Page 13 of Loved By the Wolf

Instead, he grabbed my hand and tried to pull me to the car.

“No!” I pushed against him hard, and that seemed to surprise him enough to loosen his hold on me. Wrenching my arm free from his grasp, I stood my ground and crossed my arms over my chest. “Give me an answer now!”

“I just need to make sure you’re safe.”

The look on his face when he said this almost broke my heart. But I steeled myself. “Not good enough. I’m perfectly safe. No one’s out to get me. We joke about clients who would want to take revenge, but they’re just jokes. You and I both know that we work on high-profile cases, but they’re still small compared to others. Plus, everyone we’ve ever put behind bars is still behind bars. I don’t get why you’re acting like this.”

“I need you safe,” he repeated. He ran his hand through his hair, and I so wanted to do the same, but I clenched my fists tight.

“What do you want from me, Brandon? You said it yourself—you see me as a sister when I told you I have more than brotherly feelings for you. I don’t know how I can make it any plainer to you.”

“Becca—”

“No!” I stomped my foot, and it immediately felt ridiculous but so good all at the same time. “Let me talk. We’ve been doing this dance of whatever you want to call our relationship for years. It was so nice to finally meet your siblings and parents. I thought . . . I thought . . .”Get it out. Just do it.I took a deep breath.“I want to move on, Brandon. It’s time for both of us to move on. Either together or with someone else. It’s not fair to either of us to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

His eyes had gotten big. “What are you trying to say?”

It took me a second before I realized the growling sound I was hearing was coming from Brandon. What the heck was going on? “I’m saying I don’t think we can be friends anymore, especially if you’re going to be possessive about who I’m with. I want to be your girlfriend, but if I can’t, I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“Wait! You’re breaking up with me?”

“I . . . I guess so.”

We stood in silence, staring at each other and not knowing what to do next. We weren’t even dating, but why did I feel like my heart was breaking into a thousand pieces?

“Becca . . .”

I waited, watching as he clenched and unclenched his hands. I couldn’t believe I had said all that. My heart was breaking even more just watching him, and part of me wanted to take back every word I just said. But only part of it. I couldn’t keep playing this game. I couldn’t keep pining after him, and I couldn’t keep waiting on him to make a move.

“Becca, I . . . I have to keep you safe.”

“From what?”

He looked away, unable to hold my gaze. “I can’t tell you.”

I gaped at him. “That’s a bunch of BS and you know it. You know me well enough that you can tell me anything, and if it portends to my well-being, I definitely should know.”

“It’s not . . .” He dragged his gaze back to mine and ran his hands through his hair again.

“There is nobody we’ve represented that I couldn’t protect myself from. I have the chief of police on speed dial, and I carry pepper spray everywhere I go because you wanted me to. I always lock my doors and windows, and I—” I almost said ‘I have you,’ but that wasn’t true anymore, was it? I couldn’t keep seeing him anymore.

“You have what?” Brandon was looking at me with pleading eyes.

I almost crumpled and ran to him, but I shook my head. “I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for my whole life. I can keep doing it.”

“You have to trust me, Becca.”

“No, I don’t anymore. And I do not want to keep following you around.”

“Follow me around? What is that supposed to mean?”

“I took the job here for you. I stayed here for you.” The way his eyes bugged out closed the deal for me. He really had never seen me as anything more than a sister. The tears really started to flow now. “I’ve turned down job offers in order to stay here with you, hoping you would make a move.”

“Becca—”

“Brandon, I’m going to leave now and go home by myself. I don’t need you to protect me. You couldn’t, even if you wanted to, because you’ve broken me in the worse possible way.” I turned to leave, disgusted at myself because I still held hope that he’d run after me and tell me I was wrong.Please, Brandon, anything!But he didn’t. Not even when I got in my car and started the engine. I could see him still standing by his car, simply looking at me. I drove off staring straight ahead and cried hard all the way home.

Becca

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