Page 198 of Severed Heart

The relief in that knowledge is promptly stripped away when Cecelia’s voice bellows as she bursts out of the back door of Roman’s house—frantically calling Sean and Dom’s names. A flashlight beam darting over the grass in front of her as she makes a beeline for the clearing.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

I hadn’t much thought about the false hope I would give her about them beingpresenttonight as I hear her frantically covering ground while trying to summon them. A second later, Tobias’s dot stops a mere fifty feet away. Not long after, I hear the faint but distinct clap of his car door.

This isn’t fucking happening.

Was it the text I shot out that lured him here? If anything, he’d be relieved she was dating again. Wouldn’t he? Seconds pass, and I remain idle, my vantage point declaring itself more so as the most epic of fucking backfires threatens to play out before my eyes. But as more time passes—and I don’t sense T approaching me—I decide maybe I’m not made, and my secret might be safe for the moment.

But if it isn’t me he’s after, what the fuck is his motive for being here? Thinking on my toes, I consider calling him to deter him somehow but decide to opt out. If he’s here, he must have good reason. Tobias is just as calculated as I am in every move he makes. As Cecelia finally enters the clearing, bellowing out their names, her voice filled with hope, my heart cracks for her as I inch back slightly to ensure I’m concealed, knowing their collision is imminent.

“Dom?! Sean?!” Cecelia summons, my heart aching for her and for my brothers. I simultaneously cringe at the announcement of herself to T, who I’m now certain is within earshot of her painful summons.

This is confirmed a heartbeat later when I see him breach the trees ahead, a mere fifteen feet away. From my vantage point, I can also clearly see Cecelia to his right as she scans the clearing frantically for any sign of Dom and Sean.

Tobias stops short of breaking through the cover surrounding him to observe her as she calls their names once more. The hope in her voice dwindling with every one that goes unanswered.

That is until my brother takes it upon himself to answer for both Dom and Sean, stepping through with his haughty greeting. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

Cupping my neck, I shake my head in denial, knowing that I’m not getting away withshittonight. Because even if their current collision is by some twist of fucking fate or coincidence, I feel it in my bones that the necklace I left on her pillow is somewhere on her person—if not already clasped around herneck.

Lifting my head heavenward, I decide then that life must be pissed at me for being happy because if Tobias so much as glimpses that all-too-familiar charm, he’ll know immediately that it wasmewho left it.

Knowing it’s pointless to try and stop what’s already playing out, I edge in a little closer and watch. As they start to bicker, pride fills me as Cecelia holds her own, clapping back with expertise, as I simultaneously decide that I’ll cop to it if asked, letting the chips fall where they may with T. It’s when a commotion breaks out that I draw closer, tuning in fully to their back-and-forth and cursing as I carefully speed up my steps. I hear Cecelia’s outraged screech as I near, seeing that Tobias has taken her down to the ground. I’m hauling ass toward them both, intent on breaking it up when they’re back on their feet. I pause my footing, relieved, as they put space between them. Knowing Tobias would never physically hurt a woman, I rest in that as Cecelia screams at him.

“Why? Why? That was mine. He loves me!”

“Who...who loves you, Cecelia?” Tobias goads her.

“It’s for me, for my protection! It’s my promise!” Cecelia shouts, confirming Tobias not onlysawthe necklace but just fucking relieved her of it.

Perfect.

“Who do you need protection from?” Tobias muses, fucking with her.

“These are your laws! You’re not allowed to fuck with that. He chose me!” Cecelia defends.

“You’re pathetic,” he taunts, “you think a trinket can protect you? It means nothing.”

“It means something to me!” Cecelia croaks, shattered that he just stripped her hope away as my fists curl at my sides.

“You’re a little girl with a crush.”

“I’m a twenty-year-old woman, you ignorant bastard! And I belong to him.” She holds her ground.

“Because he says so? You have no say. You’re warped. And no, sweetheart, you don’t. He’s my brother.”

Jesus Christ!

He just blew his own cover! A cover Sean, Dom, and I have endlessly kept since she arrived last year. He’s not fucking thinking—not rationally, anyway. It’s his emotions driving him tonight. From the shadows, I gauge the two of them facing off, literally now, and can feel the tension brewing unbearably as they spar without missing a beat. But this tension is palpable for me, even where I stand at a safe distance and concealed.

This is the opposite of how I hoped this would go, and no good can possibly come of this. But if I know Cecelia—and I do—she’s a dog with a bone now, and she’s not going to let it go. If Tobias keeps talking, soon enough, she’ll discover just how much we all deceived her, and when that happens, she might lose hope altogether.

But there’s something happening now between them that has inklings skittering up and down my spine. I know he resents her, but he’s been vigilant of her innocence in this since she was a kid—purposefully protecting her from the war he’s waged against Roman. Keeping her distanced, but as of now, of all fucking nights, he seems to be intentionally engaging her. As my hunch about his motive starts to take over, I know I need to take the cue and fucking step out. I have a woman at home, warming both my bed and my heart, and I’ll be damned if I let more of my brothers’ collective personal drama interfere with my first long stint of contentment.

This bullshit happening only reminds me of the blissful, peaceful months I’ve been gifted with the woman I love. Delphine and I worked so fucking hard to get to where we are now, and this situation has the potential to steal time from us. Fuck that. I won’t let it. I refuse to. This life will continue to revolve around her even if I have to take a step back from it.

But a second after I decide to dip out, the levee breaks, and the two of them collide again,physicallyputting them back on the ground in the clearing. I’m a second from stepping forward and breaking it up when I realize what I’m witnessing ... and with it, my entire body tenses.