book is a new copy of the damaged one I replaced.”
“You replaced or the library replaced?”
“Me. The library board didn’t want to spend our limited funds replacing a book they deemed distasteful.”
“Distasteful?”
“Yes. The book is about an older man falling in love with a younger woman.” Brady’s eyes narrowed and I thought maybe that hit too close to home so I rushed to explain. “A much older man and an underage teenager. Some people think it’s—”
“I know what the book’s about. What I don’t understand is why you spent your money buying a new book.”
I felt my eyes getting squinty.
“Because the library wouldn’t replace it.”
“You said that.”
“Right. So I don’t know why you’re asking.”
“And these?” he asked, abandoning his other question.
“The same. Those are the titles that some asswipe damaged. I replaced them and they were put back on the shelves today. But then Gayle Gains came in and threw a fit and demanded they be thrown in the trash. Since I’m not down with any books being thrown in the garbage, especially brand new ones that I just purchased, I dug them out and brought them home.”
“Who’s Gayle Gains?”
“An uppity bitch.”
“Hadley.” His growl had my eyes getting squintier.
I didn’t like it when my brother, father, or uncles used that tone with me and I liked it less when Brady used it.
“I think we should drop this conversation and go get something to eat.”
“And I think you need to tell me who Gayle Gains is. After that, you can explain why this one,” he picked up a copy of Thirteen Reasons Why, “says, we warned you—”
Brady didn’t finish. Probably because I yanked the book out of his hand, flipped it open, and on the copyright page in bold red fucking marker, there it was.
We warned you and you didn’t listen. You must be cleansed of your sins.
What the actual hell?
Cleansed of your sins?
That was cray-cray.
“I don’t know what that means,” I told him. “Who says, you need to be cleansed?”
“I’m more concerned about who the “you” part is. Who has been warned?”
“Got me. The library?”
I was so irritated that more books had been destroyed, and even more pissed that someone had the audacity to do it in the library with other people around, that I missed the change in Brady. But when I lifted my eyes and caught sight of his tense posture, set jaw, and glacial stare, I went on alert.
I knew that look.
I’d seen it many, many times before.
“Brady—”
“Have you told your dad about what’s going on?”
“What? Why? No.”
“Why? Some whackjob is making threats.”
Shit.
“No, some whackjob is defacing books.”
“We warned you and you didn’t listen. You must be cleansed of your sins,” he snapped and I wondered how he’d memorized exactly what was written.
“I think you’re making this into a bigger deal than it is,” I noted, and wished I could rewind the words.
That was because Brady’s features went stone-cold which meant I shivered for a different reason as a chill raced down my spine.
“Brady—”
“You got cameras in the library?”
“Brady—”
“What about outside?”
“Listen—”
“Honest to God, Hadley, if you think after I’ve waited my whole miserable life to find you, then had to wait four fucking years longer before I could at long last make you mine, I’d fuck around with some asshole making threats, then you think wrong.”
His whole life to find me?
God.
Damn.
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“I get that. But I don’t think I’m actually in danger. I think the books are, not me physically. Besides, the library board approves what’s in the library, not me. So if anyone was in danger it would be one of them. I just work there. And to answer your question, no, there are no cameras inside or outside of the library.”
“I don’t fucking like this,” he grunted.
“I’m getting that, Brady, but I’m not in any danger. And besides, after the holy hell fit Gayle pitched today, those books aren’t going back on the shelves so it’s over anyway. The asshole won and censored what I can carry.”
Relief so stark washed over him. My heart squeezed, only the constriction grated.
“I hope you know, I don’t need to run to Daddy every time something happens. I’m perfectly capable of handling any problem if it should arise. I don’t like it when my brother butts in so I can tell now, I won’t like it any more if you try to do it.”
“Noted.”
Experience told me that Brady’s response was too easy, too flippant to be real.
I quietly studied Brady trying to figure