I felt so betrayed as I lay in bed that night. I had been lied to my entire life. I had been raised thinking my mother was dead and Shayden was my cousin. They had told us that our Moms were sisters and our Dads brothers. It made sense though after thinking about it. We could feel each other’s emotions most of the time. When he would become nervous or scared my heart rate would pick up slightly. We always seemed to know what the other was thinking.
“Shay, are you asleep?” I whispered through the room.
“No. What’s up?” I watched as he propped himself up on his cot with his elbow.
“When I was kidnapped a year ago, what did you feel?”
He closed his eyes. He took a long breath holding it a second before releasing it.
“I was in bad pain. I felt scared and mad. I passed out a couple of times. Mom was going to take me to the hospital. Uh John, I mean Dad came by to check on me. He seemed really upset when he saw me. I think he knew I was feeling your pain. Uh, I thought I was dying Rissa. I just didn’t know that it was you dying.”
By the time he had finished what he was saying all the guys in the room were sitting up listening. A shiver ran over my body and Braydon pulled me closer to him.
“I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have felt that. If I’d known Shay, I would’ve tried to do something. I don’t know, retain it better or something.”
“It’s not your fault. It was never your fault. And if me feeling even a small amount of what you went through helped somehow to lessen your pain than I’m glad I felt it. At least now I know what it was and I’ll know in the future if something happens to you.”
“Do you think Dean will tell us why they did this? He left the room before I could talk to him.”
Dean left the room in a rush. He didn’t bother telling anyone goodnight or even let us know he had left. There were things that needed explained and I couldn’t help but think he didn’t want to talk about it. Or he wasn’t ready for us to know.
“I don’t know Rissa. But I think that whatever was going on then, is what’s causing this now. I won’t let anyone hurt you I promise you that.”
“I won’t let anyone hurt you either.”
I woke up the next morning, lying on Braydon’s chest wrapped in his arms. This was where I wanted to be. Where I felt like I belonged at least until last night came crashing back. I took in a slow steady breath. I rose up and looked at Braydon. He smiled at me.
I was about to lean down and kiss him when I heard the knock on the door. As much as I would like to find out about Shay and I, I wanted to know if Braydon would pull away should I try to kiss him again.
“Coming!” I shouted after they knocked harder. Dean knew I was up no doubt. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t have Braxton watching to let him know.
I walked over to the door. I turned the knob and paused. What would he say? I knew he knew more about this. He had to; he and Dad were best friends even growing up. I swallowed hard and tried to calm my nerves as I opened the door.
“I’m glad you’re up. Archer will be here soon and I need you to be ready. You should probably wake the boys and tell them as well. It will require you all.” He turned to leave.
“Wait, what about last night? Dean, I really need to know why they did this.” I was watching his facial features to see if he was going to try to hide anything from me. Only he blanked his face from all emotions.
“You will find out when he arrives,” was all he said before walking off.
Great. I couldn’t stand Archer. He always looked at me like he couldn’t quite figure out if I was something great or the world’s worst evil. One minute he would smile and tell me how good I was doing on something, the next his face would scrunch up like he smelled something sour and he would leave.
I hated that it would be him to tell me what I needed to know.
I changed clothes, made breakfast, woke the boys and let them know everything going on. Of course there were choruses of responses to the Archer news. All of which mimicked mine. I watched as they huff and puffed, complained and tossed things around the room before I finally spoke back up.
“What are you guys complaining about? It’s me and Shayden that have to deal with him mostly.”
Gabe and Zavier spun around on me causing me to take a step back. I had never seen either of them give me that look. Was it anger? Were they angry at me?
“If it concerns the two of you it concerns the rest of us. I can’t believe you would say that,” Gabe fussed.
“You guys are one of us Rissa. I would protect each of you as I would my brother,” Zavier stated as he calmed enough to relax his stance.
“Okay? So when did I grow a pair?”
Zavier looked at me confused then rolled his eyes when he figured out what I meant.
“You are like a little sister to all of us and you know it.”
“Yeah you just ripped yours off when you were little is all,” Sage replied.