Page 110 of The Piece You Stole

Silence.

Suddenly, it feels like I’m not the only one holding my breath waiting for Dariel’s response.

“I did,” he says.

And then he walks away.

That’sit? That’s all he’s going to say?

I glare at his swiftly disappearing back. “Did you say something to him, Aden?” I ask, my gaze still fixed on the empty doorway. “Because you shouldn't—”

“Nope.Thatwas Dariel admitting he was wrong,” Kade snorts. “The alpha way.”

A fork enters my line of vision. I bat it aside. “I’m not hungry. You must have a plan then if none of you seem the least bit concerned about Rylan coming after you.” I turn to Aden because he’s the one who will tell me the truth. “Is that why you had Leo watching me? So you could work on this plan of yours?”

Aden leans his back against the counter, crosses his arms over his chest, and observes me for a long moment. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”

Okay, so he’s not talking, fine.

I shift my focus to Kade. “What’s this plan you have?”

“And you’re interested in this because…?” Kade drawls.

“I want to help.” My dream reasserts itself into my mind with a violence I can’t ignore. If they’re so determined to keepmesafe, then I have to do everything I can to keepthemsafe. “You have to tell me this plan.”

Kade’s eyebrow rises as he tosses the fork on the table. “Help?And how do you plan to do that, angel?”

Why does it feel like he’s only humoring me?

I shake the thought away.

It’s just in your head, Saige.

“I know Rylan and his pack. I can tell you—”

“Where he lives? Which buildings he owns? How many are in his pack?” Kade interrupts. “Because, angel eyes, those are things we already know.”

My face scrunches in confusion because Rylan interacts so rarely with anyone outside of the pack, Kade shouldn’t know anything about Rylan. “But how—?”

“The how isn’t important, angel.” Kade cuts me off, his tone harder than he’s spoken to me before. Dismissive. “What is important is how youthinkyou can help?”

I stare at him; not sure I heard him right. But I know I did. He emphasized ‘think’ as if he doesn’t believe I have anything to offer. As if I’d just be in the way.

For a second, my eyes burn because I hadn’t thought he would speak to me like that. I’d expected it from Dariel, but not Kade.

My dream of Kade and Aden lying dead at my feet taunts me, reminding me of what will happen if I do nothing. I shove aside the need to cry, stiffen my back, and tilt my chin. “What do you want to know?”

Kade sits back in the dining chair, the wood creaking in the quiet room. Not because Kade is heavy, but I doubt wooden dining chairs were built to have two adults share them.

He studies me for so long I start getting nervous. If he asks me to tell him what my life was like with Rylan, I will look him in the eye, and I will lie.

My heart trips a little faster as I wait, trying to slow my breathing, but failing. Miserably.

When he speaks, there’s a thoughtfulness in his voice that makes me even more anxious. “There are darker shadows in those pretty eyes, angel. I want to know what put them there.”

I think of Rylan pinning me to the shower, of how I begged him not to bite me, of how weak he made me feel in every single way he could. I think of the photograph from the thin brown folder in the police station.

And I push myself to my feet.

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