Page 36 of Twisted Truths (The Sunburnt Hearts #4)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

NASH

I take a deep breath, my hand flexing in Hadley’s as I use the other to push open the door to my sister’s bedroom.

The first thing I notice is the missing mattress and bedding.

There’s a slight coppery smell clinging to the air like a ghost that turns my stomach, but I force myself to step over the threshold.

Apart from the missing furniture, her bedroom hasn’t changed much.

There’s a collage of photos on the wall where the posters of teen heartthrobs used to draw the eye.

I release Hadley’s hand as I step over to look closer.

Most of the photos are of Zara with her friends from high school, but there are some gaps where it looks like she’s torn someone out of them, and I realise they probably contained Tanner.

Hadley stays quiet behind me, but I can feel her presence at my back like a steady anchor.

An old photo, faded from time, catches my eye, and I reach up to pull it from the wall.

I was maybe eight or nine, and Zara and I were grinning up at the camera from our blanket fort in my bedroom.

Her smile is easy, confident, while mine is strained, and if you look carefully, you can see the slight shine in my eyes.

There had been a crazy storm, and I was terrified.

Zara knew how scared I was of thunder and lightning, so she begged our parents to let her set up a fort in my bedroom so she could sleep in there with me.

Dalton, of course, had scoffed, telling me to man up and stop being a sook.

Mum had taken all the blankets and spare pillows we had in the linen closet and helped us create the best blanket fort a kid could ask for.

“I called her Ziggy,” I say, my voice hoarse. “She was always making up stories, and I remember this night she made one up about a firefly called Ziggy who could light up the night and guide lost children home. I told her she was my Ziggy for helping me through my fear.”

“That’s really sweet,” Hadley murmurs softly.

I glance over my shoulder and catch her brushing a stray tear from her cheek.

My own throat is thick with emotion, and I quickly turn away, pocketing the photo before striding over to Zara’s closet.

Opening the doors, I’m hit with her familiar scent of vanilla mixed with fresh laundry detergent. I swallow hard.

Shelves line one side, while the other holds hanging items. I grab a couple of pairs of jeans, some T-shirts, and a hoodie. It feels weird to be raiding her space like this, but I know she would want Hadley to have her things.

I pass the pile to Hadley before moving over to the chest of drawers under the window.

The hairdressing magazines and makeup littering the top make my heart clench—she had so much potential, so much to look forward to in life.

I hesitate before digging around to find some workout pants and tank tops.

“She wasn’t one to exercise,” I say with a wry grin.

“I would try to drag her out to the gym with me, but she always said the only time she would willingly run was if someone was chasing her.” My stomach drops as I wonder if she’d have been strong enough to fight off whoever attacked her if I had forced her to work out with me.

Now I understand why Hadley is so insistent on learning how to defend herself.

“Nash?” she murmurs, and I realise I’m shaking.

Clearing my throat, I take a step back from my sister’s drawers. “Help yourself to whatever you need,” I tell her. “I’ll meet you in the barn.”

She calls my name as I hurry out of Zara’s bedroom, but I ignore her, instead focusing on my pounding heart and putting one foot in front of the other.

When I push out to the back deck, the cool air slaps me in the face.

It’s a welcome distraction from being in that bedroom and knowing my sister was no longer here.

After a few deep breaths, I stride over to the barn to wait for Hadley. She arrives ten minutes later, dressed in a pair of leggings and a zip up Barrenridge High sports jacket.

“Are you okay?” she asks, studying my face carefully as she comes to stand in front of me.

“I’m fine,” I lie.

She doesn’t call me out on it.

Instead, she gives me a small nod, like she knows I need the time to keep pretending I’ve got it together.

I step back and gesture towards the open space in the middle of my gym. A huge canvas mat covers the floor, so I’m confident she won’t get hurt. “We’ll start with the basics.”

I don’t know a lot about self-defence, apart from what we learned in phys ed back in high school. My knowledge is a little rusty, but I’m sure it will be enough to help her get away from an attacker.

She pulls off the jacket, revealing a tight tank top that clings to her body in all the wrong ways. Wrong because I shouldn’t notice. Wrong because I shouldn’t care. Something twists in my gut, and I force my eyes away, desperately wishing for the unassuming clothing I’m used to seeing her in.

“Okay,” she says, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear before clutching the locket around her neck.

“Feet shoulder-width apart,” I instruct. “A good stance is important. Low centre of gravity. You want to be hard to move, hard to knock down.”

Hadley nods and adjusts her position.

I circle her slowly, correcting the angle of her stance, explaining each move as I go. My hands graze her waist, her wrist, her elbow. They’re brief touches, clinical in nature, but each one sends sparks racing up my arms like static.

I step back quickly.

“Are you ready?”

“Hit me,” she says confidently, releasing a steadying breath.

My lips quirk up. “You want me to hit you?”

She arches a brow. “You’re teaching me self-defence, so you’re going to have to put hands on me.”

I swallow heavily, the images of exactly how I want to put hands on her flooding my subconscious. None of them remotely related to teaching her self-defence.

Fuck.

This is a bad idea.

Suppressing those urges, I reach out and grab her wrist—light, but firm—and wait for her to react.

Hadley hesitates, then twists like I showed her. She breaks free, but barely, and stumbles back a step.

I steady her with a hand on her lower back, dropping it quickly.

“Try again,” I grunt out.

We go again, and again. The converted barn fills with the sounds of heavy breathing and low gasps, and I push down my intrusive thoughts of capturing those sounds with my lips.

Her skin glistens with sweat, cheeks flushed, eyes burning with intense focus as she takes on my feedback and gets stronger and faster with her moves.

Pride swells deep inside me, along with another appendage, and I subtly adjust myself before heading over to the fridge in the corner, grateful that Paul or Rylan continued to keep it stocked with bottles of water. I toss one to Hadley, then guzzle the contents of another.

“Now, what if I grab you from behind?” I ask, my voice a little rougher.

She nods, and I move behind her, wrapping my arms around her torso, leaving room for her to break free.

Instead of going through the series of moves I taught her to get out of this position, she tenses in my hold. I move to release her, but she clutches at my arm, stopping me.

“Wait,” she chokes out. “I want to learn it. Just … give me a second.”

I don’t say anything, simply waiting. My chest rises and falls against her back, torturously close.

Hadley exhales, then moves. Elbow strike, heel stomp, twist. I let her go, and she spins around, eyes wide.

“That was good,” I say, forcing my voice to stay steady.

She doesn’t answer. Our gazes lock on one another as we both drop our hands to our hips and try to regain our breath.

For a second, everything blurs except the heat burning between us, the gravity pulling me towards her, even though I know I shouldn’t. I take a step towards her, then hesitate.

I can’t do this to her. She deserves more than someone who has one foot out the door. Unless … I ask her to come with me.

Hadley hasn’t broken eye contact, and I feel her heated gaze deep within. She trusts me, and that realisation is intoxicating. I want to be the one who takes care of her, the one who shows up for her the way she keeps showing up for me. Hadley grounds me and makes me want to be a better person.

I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, and despite how hurt I was when I found out she kept Franklin’s existence from me, I can’t bring myself to stay angry at her.

I’ve always been hot-headed and impulsive.

If I had found out about my nephew’s existence before today, I would have done something reckless …

something that would have got all of us killed.

But Hadley and Gabriel came to me anyway.

They trusted me, and now I have to earn that trust and prove I’m not the man I used to be.

Losing my family has gutted me, but it also made me realise life is precious.

It can be taken from you in the blink of an eye, and if I don’t fight for what I want, I’ll regret it forever.

Closing the distance between us, my hands cup Hadley’s cheeks as I press my lips to hers. “Come with us,” I murmur against her mouth. “To the States. Once this is over, come with us. You, me, and Franklin.”

“W-what?” She blinks up at me, tears shining in her eyes.

“We’ll start fresh.” I kiss her again, softer this time, lingering. “Think about it, Hadley. I’ll take care of both of you.”

My heart feels like it’s going to smash its way out of my ribcage as I wait for her response.

She puffs out a shaky exhale, her forest green eyes searching mine for any hint of hesitation. “Are you sure?”

“I know this is crazy, but I’ve never felt more sure of anything.

It’s torture forcing myself to stay away from you when you ground me in a way no one ever has.

You make the pain bearable somehow. I was on the verge of a breakdown at the funeral, but then I saw you, and all the noise evaporated.

It’s like there’s this invisible string tying you to me, and I can’t let you go. ”

I take her hand and place it on my racing heart, resting my forehead against hers.

“This is what you do to me, Hadley. You give me a reason to keep waking up in the morning, despite losing everyone I love, to keep fighting for the truth. It would have been so easy to simply accept what they said about Ziggy and move on, but I couldn’t, and it led me to you.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I feel like Ziggy wanted us to find each other, that she would want us to be happy and to look after Franklin together.

It’s why she asked you to keep him safe.

She trusted you, Hadley, and so do I. Please tell me you’ll at least consider it. ”

A look of uncertainty crosses her features, causing my stomach to twist into knots.

I’ve come on too strong, too quickly, and scared her away.

Swallowing down my disappointment and embarrassment, I slowly pull away from her, only her hands fist in my shirt, stopping me.

“I’m scared,” she whispers.

My breath hitches. “Of me?”

She shakes her head. “Of us.”

“Of us?” I repeat.

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“What if it does?” I counter, feeling a spark of hope.

“Nash,” she breathes, tilting her head up to meet me.

I erase the space between us, crashing my lips to hers. There’s nothing soft about this kiss. It’s messy, raw. A clash of lips and teeth and tongue.

Hadley whimpers, and I swallow her sweet sounds. She meets my urgency with her own, wrapping her arms around my neck and clinging to me as I devour her lips. I’m lost in her touch, her taste, kissing her until we’re both panting and breathless.

“Come with me,” I murmur against her kiss-swollen lips. “I’ll take care of you, little possum.”

“Yes,” she says finally, her cheeks flushing. “I’ll come with you.”

I tighten my hold around her waist, reaching up with my spare hand to brush her hair behind her ear. Her hands rest on my chest, and I know she can feel how fast my heart is racing.

“You won’t regret this,” I say softly, letting my thumb linger on her jaw.

“I know.” She melts into my touch. “I trust you, Nash.”

Those four words settle deep within my chest, anchoring us together.

“I won’t let you down.”