She's Mine - Jenika Snow Page 0,59

just kept saying it as I pounded the fuck out of him. And he wouldn't fight back, just took every hit.”

Her brother's words had everything around her disappearing until she couldn’t focus on anything but what he said. “W-What?” she stuttered out. “He said that? He told you he loved me?”

Alex shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the stupid bastard.” He chuckled then, an honest one filled with amusement. “I don’t know what he did, but you’re a smart girl, the smartest one I’ve ever met, princess. Here I was, letting him have it, and the asshole was telling me he was in love with my little sister over and over again.” Alex chucked her under the chin. “And as I look at you, as I remember how you were when you were hurt, I knew you felt the same too. You love him too.”

She nodded, unable to lie about her true feelings.

The tears came fast and strong, but this time she didn’t brush them away. Then the flood gate opened up, and she told Alex everything.

She told him about their relationship and how fast and consuming it was.

She told him about how much she loved him.

Then Keira told him about the pictures, the misunderstanding, how she believed Reese with everything in her.

Things had gone downhill so fast, and she shouldn’t have told him she needed time and pushed him away. It had been erratic, made from emotions. He was doing what she wanted, and she hadn’t told him how she felt before he was gone.

“I may not like that my baby sister is in love with a guy, that he’s rough around the edges, and how I didn't miss the scuffed-up knuckles he sported. But I can’t stand to see you like this. The guy loves you, and you love him.” He grimaced after he said that, and she chuckled. “I only want what makes you happy.” He held her face in his hands and leaned forward to press a light kiss in the center of her forehead. “But if he ever makes you cry again, I will break his arms and legs.”

Keira laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Thank you, Alex.”

“For what, princess?”

“For being on my side. For understanding me. For loving me and wanting to make me happy.” She pulled back and smiled genuinely for the first time since everything happened. “And also for letting me use your SUV.” He chuckled and reached into his pockets to give her his keys. Keira didn’t waste another minute as she slipped on her shoes and raced out of the house. She needed to find Reese.

Keira didn’t know where to start in her search for him. It was a Saturday afternoon and knew he worked at the tattoo parlor on occasion, so that was where she’d start.

She parked in one of the open spots in front of the parlor. There were a few cars parked outside the small, rundown-looking establishment, but she knew that it was a well-known and respected tattoo shop in Black Mountain.

She didn’t see Reese’s truck but thought it might be parked in the back where she couldn’t see it. Or maybe that was hopeful thinking. And if he wasn’t there, maybe someone inside could point her in the direction of where she could find him.

After getting out of the car and making her way to the front door, she realized she felt lightheaded from her nerves. She was scared. She was terrified that once she spoke with Reese after all this time, he’d have realized the distance had been for the best.

Keira shook her head, not wanting to go there. She’d worry about that if or when the time came.

33

A bell jingled above the door, announcing her entrance into the tattoo parlor. Classic rock music played softly overhead, and the buzzing sound of a needle along with the murmurs of conversation blended together.

“I’ll be with ya in just a few,” an older man with a long white beard called out from where he was seated, hunched over a middle-aged woman’s back.

From the distance, Keira could make out the image of a koi fish he was tattooing on the small of her back.

She sat down on the black, ratty vinyl couch and grabbed a magazine. The cover showed a heavily tattooed woman in nothing but a few strips of fabric covering the important bits. After ten minutes of Keira flipping through the pages, the man with the white beard stepped in front of