Page 3 of Word to the Wise

Calm the fuck down already.

Everyone is always in such a rush in Los Angeles. Worse, in such a panic. Eventually, we’ll all get what’s coming to us. No use trying to hurry it along.

Another bang comes at the door just as I reach to unlock it, and the moment the door cracks, someone shoves it open from the other side. I step back, ready for whatever might be coming, when a tiny woman pushes her way through. She rushes past me into the apartment, leaving a wet trail behind her from the rain.

“Woah.” I look outside, but there’s no one chasing her.

She closed the gate behind her at the bottom of the dark staircase, and the only people milling around are across the street.

“What the—” But I’m cut off when I close the door and turn to face the girl who just rushed me. “Reed?”

Sage’s younger sister stands in front of me with tears spilling down her cheeks.

One of her eye sockets is bruised, and her lip is split open. Dried blood dots her sleeve where she must have been dabbing her shirt over her cuts and bruises. Her silky chestnut hair is messy, half tied back and half down, with a large chunky piece falling in front of one of her golden-brown eyes.

“What happened?” I take a step forward, and she jumps back.

Fear.

It has me clenching my fists, and my nerves shot. She’s scared because of what someone did to her, and I don’t fucking like it.

“Where’s my brother?” She glances around the apartment.

Her lower lip quivers, once more splitting it where it’s cracked. A bead of blood drips down to her chin.

“The clubhouse. He and Lyla moved.” She must know this since it’s been in the works for months, but she’s rattled, so she clearly forgot. “Let me help you with that.”

She blinks as more blood trickles from her lip. Her tiny hand reaches to wipe it away, but she ends up smearing it across her cheek.

Last time I saw Reed, she was a force to be reckoned with. Big smile, big eyes, big personality that can’t be bottled once you get a look at her.

Whoever this girl is standing in front of me, she’s shaking. Rattled. She’s smaller than her height, which isn’t saying much when she’s already so damn tiny.

At six foot six inches, I’m taller than most people, making everyone seem on the shorter side. But Reed is just over five feet, and right now, curling her arms around herself and shaking, she’s extra small.

Reed brushes her bloody fingers down the front of her shirt. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, Reed.” I take a step toward her, and this time she doesn’t flinch or step back. “Who did this to you?”

“I just—” She shakes her head and starts pacing the room.

She’s carrying nothing. No phone. No purse. No bags. That’s not a good sign when she lives up in San Francisco.

Reed walks over to the couch and drops down onto it. “I’m fine. He was just—”

She’s mumbling, not finishing her thoughts. But when she sayshe,every demon in my head rears to life because I don’t care who it is, I’m going to fucking kill him.

I slowly make my way over to the couch and sit at the other end so I don’t scare her, fighting to hold back my rage.

“You’re safe here.” My tone is level, even if my head is far from it. “I’ve got you.”

Reed looks up at me with those big brown eyes that hold the key to happiness. I might have only met her once before, but I recognized it at that moment. And as she wipes away her tears, smearing more blood across her cheek, I make a silent promise that I’m going to set this right for her.

“I’m sorry.” She glances around the apartment. “I was looking for my brother. I didn’t mean to interrupt your evening.”

My teeth grit at the fact that she’s traumatized and still thinks she needs to apologize to me right now.

“You’re fine. You’re not interrupting anything.”