Page 199 of Tempting Little Thief

There is no thought. I don’t pause to consider the chemicals in the water, the ones that stole my perfectly working lungs and ripped away my water-filled dreams.

I beat him to the edge, diving in, arms and legs working at rapid speed to get to her. Her body is already dead weight, dragging her to the bottom of what must be a twelve-foot-deep pool. Using the bottom surface for momentum, I kick off, my arm locked around her chest as I push for the top.

Her head no sooner breaks through the water when arms reach for her, gripping and easing her out. I start to cough, gripping the pool’s edge as my lungs spasm, and I press my forearms to the concrete, fighting for a full breath, and then two strong hands are lifting me.

Bastian tears me from the pool, his body stumbling and falling into the fencing as he yanks me down on top of him, but I crawl off, hands shaking as I position Brielle, tipping her head the slightest bit and pointing her chin to the sky. My breath is shallow, my lungs fighting back, and soon, they’ll win out, but if I have to offer her the last decent breaths I have, I will.

For Bastian.

“Get the fuck off her!” someone shouts.

“Back the fuck up!” Bastian growls back, and then there’s a scuffle of some sort, but I don’t look.

Someone grips my arm, yanking me, but as I tear away, a loud crack follows.

“Touch her again and I’ll fucking kill you right here,” Bastian seethes. “Don’t test me.”

I ignore everything, deep into CPR that isn’t working. I don’t know if my breathing is too weak. The doubling pressure on my chest warns me it might be if it’s worse than that, but then her body jerks. Everyone gasps, and Bass drops to his knees beside me.

“Come on, come on …” I rasp, trying to swallow, but the wheezing begins, and I grip my throat, my eyes flying up to meet Bastian’s.

His eyes flare with a second wave of panic, then sirens sound, lights reach us and within seconds, EMTs are rushing toward us.

With shaky limbs, I start chest compressions again, and Brielle gurgles, water spilling from her blue lips, and my body gives in at that moment, my eyes flying to where the blond brother applies pressure to his unconscious brother’s wound.

The EMTs rush in and panic erupts once again as everyone starts barking orders.

Bass hauls me onto his lap in one swoop. I wheeze against him, his arms wrapping around me so tight it’s almost harder to get the little bit of air I can, but I don’t care, and when he buries it in my neck, his limbs shaking as mine do, I press his head closer.

The first responders begin loading his sister and Royce onto gurneys, his body as stone still as hers and bleeding from somewhere, but Bastian doesn’t look. I don’t think he can handle the sight of his sister’s lifeless body, something he likely feared he’d come home to find as a child now a reality. He grips me tighter and even after the screams and shouts of the others fade, he doesn’t let go.

Neither do I.

Chapter 36

Bass

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve cried in my life, and today, looking down at my baby sister’s beautiful face, it’s number four. When I think back on our lives, the pain we lived, the darkness we saw, the end result, as much as it hurts to admit, was inevitable, but the path toward it, I’d never have fucking guessed.

All my life, all I ever wanted was to protect my sister, to make sure she understood how important she was to me, as a good brother would, but somehow, with those thoughts constantly sitting in the back of my mind, I dropped the ball. And this is where it brought me. To the goodbye. I failed her in more ways than I can count, failed myself, and I’ll never forget it. Never ever forgive myself for it. But I will be better for it. Because of it. The memory of what happened here will never leave me, and the nightmares will only get worse, but I’ll find comfort in knowing my baby sister isn’t alone. That she’ll be loved no matter where she is. That she’ll be safe and without fear. That no one can ever hurt her again. And if they tried, they’d have a hell of a fucking wall to get through to do it. Because my baby sister … she’s no Bishop. She’s Brayshaw. Through and fucking through.

She was meant for this place the same way I’m not.

Yeah, I got my start here, learned a lot, but I was held back, constantly itching for more. Never fulfilled and forever waiting for the answer of why to hit me in the face. I was under the thumb of someone else, and like my home girl Rae said to methe day she handed me a check with too many numbers to count, I don’t belong behind anyone.

I know my place now. All it took was a taste of what the other side, the darker side, felt like, and I knew, without a doubt, where I wanted to be.

And that’s in a town not far from here, beside the girl who took my valueless life and flipped that shit. The tempting little thief who slid out of the sweetest ride I’d ever seen and smirked at me from across the parking lot. Who stole my shit with zero fear when I had the body of a man on the ground at my feet. The girl who dragged my sister’s dying body out of the water at the risk of her own.

I knew something was up with her and the water. Why else would an Olympic medalist up and quit diving in the blink of an eye? Now I know why.

The hospital we’re in might be run and owned by the family of this town, the top floor dedicated to those of its blood and choosing only, but I’ve done a lot of good here. My sister’s their family now, so when I demand Rocklin be treated in the same room so I don’t have to be away from either of the two most important people in my life, there is no fight.

My sister lies unconscious in a bed, and across from her is my girl. She sits in a chair hooked up to masks and machines that do the breathing for her because the chemicals in the pool weakened and shriveled her lungs, stealing her ability to breathe easily and on her own.

She put herself at risk for me.

Gasping for three days, being stuffed with steroids the whole time, she didn’t complain once. She didn’t ask for her own space, even though this one is full of others, Royce’s bed positioned right next to my sister’s.

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