Page 123 of Severed Heart (The Ravenhood Legacy #2)

Just after he pulls away, I place the knife in his palm speaking around the lump in my throat. “She would have wanted you to have it.” His eyes fix on the knife as he swallows, the sting evident before he nods.

“Thank you.”

“Call me as soon as you can.”

“I’ll call you in ten minutes,” he says before he pulls away.

My phone rings in five.

BLINK.

“Zuzu’s petals, there they are!” Jimmy Stewart rings out on screen as Zach feasts on Mom’s Christmas tree–shaped Rice Krispie treats, his size twelve boots hanging over her ottoman.

Scouring the living room, I chuckle as Dad catches flies, mouth gaping in his second nap today.

In the corner, I watch as Mom pulls out a familiar box from a large plastic bin.

Inside is an ornament that gives me both a nostalgia kick and stokes my constant heartache.

At the sight of it, I’m transported back into our little house as silver eyes stare back at me, her lips twisted in a grin.

“It’s my ugly ornament,” I utter to Mom who looks back over to me, concern in her eyes. “I’m okay,” I assure in a rough whisper. “Let me hang it?”

She gives me an easy nod, her eyes misting before she turns to stare at her glittering tree. “I miss her all the time, Son.”

BLINK.

Standing in the doorway of Tobias’s office, he looks over to me, utter devastation on his face. Reason being, Cecelia accepted another man’s ring. “Talk to me,” I prompt, the sweat from hauling ass here cooling on my back.

“No need,” he states.

“You can continue to lie,” I counter, remaining idle, “and maybe I’ll pretend to believe it, or we can talk, really talk this out. Choice is yours.”

We stare off for a few silent seconds before he speaks.

“Tell me why she accepted.” He pours a finger full of gin in his tumbler.

“He wasn’t sure she would say yes, so he did it in a room full of people who knew them both as a couple and as successful business partners. To remind her of what they’ve built together—also what she stands to lose if she didn’t take the ring. It’s a little manipulative, but he worships her.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Tobias snaps.

I sigh, knowing he doesn’t want the truth even as he demands it with the lift of his chin. “Because he’s both good to and for her.”

He rakes his lip, but it doesn’t lessen any of the blow in his expression. Pressing in, for him, for her, I give him more of the brutal truth.

“This is what you decided for her when you sent her back to Georgia. A normal life, non-club related.”

He nods, even as sweat breaks out on his brow.

“You know your choices,” I remind him. “You either go get her and risk losing her to our life, or you let her go”—I cut my hand through the air to stop his bullshit objection—“I mean, really let her go.”

“I have...” He spares me a glance as I flat out call bullshit with my eyes alone. “... Enough to make her believe I have,” he grits out.

“You still love her, Tobias,” I deliver point-blank.

“I’m with Alicia.”

“No,” I scoff, “you fucking aren’t. Alicia knows that, too.

And like Alicia with you, Collin knows Cecelia’s not all in with him.

That there’s something or someone from her past holding her back.

I’m willing to bet my life that Collin has absolutely no knowledge of you.

Even without mention of the club, and that’s because she’s holding out hope just like you are.

If you truly are her past, she would have told him about you, and she hasn’t, which makes her all the more alluring to him. ”

“You seem certain of all of this,” he says, tossing more gin back.

“I am.” I shrug.

“Simply because of the way he proposed?” he asks.

“There’s a lot to be said about approach, but there’s more, there’s always more, and you know damn well I watch out for her, so don’t play fucking ignorant,” I warn, done with his excuses.

“Subtlety is no longer a trait you possess,” he says, swallowing another healthy sip of gin. A numbing I’m all too familiar with. “She doesn’t love him,” he insists.

“Maybe not in the same way she did you,” I agree. “A way she no doubt now identifies as unhealthy thanks to you, but she does love him.”

I hold his stare, intent on seeing this through. “She loves him enough to marry him, and if you don’t stop it, she will marry him, T.”

“She’s too smart to trap herself in the lie she’s living, and make no mistake, she’s living a lie,” he argues.

“Which makes you birds of a feather,” I drop, a second before he shatters his keyboard with his fist. Blood drips from his hand as all pretense of calm flies out the window.

“The risk is still too great,” he argues weakly.

“Tessa can endure it,” I counter, “and you’ve seen that for yourself. There are marriages that last in this fucking club ... but I’m not here to talk you into going to her.”

“Then why are you?” he snaps.

“I’m here to tell you she will marry him if you don’t stop it.”

Tobias’s eyes flare as I become the enemy, his temporary scapegoat for the pain lancing through him.

“Since we’re being honest, why don’t you come clean about being happy to deliver this news to me.”

“Fuck you,” I bite out. “Despite your current skewed perception, not everyone is your enemy.”

“No, but you’re no friend of mine since I’ve disappointed you so greatly. Your grudge is still there. Tell me it doesn’t please you to tell me this,” he hisses as I turn to take my leave. “That it doesn’t please you that I live as you do, as a fucking dead man.”

Turning on a dime, I stalk toward him, done with the hand-holding. “You want to go blow for blow? Think it will make you feel better?” I stop short of his desk. “We both know it won’t, but today, I’m fucking up for it, you fucking prick. So, say the word.”

He tilts his head, eyes filling with concern as I jerk my chin.

“Save it. Don’t play big brother right now. You’re not the one who just fucking flew across Charlotte to watch you implode.”

“I’m not,” he denies.

“You are, and every single bit of what you’re feeling right now is on you, and you know it.”

“She’ll die,” he whispers fearfully.

“She might,” I agree, “and that’s the chance we all take when we get inked.

You inked her , you dumb bastard. But while we’ve been mopping up our mess, she’s been embracing that ink—earning it.

You know as well as I do that we can talk club safety all night, but we both know there’s no fucking guarantee and never will be.

We learned that the hard way. But that was years ago, and now you’re standing behind excuses that are becoming less and less relevant while still playing the fucking martyr with your broken heart.

” Annoyed, I stare him down as the last of my patience starts to thin.

“Look, sulk, cry, whine, and continue to remain in denial, but your lack of future with her is completely your fucking decision and less about her safety at this point.”

“She won’t forgive me.”

“She’s not a young tender anymore, Tobias. She’s a goddamn force to be reckoned with, and my money is that she’ll give you the hell you deserve before you get to glimpse the peace you found with her again. You were willing to risk losing your brothers over her, so what is the risk now?”

“Her fucking life!”

“That’s your PTSD talking,” I counter.

“Fuck you.”

“You were hurt, bad, and almost died, and it scared you and only reinforced your decision to keep her away, but you’re still breathing, and so is she.

The coast is as clear as it’s going to get, and you know all too fucking well she’s starting to stack enemies of her own.

Now more than ever, she needs your protection. ”

“She has it.”

“No, she has mine ,” I draw out, “which is better than yours, but it’s not mine she wants.” Done with the conversation, I glance back at the door. “Look, go to her, or don’t, but this is it. I’ve watched you get up from concrete you shouldn’t have been able to grow roots from, but you did.”

“I can’t watch her die,” he finally admits.

“You’re dying watching her fucking live without you, brother.

The thing is ... I know you’ll eventually go to her, whether it’s today or a dozen years from now.

But what my gut tells me now is that there’s a chance she’ll still be there for you, though I have and have had a feeling that the clock is ticking out.

This engagement only proves as much. A woman like Cecelia—with a heart like hers—you and I both know she won’t let it wither.

One day, she will succeed in finding someone to help her put it to use, even if it isn’t Collin.

She’s not going to waste much more of it on you.

Do what you will, but you know I’m right. ”

Stalking over to the door, knowing I’ve done and said all I can for my brother, I slam the door behind me.

* * *

US PRESIDENT: PRESTON J MONROE | 2021 -2029 FALL 2021

BLINK.

Chest heaving due to exertion, I toss away the last of the brush before getting into the cab of the backhoe.

With no choice but to look at the house standing twenty feet in front of me, I finally face it head-on.

An immediate vision of Delphine on the porch, watering can in hand, flits to mind.

The hem of her sundress catching on the breeze, blowing around her, along with wisps of her long, black hair as she glances my way, her lips curving up due to my arrival.

Just after, the feel of our connection when our eyes met and held through my windshield.

The late summer sun beams down, and I clear the sweat from my brow with the exposed part of my wrist beneath my work gloves as I swallow down that vision.

In vain, because a second later, it’s promptly replaced by another.

Zach manning the grill as Delphine chatted to him from where she sat at the porch swing while I chopped wood.

I can still see them so clearly—comfortable, smiling, content.

That image brings the ache back tenfold, the loss of it crippling.