Craving (Steel Brothers Saga #1)(34)

Christ, my mother. Time for a Freudian analysis. “My mother died when I was twelve.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that. Were you close to her before then?”

“When I was really little, yeah. But then she changed.”

“How did she change?”

“She got very depressed. My sister was born prematurely when I was ten, and she almost died.

Maybe my mother had postpartum depression. I don’t know.”

“That’s quite possible. Are you saying she took her own life?”

I nodded. She might very well have had postpartum depression, but that wasn’t why she took her own life.

“How about your father? Were you and he close?”

I was surprised she didn’t ask me anything further about my mother’s suicide. Wasn’t that a shrink’s wet dream? “No, not really. He was closest to my older brother, Jonah. Come to think of it, he was pretty close to my younger brother, too, and of course to Marjorie, the only girl. She was Daddy’s little girl if there ever was one.”

“I see. Tell me about your family dynamic. You say you have an older and younger brother.”

“Yeah. Jonah is thirty-eight, I’m thirty-five, and Ryan is thirty-two. Marjorie didn’t come along until a lot later. She’s twenty-five.”

“So she doesn’t even remember her mother.”

“That’s right.”

“So back to your father. How old is he now?”

“He died seven years ago, right after Marjorie left for college. Heart attack.”

“I’m very sorry about that.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Well, like I said, we weren’t all that close.”

“Let’s talk a little bit about your childhood, then. Were you and your brothers close growing up?”

“Yeah, when we were little.”

“What do you mean by that—when we were little?”

“I guess I mean up until about the time I was ten.”

“So what happened when you were ten?”

I stood up, my heart pounding out of my chest. The walls—dank concrete walls—surrounded me.

Closed in on me…

I drew in a deep breath. “I have to leave now.”

“We still have a lot of time. I’m happy to stay and help you as much as I can today.”

“No. Don’t worry. I’ll see that you’re paid for your time. Double for coming in on the weekend.”

“Talon, that’s not nec—”

I walked out the door quickly, beads of perspiration emerging on my forehead, my heart beating a rapid staccato.

Before I had gotten to the door, my legs turned to gelatin and gave out from under me, and I fell.

Dr. Carmichael came running out of her office. “What happened? Are you all right?”

Purple haze…and then the concrete walls again… Closing in…

I tried to breathe…

Air…needed air…

Then flames…

Morphing into wings of purple and gold.

A phoenix rising…

And then blackness.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN





JADE


“Jade, you can’t leave.” Marjorie unfolded my clothes as quickly as I was folding them. “You just got here. Between you working for Ryan at the winery and me working around the ranch, we’ve hardly spent any time together.”

I swallowed. My heart was breaking, and not just because I would be leaving Marj. “I’m so sorry.

I’ll find a place in town. We’ll still be able to hang out.”

“But it won’t be the same.” Marj grabbed my pair of black patent leather pumps and threw them back in my closet.

“Look”—I walked to the closet and retrieved the pumps—“I don’t belong here. I just can’t…”

“Can’t what?”

“I can’t stay around your brother. He nearly beat Colin into a pulp this morning.”

“That’s not like Talon,” Marj said. “He’s actually a peaceful kind of guy.”

“An ex-Marine? Doesn’t really reek of peaceful.”

Marj flung a pair of jeans out of my suitcase and onto the floor. “At least Colin wasn’t hurt.”

I picked up the jeans. “Wasn’t hurt? Okay, so there isn’t any lasting damage, but his face is pretty beaten up, his nose is most likely broken, and he’s damned lucky he doesn’t have any broken ribs from all the kicking. If he wasn’t an athlete and didn’t know how to protect himself…” I couldn’t finish.

Marjorie finally stopped going through my suitcase and sat down on the bed, her brows arched.

“Why do you suppose it bothered Talon so much to see him kissing you?”

Marj had always slept like a baby. Four years of rooming with her in college had taught me that.

As Talon had said, she would sleep through World War III. So it was no surprise that she had no idea what had gone on between Talon and me. Just as well. How exactly was I supposed to bring the subject up? Oh, by the way, I’ve been having a little midnight fuck fest with your brother. Really didn’t think that would go over too well.