Page 101 of Severed Heart (The Ravenhood Legacy #2)

Chapter Fifty-Three

T YLER

B LINK .

Standing idly in the woods between the clearing and Roman’s house, I watch in real time as Cecelia enters the front door after bidding farewell to her date.

Her first real attempt at moving on since Dom and Sean were exiled.

It’s evident in her disappointed expression and the lack of a kiss goodnight with Wesley—who I spent the morning vetting—that it didn’t go well.

I text Tobias this update, knowing it’s mainly guilt-fueled.

The message itself is one I’m certain he won’t give two shits about.

But as things stood twenty minutes ago, T and I were in a better place.

As of now, and after the act I just fucking committed, we’re sure to be at odds soon, yet again.

Even so, I stand in wait to see what reaction my gift might bring—if any—while resting in the knowledge that I did what was asked of me.

Every one of my brothers is aware that I’m not the motherfucker to call to break protocol for personal reasons, and yet I can’t seem to stop being dragged into these situations.

But I’ve become quite the sloppy son of a bitch recently due to the increased, thriving beat in my own chest because of the woman who keeps it pounding— steadily .

It was my brother’s desperate plea over the line—along with the love flowing freely inside me—that convinced me that for Cecelia, at the very least, it was the right thing to do. And so, I made the trip to that Asheville mall to our inked jeweler for both business and personal reasons.

Instincts aside, I did it as a friend and brother but also as a man deeply in love.

Knowing all too painfully—by way of personal experience—just how fucking vitally important it is for Cecelia to get some sign, some acknowledgment that her own love and devotion for my brothers is not in vain.

In no way personally could I hold a grudge against her decision to try and move on.

After spending too many years in a similar state, it was ultimately Cecelia’s aching heart that made the decision for me to act on his request. After all, it was Cecelia who brought me back to the love of my life.

And after vigilantly guarding her—while watching her suffer from a distance these past months—I felt it was the least I could do to try to ease her pain.

So, for me, the request wasn’t as hard to carry out because she deserves to know that she’ll soon be claimed and that her devotion is returned.

She needs that hope to continue to carry on for just two more months.

My gift tonight hopefully not only giving her that sign but also a way to keep my promise to have her back.

To know that even though she feels most alone right now, she’s anything but.

It’s when I pull up my phone to track my birds’ current locations that any sense of relief I had in getting away with my latest move ceases to be.

Trepidation snakes through me as I watch Tobias’s locater dot—which is connected to the tracker on his Jag—heading straight fucking for me.

I’ve been made.

Fuck.

Though Tobias has access to the cameras, I made sure to make this as covert as fucking possible.

Going so far as to drive a King’s repair car from our lot here and parking it a quarter fucking mile away from Roman’s property line.

A good distance from where we usually park next to the clearing before I practically crawled here to slip into Roman’s house undetected.

So, the question is, unless he was logged into the cameras at that exact moment . .. how?

Palming the back of my neck, more dread settles into me.

As Tobias’s Jag closes in, my mind starts to race.

This can’t be a coincidence—not with him.

Even so, I rest in the fact that if I’m made, then he’s coming for me, not Cecelia .

Tobias won’t go into that house and hasn’t so much as sneezed in Cecelia’s direction for the last eight months since his brothers left.

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 being present tonight 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 with shit tonight.

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 her neck.

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 was me who 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 only saw the 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.