Page 103 of Raine

“Are you?”

“I am.”

“Let’s go.”

And I’ve never been more relieved to hear those words than I am right now. We head back to the car and start our trek back to Dana Point.

I’m so lost in my thoughts as I watch the trees and street lights blur past that when we rock up to the first gate that houses all our homes along the street and Gabe nudges me to open it, I’m momentarily stunned.

I lean over Gabe, his hot body sending sparks of electricity over my flesh as I punch in the code and place my finger down on the pad to allow us entry. The gate wheezes open, and I linger, suspended over his body, until the palm of his hand kneads my ass.

“Move that sweet little ass before I can’t stop myself, Raine,” he rasps, and it snaps me from my moment.

There is so much promise in those few words that they have my body thrumming around like a livewire without a destination. I feel lit from the inside out, and a part of me knows I want to drown in what Gabe can provide me because it’s hardwired into my damn brain.

However, when we pull up to my house, and I see the gate already open, Acheron’s car in the driveway and him pacing along the grassy area outside my door, I freeze up.

As if we are now suddenly connected telepathically or some shit since we found out we’re related, his head snaps up to see my Porsche idling outside the gate. Worry and frustration bleed from his face, and I realize he must have been tracking my phone since I’d turned the GPS back on.

He stalks across the grass and onto the driveway, halting when he sees Gabe in the driver seat. The relief that filled his face moments ago morphs into a look of anger and some other emotion I can’t place.

I turn to Gabe and see him staring Acheron down, his face drawn tight and his jaw clenched. Opening my mouth to say something, I’m silenced when Gabe speaks.

“Grab your stuff, Raine; this is going to take a while.”

Chapter34

Raine

The intensity pulsing between Acheron and Gabe is palpable as I stand between them in the driveway. I’m not sure why I decided to play piggy-in-the-middle between these two alphaholes, but here I am, my head still not one hundred percent, yet somehow I know I need to be here.

Something Gabe mentioned to me about Acheron filters through my head and I draw a few conclusions as I look between my brother and my lover.

Acheron is the one to break the silence, and the brutality in his voice is a promise of retribution. “What is he doing here, Raine?” he demands, his voice shaking with anger that he’s no doubt trying to hold back.

“It doesn’t need to be this…”

“Shut the fuck up!” Acheron bellows, cutting Gabe’s sentence off.

“I told you to stay away from him,” he growls, pointing to Gabe and my hackles rise.

“And I told you I’m a grown ass woman,Brother”I seethe, enunciating each word like a punch to the face.

Hurt flashes through his eyes before they harden once more. “What has he told you?”

“I’m right here, Acheron.”

“Yet you’re not worth my fucking breath or words, fuckwit.”

My eyes are like a damn ping pong ball between the two of them, zoning in on Gabe when he releases a deep breath and motions for me to answer Acheron.

Shaking out of my stupefied stance, I face my brother, and I feel myself soften toward him. There is so much anger snapping and popping around him; the intensity of the emotion almost staggering, but beneath all that hostility, I can see what is really going on here — Acheron is scared.

The memory of Gabe telling me it’s not my story to tell about Acheron resurfaces, and I offer him a soft smile. “He hasn’t told me anything. I asked him and he told me it’s not his story to tell.”

My words soak in, and I see his shoulders slump in relief, which makes me wonder even more what skeletons and secrets Acheron has in his closet.

He nods once at me, then looks to Gabe, his fists clenched and shaking beside his thighs. “I don’t like this.”