension so thick I could cut it with a knife.
“The bedroom,” I tell Aries, pointing toward the hall.
Arson’s expression darkens further, but he says nothing as Aries brushes past him, carrying me out of the room. I can feel him following a few steps behind, his presence like a shadow at our backs. He pauses just outside the door, and Aries, balancing on one foot, pushes it closed. The bedroom remains unchanged from the day before. However, clothing and other items are scattered around the makeshift space. Aries sets me down on the edge of the bed with surprising gentleness, then straightens, looming over me with an unreadable expression.
I take a moment to really look at him, to catalog the changes captivity has wrought. He’s thinner, yes, the sharp angles of his face more pronounced, but it’s the change in his eyes that really strikes me. There’s a hardness there that wasn’t present before, a wariness that makes him look older than his twenty-six years. The polished veneer of the Hayes heir has been stripped away, revealing something more raw and authentic beneath.
“Don’t even think about it,” I tell him when he stalks forward, flames of desire flickering in his hazel eyes.
He freezes, surprise flashing across his features before it’s replaced by frustration. “Why not? You didn’t seem to have any problems jumping into bed with my brother.”
The accusation stings, but I refuse to be shamed for my choices. “Don’t,” I warn. “You don’t get to judge me, Aries. Not after years of hot and cold, pushing me away one minute and pulling me close the next. I’m not going to have sex with you right now just because you’ve suddenly decided you want me. We need to heal some of the wrongs, work on us, and what we never had the chance to be.”
“Fuck, I understand that. I get it, but I also want you. Need you.” He lets out an almost growl and turns away from me, frustration in every line of his body.
I stand, shifting to get right in his face despite our height difference. “You don’t get to make this choice. You don’t get to tell me I’m ready for something just because you think you are. At least Arson is man enough to admit what he wants. He doesn’t play games or pretend he’s not interested in protecting me. I want you to tell me what I am to you. What I mean to you. I know it already, but there is a difference between hearing someone tell you something and knowing it based upon instinct.”
