Broderick (Sabine Valley #2) - Katee Robert Page 0,104
but if I’m going to avoid being the hypocrite my mother is, I can’t let my own personal feelings get in the way of my people’s safety.
Even if it breaks my heart in the process.
Chapter 31
Shiloh
Things happen quickly after that. Monroe is swept away. The dead Mystic is taken from us. Broderick and I are politely but resolutely guided out of the building and back to the truck. Neither of us speaks as we drive back over the river, not even when a convoy of other Raider vehicles surrounds us and escort us back to the compound.
Broderick parks and looks at me. “I’m sorry.” He makes no move to get out of the car despite Abel and the others who provided our escort through Raider territory waiting.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” My throat feels like it’s on fire, and I can’t tell if that’s an aftereffect of the poison or the fact that we just drove away from the woman I love. I can already feel the dynamic shifting between Broderick and I, both of us too tentative without Monroe here to urge us forward.
Well, I’ll have to be the one to be assertive this time.
I clear my throat and wince. “We made the wrong call.”
“What?” He catches Abel’s gaze through the windshield and waves his brother off. After the barest hesitation, Abel leads his group toward the main building, though he lingers outside after the rest of them have dispersed.
“We shouldn’t have left her there.”
“Shiloh, we didn’t have much choice.”
I twist to face him. “Yes, we did. We could have fought for her. She’s fighting for me right now, and we just turned around and let them shove us out.”
“You heard her. She’s going to be queen.”
“I heard.” I press a shaking hand to my chest. “Broderick, I love her. And I love you. I know it’s not the same for you, but—”
He curses. “I’m falling for her, too. Have already fallen, if I’m going to be honest. It’s not convenient, and I want to shove her out a window half the time, but I’m self-aware enough to recognize the feeling.” He drags his hand over his face. “What do you want from me, Shiloh? I don’t know how to make this work. It’s all happening too fast. I thought we’d have more time.”
My brain still feels fuzzy, but I try to focus. There’s a way through this. There has to be. “Do you want us? To be a throuple in a permanent way?”
He hesitates, his hands flexing on the steering wheel. “Yeah. I do.”
“Me, too.” I shift on the seat. This next part is more difficult. “She’s still your Bride. They can’t deny access to you.”
“She won’t come back here as queen. There’s no fucking way. It would never work.”
“You’re right. She won’t.”
It doesn’t take him long to connect the dots. He curses. “You’re really willing to live among the Amazons again after everything? I can’t ask that of you. Monroe sure as fuck won’t.”
The idea isn’t exactly comfortable, but the alternative is a thousand times worse. I take a slow breath. “It wasn’t the entire Amazon faction responsible for what happened to me. The people who hurt me have been punished. Gods, Broderick, she went after her own mother on my behalf. If the other Amazons are like Monroe, I think we’ll do just fine.”
“If the other Amazons are like Monroe, I don’t know if I’ll survive it,” he mutters. But his grip has loosened on the steering wheel. “Are you sure? I don’t know if this is a decision we can change our minds about after the fact. If we go to her with the intent of staying, we’ll be under suspicion every time we interact with the Raiders.”
I think about Iris, about Maddox and Cohen and the others I’ve become friends with over the years. They’ve been a family of sorts, and if that means there’s a new distance between us, I don’t think it will break those relationships entirely. How novel. “What about you? You’re Abel’s second-in-command. That’s not exactly an easy position to fill.”
“You’d be surprised.” He stares out the windshield for a long moment. “Be sure, Shiloh. If we do this, there’s no going back.”
“I’m sure if you are.”
Another, longer stream of curses. “Well, shit, guess I better go talk to my brother.”
Abel must have seen that our conversation was finished, because he ambles over. Broderick rolls down the window. “You’re not going to like this.”