Tension lines Royce’s face as he pieces it together.

“Day or night, we weren’t allowed outside in the summer, and we were never allowed to leave doors open and risk the neighbors hearing what went on inside our walls.”

“Summer,” he drags out.

“My dad’s favorite season.”

“No school.”

He’s getting it.

“No school, no reason for restraint... no swimsuits that would show our family’s secrets.”

His eyes slide between mine. “Bass, he told you that night wasn’t your fault.”

I sigh, looking out at the stupid car my mom bought him.

“Oh yeah, but we both know that it was. I could have sworn I closed and locked the door, but I was in such a hurry to get up there without getting caught I guess I just... forgot. Bass said it happened how it was supposed to because it gave him the car.”

My mouth twitches. “He’d tell me stories all the time how it would one day be our ticket out of there. He was only twelve when that happened, couldn’t even drive the damn thing yet.” I laugh, but it quickly dies. “It took me a while to understand why she’d give a child a car he couldn’t drive, but then I realized it was nothing but another wicked way to show us we were helpless. Like... here’s your car, but I’ll hang on to the keys while you dream of a way out that will never come.”

I frown. “Bass was back in the hospital with a broken jaw a week later.” I lick my lips, glancing back to Royce. “The lies came easier after that.”

“Yeah?” His eyes narrow in suspicion. “What was the incentive?”

I knew he understood.

“Come on, Playboy.” I run my tongue along my teeth. “Let’s not pretend there’s more than one answer to that question.”

I pull my legs up, wrapping my arms around them only to wince.

With jerky movements, Royce slides closer, bending a bit to get a better look.

“I need to get these out.” He tilts my right leg before quickly double checking my left again.

He drops to his knees in front of me, hooks my calf over his shoulder, his head now positioned between my legs, and only an inch before my kneecaps.

This is one of those rare times I wish I had longer legs because oh my god!

He’s a head dip away from my crotch.

“Stop.”

My eyes fly to his, but he keeps focused on the tiny pieces of glass shimmering in the sunlight.

“Stop what?”

That has him looking up. “Every muscle in your body went stiff just then. I can’t do this right if you can’t relax, if you can’t relax on your own, then I might have no other choice than to dip my head and help you out.”

My hands come up to slap over my face and I drop my body all the way back on the folded down seat. “Oh my god, I hate myself.”

I swear his smirk is clear in his words. “Are you gonna chill or not?”

“Yeah, yeah.” I take a deep breath and do my best to calm myself with Brayshaw’s only bachelor between my legs.

“You stopped breathing.”

Ugh!

I manage to relax enough for him to pull the few out, and then he reaches over me to grab an alcohol wipe from the first aid kit he pulled out earlier. He dabs against the spot he’s just cleaned—the soft skin of my inner thigh.

He dips his head, blowing along the area to help it dry.

I pull in a breath and hold it.

I know he feels them, the goose bumps as they raise, and not just where his warm breath reached or where his steady hand touches, but everywhere.

All over.

From root to tip, my body reveals me.

Royce’s gaze pops up to mine, and either the sun shifts above us at that exact moment, or the brown of his eyes deepens before me.

His thumb floats along the freshly cleaned spot in slow, back-and-forth motions, in the slightest of sweeps. It’s as if he’s hardly grazing the skin, maybe not even at all, his touch is so light.

I could be imagining it.

“That hurt?” he rasps.

“Does it look like it hurts?”

He pauses, but only for a split second, and then a low laugh leaves him.

He lets go and I roll my eyes at myself, pushing my hair behind my ears.

I’d make fans out of my hands if it wouldn’t be completely humiliating, and not for fun either, but because I’m legit sweating right now.

“My bad, that was embarrassing.”

He chuckles, pushing to his feet. “Nah, all part of my superpowers.”

I shake my head with a grin, but it smooths out as he watches me closely, indecision in his eyes.

A slow breath leaves him as he looks away.

“Our world is fucked-up,” he says as he puts the bat and first aid kit away. “It’s dangerous and always shifting. Right when things begin to calm, a wave of new bullshit comes in and it rolls on from there.”

“Think it will ever stop?”

“Not a chance in hell.” He shakes his head. “Ninety-seven percent of people want power, money, and the three percent who don’t? They’re the crazy fucks you have to watch out for, ‘cause they’re coming after your soul, your blood, your whole fucking world, and for no other reason than to say they took it from you if they succeed.”

“People with nothing to lose.”

“People okay with losing.”

I swallow and try again. “Tell me what happened.”

Royce pauses for a second and then reaches in to grab a bat once more.

He turns to me and holds it out, so I wrap my hands around the grip.

He walks toward my brother’s busted up car, and I follow his lead.

Royce steps around the back of it, tearing the tarp off completely.

A lost look covers his face as he inspects the car from the back window to the passenger one.

He plants his feet there and stares inside.

“My family was dealing with some straight Jerry Springer shit for a minute, fucked-up family members, connected bloodlines and things you’d never believe. Hit after hit until it all started to crumble. Your brother pissed us off, but when it came down to it, we trusted him more than anyone, so when the one person who meant as much to each of us as we meant to each other needed an extra eye, he was the only one who could do it.”

I swallow. Raven.

He puts his hand on the doorframe, leaning in to look inside with a tight frown. “Me and Maddoc were headed to see our niece when Captain was... unable. We came around the corner to find two cars in the middle of the road, one we didn’t recognize and one we’d seen a million times. Smoke and small flames, and the body of a girl on the ground was all we could see.”

I step around the driver’s side, listening as I too focus on the car.

“We hopped out with the car still rolling and ran. Bishop had this asshole by the neck, a knife to him.”

I must gasp as his eyes pop up to mine briefly.

“Then we spotted Raven falling against the car—the girl on the ground wasn’t her. She was white as a fuckin’ ghost, about to fall on her ass. She called for Bass, and he didn’t hesitate, dropped the guy instantly. He left his back blind and went for her, just like that.”

I take a deep breath.

“We were running up right as the motherfucker stood. It was a guy we trusted not long before that. Our friend, his friend.”