Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security #1) - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,27
“How are you doing?”
She threw me a look. “You a shrink now?”
I huffed. “No. And I know we’ve never really…”
“Spoken. Acknowledged each other. Got along?” she offered, and I had serious déjà vu. But she’d lost some tension and the rueful humour was back in her eyes.
“Fuck, you’re your brother’s sister,” I muttered.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. All that. But I’m here if you need anything.”
She looked me over and I wondered what she saw now.
When Hawk and I had been teenagers, we hadn’t given her the best example. We’d gone out late, we’d hooked up with girls all over the place, we drank, we smoked, we were your typical early 2000s juvenile try-hard delinquents. As we got older, not a lot had changed I guessed. Our sleeping habits hadn’t got any better, we slept with as many women as we could get our hands on, we drank, we didn’t really smoke anymore. The only thing that had really changed was that we were now deadly with multiple weapons and forms of combat. Oh, and we had money to waste on our varied and numerous vices.
I couldn’t really have said what image that gave her of me. And what my offer did to that image. Did she think I was just pandering, being facetious? Did she know I was being honest, that I would do anything for me and mine? Sure, she wasn’t technically mine. Because I wasn’t allowed to even consider thinking that way. But she was of mine so same difference really. Happy sister, happy brother.
Slowly, she nodded. “Thanks, Kit. I’m… Going to be okay. I have my thesis to work on. I have a Carmel now. I’m good.”
I searched her eyes before she looked away. “Okay. Well, offer stands.”
She nodded. “Sure. Thanks.”
I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay and work out what was going on in her head. I wanted to stop my best mate’s little sister hurting. But I had a job. A job which let me invite her to stay and be taken care of. So I kind of needed to make sure I didn’t lose it. Not that I’d be fired. But our clients could piss off if we pissed them off.
“Your brother will no doubt beat the crap out of me if I’m much later,” I said, pushing myself up. “I’ll see you later.”
Amber looked up at me and nodded. “Sure. No worries.”
“Have a good day.”
“You too, Kit.” She gave me a smile and I nodded before I headed out.
My day and the next were the same as usual. I had self-entitled clients wanting things we weren’t obliged to give them, there were bank issues because always, there were legitimate threats to clients we had to deal with. I’d had to have a couple of fights with some guys and I’d got more blood on my shirt that Carmel was going to kill me over if I didn’t remember to soak it.
Still I got home in the wee hours of Friday morning. I walked in to most of the lights off, so I’d guessed Amber was in already in bed. As I walked past the table, I stopped to see what pattern she’d put her notes in that day. I had no idea if it was a way to measure her progress, but I knew she’d been busy based on the fact that everything would be spread out in a different way.
I was just about to move into my bedroom when I heard her screaming. Panic lanced through me and I was halfway to her room before I noticed what I was doing.
7
Amber
I felt hands on my shoulders.
“No!” I yelled and sat up. I had to get away. “No!” I had to get away.
“Amber?” a voice I recognised cut through the frantic beating of my heart and the wild noise in my head.
I realised I was still in bed. As I took in my surroundings, I registered Kit was sitting beside me, his face full of worry. He was still dressed so he mustn’t have been home long. I blinked and looked into those rich brown eyes.
“Amber? Are you okay?” he asked me.
I nodded, but I noticed I was still shaking. That desperate need to have a shower, to be clean, clawed at me as the fragments of memory combined with the leftovers of my dream and made me feel sick. I was cold and hot all at the same time.