Page 64 of The Broken Queen
Getting in his face, I pushed him back a step. “No, you broke her!”
“You were there too. You said those words to her, too. You stood next to me. You agreed to it. So yeah, you broke her too.”
A piercing pain eclipsed my chest as he continued to talk. Somewhere in the back of my soul, there was a painful nudge, something I had ignored and refused to see. Simply because it was too fucking painful to do so.
My sky fell, Gio. You were always supposed to hold it up.
“I have to try,” I rasped in a jagged breath.
Kingston gripped me by the shoulders and pulled me close until we were nearly hugging. “Us trying is being here. You were the one who said you’d be a wraith here, haunting everywhere she goes until she’s ready. That’s what you become. You stay back, come close when she calls, and then you leave her alone. She’s hurting, Gio, anduntil she gets revenge on Scotty and Markos, she’s not going to begin to heal. A few fluffy cows aren’t going to change that.”
I knew he was right, deep down I knew it, but there was a stubbornness in my soul that I didn’t want to recognize or give any attention to.
“Maybe she just doesn’t want me. I know if you started to try, then maybe she’d start to come around. It’s always been you, King, and I’m okay with that if it means she still wants me,” I lied. It wasn’t okay, it fucking devastated me.
My brother twisted his face like I had just said the most asinine thing he’d ever heard.
“Gio, she wantsyou. There is no wanting me without wanting you, and vice versa. We’re connected in that way, and I’m sorry for it. I know you wish she only wanted you and she was only yours, but right now, she’s neither of ours. We have to give her time to work through her shit. I promise you she’ll come around.”
I agreed, but deep down, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was right.
Chapter 23
Presley
“You have farm animals!” Alex arrived in a flourish of blonde hair, sun kissed cheeks, and baked goods.
“I saw them.” I hesitated while welcoming the twins’ sister inside. I had no idea why there were highland cows in the pasture, but they felt like a trap.
Gio had to be behind the livestock appearing because Kingston would never do something so obvious in his attempts to get my forgiveness. He still hadn’t told me himself that he’d restored the farmhouse or explained why Adrian’s body was currently wrapped protectively from being viewed or picked at by animals. He hadn’t explained who had put the fire out or had dug the six-foot grave next to the scorched, burned earth. I knew it was all him, and yet he refused to confess.
Alex set her baked goods on the kitchen counter while examining all the small details. “Well, they’re cute. So is this place.”
“What have you been up to?” I avoided confirming that this place or the animals were, in fact, cute. We went upstairs so Alex could snoop as much as she wanted. She was peeking in at her brother’srooms, flipping on and off switches before venturing back toward the books where I was waiting.
“I’ve been bored. I think I wanted to come help you in Italy because it was supposed to give me purpose. Now that I’m home and you’re here…I just feel a little lost.”
“Maybe you should come spend your free time over here. We have the cows now, and well…there’s all sorts of things to keep up with.” I wanted to have more enthusiasm for her, but I just couldn’t summon it. My mind was frozen in place, continually seeing the flames burn against the night sky. The smell of his flesh burning seemed stuck in my nostrils.
Alex moved so she was in front of me, gently holding my shoulders. “Don’t do that. You don’t have to worry about me. I just came to see you. I miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
“Then let’s just hang out, even if it’s in silence or even if you need to shoot something. I’m here for you, Pres.” Her long arms pulled me in close, and her scent settled in some painful place inside me that kept flaring with angry jabs. Alex was safe. Alex had never hurt me.
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her back. The two of us sat there for untold minutes until we finally broke apart with tear-stained faces.
We ended up sitting near a backfield, picking flowers. It reminded me what we acted out that day in Italy when Adrian had?—
“A flower crown, Pres.” Alex pulled me from my thoughts and handed me the foliage shaped in a beautiful circle.
Right as I leaned forward to take it, we both froze at the sudden appearance of someone in the field, watching us.
“Who is that?” Alex asked, leaning closer to me.
The man wearing a boxy white T-shirt and black cargo pants waved, and I realized who it was. “That’s Henry…”
“Oh yeah, he was there the day in Italy.” Alex kept her eyes on him, “Why is he out here, though?”
