Page 5 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

Fox

I didn’t realize I’d split my knuckles until there was blood smeared across the bag.

The punch landed harder than I intended. My form was off. I should’ve wrapped my hands, but I didn’t care.

I hit it again.

The bag swayed, the metal chain squeaking as it swung back. The skin split once more, angry and raw. I hit again, harder, wishing for the first time in a long while this was a real fight. I wanted fists on flesh. I wanted the adrenaline of wondering who was going to get hurt first, me or them.

I clenched my jaw tight, finding an ugly release in the pain as I continued to pound the bag with aching fists. Sweat coated my skin, finding its way down my back. The sharp scent of the rubber gym mats and blood filled my senses.

Skye Adler was back in Ember Hollow.

I couldn’t get the look on her face when she stumbled into me out of my mind. Those familiar hazel-green eyes had gone wide, like she’d seen a damn ghost. Maybe she had. The person I was when she left town had died a long time ago.

I landed another punch, but my knuckles slipped on the accumulating blood. My wrist bent at an off angle, sending a sharper spike of pain up my arm.

Wincing, I turned away from the punching bag. My chest heaved with deep breaths as I flexed my wrist. It wasn’t broken. I pulled my sweat-drenched shirt over my head, tossing it into the bench beside the weight rack. The air cooled my skin, bringing some relief.

I grabbed a towel and pressed it against my knuckles. They were a mess I’d regret tomorrow, but today it was a welcome distraction.

As I applied pressure to my wounds, I glanced up at myself in the wall of mirrors. I looked about as wrecked as I felt. My face was pale; my eyes were rimmed in dark circles like I hadn’t slept in a month.

What had that woman done to me?

It’d been…years since I’d seen her and yet, she felt like a hot iron pressed to my skin. Like a scar that had never healed.

My gaze trailed over the black ink covering most of my torso and upper arms. These were my own marks. Something that I had control of. My own way to cope with all the misery I withstood.

The small, geometric firefly nestled within the tangle of black linework on my right shoulder caught my eye.

My jaw clenched. The memorial tattoo for my sister brought her to the front of my mind.

Thea would’ve loved to see Skye. She would’ve hugged her like nothing had changed.

As if Skye hadn’t disappeared from our lives for years.

But Thea was gone.

I pressed the towel harder against my knuckles, focusing on the stinging, burning pain .

I didn’t want to think about Skye. I didn’t want to remember the way she used to smile at me when no one else was looking, or the way she whispered I love you, like the words were only ever meant for me.

I wanted to be angry.

Hell, I was angry.

The door creaked behind me, and I turned as August stepped in. The gym had been added on to the Hearthstone Security office building for all of us brothers to use when we needed it. I wasn’t surprised to see him, but I couldn’t say his presence was welcome at the moment.

My twin brother’s stare moved to the bloody towel in my hands. I was probably the only one who’d notice the shift in his expression. The tightness around his mouth. The way his spine went rigid. He was worried.

Guilt hit me square in the chest.

August looked away, like it was nothing, and walked toward the beverage fridge near the corner. He took out a bottle of water and handed it to me. I took it. The cold felt good in my swollen hand.

As I unscrewed the cap and took a long drink, August glanced at the punching bag.

“Were you beating it, or was it beating you?” His tone was light, but it seemed forced.

When I didn’t answer, he let out a long sigh. “Take a seat,” he commanded, motioning to the weight bench.

“I wasn’t finished.”

His expression sharpened. The ex-marine replaced his usual casualness, demanding obedience. “Sit down.”

I finished the water and squeezed the plastic bottle so hard it crumbled in my fist. “I’m fine, August.” I just wanted to be left alone .

He stepped toward me, glancing at my bloody knuckles. “Should I go tell our mother?”

I stiffened. “You wouldn’t.”

The office building was on our parents’ property, and I knew he was not above running to our overprotective mom.

He pointed back toward the bench. “ Sit .”

I rolled my eyes, but relented. “We’re grown men, August. You don’t need to go tattling to Mommy.”

I plopped down on the bench as August grabbed the first-aid kit from a cabinet on the other side of the room.

“I’ll do whatever needs to be done.”

I shoved my hands between my knees. Embarrassed and ashamed of them now.

My brother crouched down in front of me and opened the first-aid kit. I didn’t speak as he pulled one of my hands toward him and started to clean out the gashes. He was more careful this time about keeping his expression blank.

“You wanna talk about it?” He wrapped gauze around my knuckles.

“No.”

He remained silent while he bandaged my other hand.

“I had no idea it was Skye,” he eventually admitted, his voice soft.

I believed him. If he’d known Skye was at that coffee shop, he would’ve warned me.

“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered.

August gave me a look. The kind that said, bullshit .

I pulled my hands back the moment he secured the last piece of tape. “How long is she supposed to be here? ”

August shrugged. “I’m not sure. She’s working on the documentary solo, it seems. That’s why she was trying to collaborate with Emersyn.”

The documentary. I’d almost forgotten that’s why she was here in the first place.

Fresh anger lit inside me. That’s what got her to come back? After everything, after the death of my sister and years apart, she was coming back to exploit the serial killer responsible for so much hurt and grief?

“And is Emersyn going to work with her?” My voice was low, on the verge of a growl.

He stood and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “We both are.”

That landed like a punch to the gut. My jaw clenched.

“Well, I want nothing to do with it.”

August silently put the first-aid kit back into the cabinet. He didn’t come back. Instead, he leaned against the wall, staring at me from across the room.

“She’s still under your skin, huh? After all this time?”

I looked away.

“I’m sorry if it’s hard for you, but I think it’s the best option to stay more involved in this documentary thing than not.”

“What are you trying to say?” I snapped, running out of patience.

His brows rose. “I just think…if someone is going to be putting together a story that has ties so close to us, and the people we love, that it’s a good idea to stay close to it. To know what’s all going into it. Don’t you?”

I shook my head. I was too tired, too strung out to think it through.

“I don’t want anything to do with her.”

My brother held my gaze. “You sure about that?”

“Yes. ”

“Okay.” He pushed off the wall, nodding toward my hands. “Ice those.” He paused as he headed to the exit. “If I hear you hitting that bag, I will go get our mother and she will be the one to bandage you up next time.”

He left me there in the gym. The door snapped closed behind him.

Silence settled around me.

My rage had burned out, leaving behind nothing but the steady throb of everything I couldn’t say out loud.

She wasn’t here forever. She would be here for a little while and then she’d leave.

I reminded myself that I had survived Skye Adler once already.

I could do it again.