Page 29 of Twisted Truths (The Sunburnt Hearts #4)

Chapter Twenty-Three

HADLEY

I jolt awake, my heart hammering against my ribs like it’s trying to escape. Panic claws at my throat, and it takes me a moment to work out where I am. Then I remember.

The farm. Nash and Zara’s childhood home. His guest bedroom.

The sheets pool around my waist as I sit up slowly. The room is quiet, the kind of quiet that only exists this far from town. Like out at the Circle. It doesn’t explain the goosebumps that have erupted all over my skin. Something isn’t right.

Holding my breath, I focus on the sounds of the old house settling around me. Something woke me up. Then I hear it again and my pulse spikes.

A thud.

A muffled shout.

I freeze, my ears straining as my mind spirals instantly to the worst place. They found us . Whoever killed Nash’s family is back to finish the job. Was he right? Were Guardian Solomon and Seraphina responsible?

Unwilling to sit here and wait for them to find me, my feet hit the carpet before I can think twice. I creep to the door, my heart in my throat as I reach for the handle with trembling fingers. Opening it a crack, I listen carefully, trying to discern where they are in the house.

Then I hear it more clearly—a voice, strained and urgent. Not talking, like I first thought. Crying out.

Nash.

Swallowing down my fear, I creep down the hallway towards the sound. The door at the end is half-shut, soft moonlight spilling through the crack.

I push it open.

Nash is tangled in his sheets, still wearing his dress shirt and slacks from earlier. Sweat darkens his hairline, and his face is twisted in a grimace as he breathes heavily. He jerks once, then again, mumbling something I don’t catch.

“Nash?” I whisper, drifting towards the bed.

“No.” The word is dragged out in a painful groan that threatens to rip my heart from my chest.

“Nash,” I repeat, a little louder this time.

“Please, don’t touch her.”

“Wake up, Nash.” I reach out and brush his sweat-soaked curls off his face.

He wakes with a start, and with lightning quick reflexes, grips my arm and pulls me onto the bed. I let out a soft yelp as he rolls until I’m trapped beneath him, one of his arms braced beside my head, the other still wrapped tight around my wrist.

We freeze, both of us wide-eyed and breathing hard, our chests rising and falling in tandem.

His face hovers inches above me, eyes wild and unfocused for a heartbeat before they lock on mine.

Shock flickers over his features, then confusion …

then something else. Something that makes my pulse trip over itself.

Neither of us moves .

“Hadley?” he finally chokes out, his voice thick with sleep.

My cheeks are like two twin flames under his intense gaze. “You were having a nightmare.”

He swallows, his throat bobbing with the movement.

Still, he makes no move to release me. It’s then I feel the unmistakable bulge pressing into my stomach and the flames spread from my cheeks to ignite my entire body.

I squirm, which only makes him grow harder, and Nash squeezes his eyes closed, muttering a curse before finally releasing me and rolling again until we’re side by side, creating a small gap between our bodies that suddenly feels infinite.

I shiver from the loss of his body, battling with my need to be close to him versus my guilt over knowing I’m spoken for by the man sleeping down the hall.

While Gabriel and I are no longer a part of the Circle, it’s hard to forget what has been ingrained in you for so long.

When I joined them, I was immediately placed into the care of Ascendent Sierra to prepare me for the Awakening.

I went through all the lessons with the other girls my age, which drilled into us the importance of being Chosen to fulfill the prophecies of the light.

Gabriel may have taken me as his Chosen as a sense of duty to my sister, and to keep me safe, but that doesn’t mean I should throw it in his face by taking things further with Nash.

For me, the kiss at the church was a goodbye.

Convinced that I would never see Nash again once I returned to the Circle with Gabriel after Zara’s funeral, I wasn’t expecting to be staying with him less than twelve hours later, let alone lying in the same bed.

I may be a virgin, but I have been prepared for what happens between a man and a woman, and I can’t deny the desire that sparks deep within my belly when Nash Stone is near .

“Do you want to tell me about it?” I murmur softly when the silence between us becomes unbearable.

The shake of his head would be indiscernible if I wasn’t watching him so intently. “It was … It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t real.”

My heart sinks. He doesn’t trust me to know his deepest fears.

“Okay,” I say, turning my head and trying to find the willpower to leave. I shouldn’t be here.

But Nash reaches over and gently caresses my cheek, forcing me to look back at him. “Will you stay?”

For a moment, I’m caught up in the sadness in his eyes.

I should say no.

I should go back to my bedroom.

Yet I find myself nodding and settling into sheets that smell like him, like citrus and amber.

“Tell me something about you,” he says, brushing my hair off my face before slipping his hand under his head. “I don’t even know your last name.”

Feeling the loss of his touch acutely, I try to hide the disappointment on my face. “It’s Jacobs,” I say with a soft smile.

“Hadley Jacobs,” Nash repeats, and I love the way he says it. “Tell me something about you, Hadley Jacobs.”

I frown. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything.”

Anything.

For Nash, this request would be straightforward, natural even. His life revolved around his family, basketball, friends. I’m sure if I asked him, he would have so many things he could share about his life.

When I don’t say anything, he says, “Tell me about your family. ”

After I joined the Sunfire Circle, our first indoctrinations were all about severing ties with who we used to be and erasing the noise of the outside world so we could make room for the divine light and walk the path of our sacred transformation.

I was devastated when I discovered I had lost my sister, and while Jack and Dianne had been there for Madeline and me when we lost our parents, they were not family.

Joining the Circle meant staying close to my sister, but it also meant hiding who I was.

We don’t share where we come from or any personal details about our family.

The congregation is our new family, the compound our new home.

I’ve shared a bedroom with Gianna for three years, yet I know nothing about her except she has an allergy to peaches and she loves to read the epic fantasy novels that she smuggled in with her.

The members of the Circle are almost always running from something.

They are welcomed into the congregation with open arms and whispered promises, before they’re stripped of their pasts until nothing remains other than obedience wrapped in the glow of false salvation.

For three years, I lived by their guidance, grieving for my sister in private. When you have nothing left, it’s not that difficult to forget where you came from.

“Madeline and I grew up in the outer suburbs of Sydney,” I tell him. “We didn’t have much growing up. Our dad…” My voice hitches when I mention the man who terrified me from my earliest childhood memories.

Nash reaches between us, linking our fingers together. The simple touch lends me strength to talk about my family for the first time in years.

I take a deep breath and continue. “Our dad was an alcoholic, and a violent man. Mum took the brunt of his anger, but I often heard my sister’s shrieks of pain and muffled sobs in the middle of the night as well.

She tried to hide it from me, but I know he hurt her.

” Memories of the panicked sounds and pleas to stop I would hear coming from my sister’s bedroom replay like a house of horrors, only it wasn’t a disturbing carnival experience. It was my real life.

“For some reason, I was always spared his wrath. He pretty much ignored my existence. One day, when I was six, Dad went too far. He and Mum were arguing about something, I don’t remember what it was, but I remember hiding in the hallway closet with Madeline, who was crying and shaking so hard, I thought we were going to be found.

When the front door finally slammed shut and the house went silent, we sat there for a long time.

I held Madeline’s hand until she stopped crying.

It was late, and I was hungry, but I didn’t want to leave my sister. ”

Nash mutters a soft curse, and it pulls me from my memories of the past.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, blinking away the tears in my eyes. “That was insensitive of me.”

“You lost your mum?”

Unable to say the words out loud, I simply nod.

“What happened to your dad?”

“He was arrested and died in prison. After a week of living on the streets, Madeline and I were put into care.”

He shakes his head. “I had no idea what you’ve been through.”

I sniff, desperately trying to hold in my tears. Nash is buried in his own grief; he doesn’t need to take on mine too. “Zara said you play for the NBA.”

Surprise flickers in his eyes, but he senses my desperation to change the topic. He clears his throat. “I’ve been playing for the Main Wolves in the NBA G-League since graduating Duke, but I just signed a two-year deal as the Shamrocks’ new point guard. ”

A sad smile tugs on my lips, knowing he’s going to be leaving soon. “You must be good.”

Nash shrugs. “I work hard.”

“She was proud of you.”

His gaze drops to where our interlocked hands lay between our bodies. “I used to think basketball was everything, but I’d give it up in a heartbeat to have them back.”

I need to tell him about his nephew. He needs to know he’s not alone. “Nash?—”

“What am I supposed to do now, Hadley?” The raw emotion in his voice and anguish in his eyes have my vision blurring.

“Everyone thinks she did it. They think she murdered them in cold blood. Am I supposed to go back to the States and just let whoever did this get away with it? How is that fair to Zara?”

“It’s not. But you don’t have to do it alone.

Gabriel and I will help you figure out who did this.

” He visibly flinches at the use of Gabriel’s name.

“I know you don’t trust him because of your past, but I promise you, he’s not like the rest of his family.

He wants to find out what happened to Zara as much as you do.

If it turns out his family is involved, then we’ll both help you bring them down. They’ve taken enough.”

“I want to believe you,” he says, his voice hoarse. “But I still don’t fucking trust him.”

I don’t say anything. There’s no point. He and Gabriel need to work out their issues themselves. All I can do is be here for him.

“Nash, you should know?—”

I’m cut off when he lifts our entwined hands and presses a finger to my lips. “It’s been an emotional day. We should get some sleep.”

We lay there in silence, both lost in our own thoughts.

I need to tell him about his nephew, and also about me being Gabriel’s Chosen, but I’m scared of how he’ll react.

The last thing we need is for him to go rushing into the Circle and trying to get Franklin out with brute force.

I don’t think Seraphina will hurt Franklin, since she believes him to be Gabriel’s son, but I do believe she’ll hide him if she thinks we’re coming for him.

I also need to talk to Gabriel about my feelings for Nash.

Because I feel a connection to him, which is growing stronger by the day.

Not only am I attracted to him, my body thrumming to life every time I’m close to him, but he makes me feel safe in a way I’ve never felt before. At least not since Madeline was alive.

My eyes grow heavy, and I blink once, twice.

Right before sleep pulls me under, Nash leans in and presses his lips to my forehead.

“I’m glad you’re here, Hadley,” he whispers.