Page 20 of Reckless Thief

“You don’t have to tell me anything except, yes, you’ll trust us to protect you too. Trust us enough to stayherewith us. Trust the guys who are more than willing to cut off limbs to keep you safe. Trust me…Let me shield you and be the big brother I always wanted to be.”

Closing my eyes, I leaned my head back against Kellan’s shoulder. His strength was right there, steadier than it had any right to be, considering the hell he’d been through the last few hours.

My lover behind me, my brother in front of me, and the family I adored everywhere in the clubhouse. They were all hurting so severely. Grieving. Raging.

Wounded.

Swallowing the tears, I glanced upward at Kellan. He met my gaze steadily. I didn’t have to do this now…

But I did.

Milo’s world had been battered. He deserved to know why.

He needed to know.

“Do you want me to stay?” Kellan asked, his hand flattened over my abdomen and I wasn’t sure which of us was keeping the other up. He would stay without question. He was giving me the choice, though.

Did I want him to have to listen to this again? No.

Did I need him? Always.

But it was Milo I focused on. “I have a story to tell you about my family…this isn’t a good time to tell it. Only, there will never be a good time.” The raw ache in my soul cracked through the barely formed scab and began to bleed. “The one thing I need you to know—that I want you desperately to understand—if this isn’t my fault, then it isn’t yours either.”

Please, believe me.

The air went still before it ballooned with all the things we weren’t saying. Flattening his battered hands onto the table, Milo locked his gaze on me.

“Who hurt you, Ivy?”

The unspoken,please, trust me,hung between us.

I forgot how to breathe. My heart fisted in my chest, the pound of it against my ribs a staccato bruise expanding to squeeze out all the air.

“My uncle…”

CHAPTER7

EMERSYN

Every other time I’d told this story—mystory—I’d done it out of necessity. The first time had been a cry for help. The second… the second time, I needed medical assistance. The pain and humiliation of that treatment had left its mark on me.

Each person I told wanted to help me to survive, to get help, to admit that I needed someone to know the darkness I’d inhabited all my life. No one had been able to take on my uncle. Not the doctors or the nurses or even my mother. I never told her. The reality that Uncle Bradley would take her away had haunted me.

Absolute freedom didn’t find me until Freddie did in Pinetree. Until we sat back-to-back, holding hands. He told me his story. I told him mine.

Pulling out that brick had only been the first step. I’d had to chip away at the others, one at a time. First with Rome, then Vaughn, Kellan, Mickey…and eventually Liam and Jasper. Each time I had clawed back another piece of myself.

As much as Ineverwanted Milo confronted by this part of my past, I couldn’t stand the idea of another ambush coming for him. Uncle Bradley was going to hunt me.

Or maybe he already was.

If he knew about Milo, and how could he not, then he would use whatever tools at his disposal to harm him. If he had to learn about this ugly piece of my past, he needed to learn it from me.

Excavating this part of my soul should be easy. I’d already dug down through layers of emotional scar tissue to get to the heart of it. But from the moment I mentioned my uncle’s name, I had all of Milo’s attention.

Kellan had urged us to sit and took the chair beside mine. He held fast to one of my hands, giving me a lifeline to push through this.

“For as long as I can remember,” I said, my gaze fixed on Milo’s, “Uncle Bradley has been the dominating force in my life. I spent more time with him than with my own parents, or at least it felt that way. When I met Lainey at school, he had me moved from sharing a room to being by myself because the Benedicts weren’t good enough, and a Sharpe should never have to share.”

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