Page 47 of When Sinners Fall

And that means he’ll protect her.

“Wren Campbell.”

Not a word comes out of his mouth. He won’t remember who she was. He was inside most of the time when we were kids in school, and by the time he was out, I’d distanced myself from her. That’s exactly what I should still be doing. Instead, here I am dragging her fine ass into a world she does not belong in.

I pace again, still full of fury about being pushed and challenged.

“How much does she know?” he asks.

“Nothing. A little about what we own.”

“Is this what the junkie was about?”

I glare in response, head low as I keep pacing by him.

He nods to himself and stares at me, presumably thinking over his options. He could try talking me out of this. Won’t work. He could try threatening me about some shit. That won’t work, either. Not this time. He might even try sending me more work than I can handle to make me forget about her – definitely not gonna work.

“You’re not going to move on this, are you?” he says.

I keep pacing, shaking my head. “No.”

“Why?”

I frown and think on the question, unsure how to answer. She’s part of me now. Maybe she’s always been part of me. She was part of who I was without him all those years, part of who I might have been if I wasn’t part of this family. And now, she’s buried deep, like all the memories of what was are raging to the surface to create something new in the now. “Doesn’t need explaining, Abel. If I want her in, that should be enough for you.”

“Can she handle it?”

Doubt it.

“I'll train her to.”

He doesn’t argue that logic, but he does keep the silence heavy in the air. There’s nothing else to say as far as I’m concerned, and I’m too full of rage to try talking anyway. This is what I want, and while I don’t need his permission, I’d far rather he was there with me and we're not fighting about positioning and obligations.

He gets up after a while and takes the bottle I’m still holding out of my hand. “Alright, brother. If that’s what you want. Keep her in check, and don’t say I didn’t warn you. I'll look into her.”

I glare at him. “You leave her the hell alone, Abel. I know her history. She's clean.”

“How do you know her history?”

“I just do. You leave her to me.”

He nods. Accepting that.

Good.

Done.

I’m out of his place and driving back to hers before I let any sense or reasoning enter my head. All in. All in means parts of me she hasn’t seen. She’s about to see them because I’m so fucking pissed at her challenging me, I can hardly see straight.

There’s only one woman in my life who challenges me and that’s my own damn mother. Even she knows when to back the hell off and give in. Not Wren, though. No, she’s gotta be the one to push and dig and say her fucking point when, in reality, she’s got no goddamn idea what she’s asking about.

The car screeches to a halt, and I get out and start hammering the door. She opens it, but blocks the doorway, her arm stretched across it as if she’s not happy about letting me in. Fine. We’ll do it at my place then. Not like she’s gonna have any choice about where she lives after this anyway.

I grab her arm and start hauling her until she’s in the car.

“Dante! What? Stop. Get off me,” she spits, all ire and angst.

“No.”