Deadly Silence (Blood Brothers #1)(33)

The rain pounded harder, and she wished for a warmer jacket. Or even for one of those rain slicker kinds that kept people dry. A girl in her class, Mandy Martini, had two of those jackets. One was purple and one was blue. The blue one was super pretty. Mandy’s dad was a lawyer.

Lightning cracked again, and she shivered. Maybe she’d be a lawyer. Well, she didn’t like to fight with people, so maybe she’d be a paralegal. That was stable, and the lawyers she’d seen on television wore cool clothes.

Something popped. Her mom shrieked and wrenched the steering wheel around. The car turned left and plunged down an embankment. Trees flew by.

Zara screamed. Terror ripped into her, and she flung her arms out.

Glass shot inside. The car hit a tree, and the sound of metal crunching destroyed the day. Zara blinked blood from her eyes. “Mom?” she yelled.

Zara bolted upright in bed, sucking in air. Sweat dripped down her back, and she couldn’t breathe. She clutched her chest and shook.

“Whoa.” Ryker snagged her around the waist and pulled her to him, settling her face against his neck. “What the hell, darlin’?”

Breath whooshed out of her lungs. She sucked in air. Breathe. She could breathe.

She blinked away tears and exhaled slowly. Okay. It was just panic. She wasn’t having a heart attack. Thunder rolled outside, and sleet pinged against the windows. Fairly strong light filtered in. “Bad dream,” she burst out.

“No shit.” His voice was sleepy, but the hand caressing down her back was very comforting. “You’ve had it before. What happened?”

She stilled, although the comfort he offered settled something deep inside her. Something warm and safe. “I, ah, don’t really talk about it.”

“That sentence is easy to change.” The sleep cleared from his voice, the tone commanding and oddly comforting.

Her feelings were, too. For once, she was tempted to share her story. So she told him about the wreck and her mother dying. “I was trapped in the car with them, both dead, for several hours.” She shivered, remembering how terrified she’d been. How sad and alone.

Ryker’s head had lifted, and his eyes burned. “Oh, baby. I’m so sorry. I wish I could fix that.”

Tears pricked her eyes, and she battled them away. He’d fix everything for her if he could. A sweetness lived in Ryker that she doubted many people in his life had seen. “So I went to live with my Grams. That’s all.”

“Sounds like a lot.” Ryker pressed a kiss to her head, his strong shoulders shielding her. “All I know about your grandmother is what I read in a file and that she moved here to Cisco when you did. You never talk about her.”

“She’s mine.” Zara smiled.

Ryker was silent for a minute. “I get that. Denver and Heath are mine, and I hold that close.” He rubbed a large hand down her back. “I guess I didn’t realize other people felt that way, too.”

She pressed her lips against his neck. The nightmare attacked her every once in a while, and she’d awaken to a cold and lonely bed. Having Ryker comfort her, having his sheer strength and warmth surrounding her, made the past not so frightening. “Grams is a combination of my flighty mother and my responsible self.” She stiffened and then relaxed as she opened her heart and shared what was in there.

He kissed her head as if knowing the huge step she’d just taken. “How so?”

“Well, she took me in, gave me a nice home, and did all the things a mom should’ve. She was the grown-up, and I got to be the kid. Usually.” She smiled.

“Usually?”

“Yeah,” Zara said softly, warmth spreading through her at the memories. “Once in a while, she’d decide we needed girl time, so we’d drive to the Grand Canyon for a few days.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It really was,” she murmured. Something buzzed by her head. She frowned and glanced at the alarm clock. They’d slept in until almost noon. Wow. She never slept that long. “Crap. I have a meeting at work.”

“It’s Saturday,” Ryker said, his voice a little too calm.

“Discovery and trials don’t pause for weekends.” She pushed from the bed and hesitated. “I need a ride to my place to change clothes. Any chance my car is working?”

“Not a chance.” Ryker stretched from the bed, and in the strong light, he looked like a fucking ripped god. He stretched all of that smooth, honed muscle.

Butterflies heated in her abdomen.

Then he turned and pinned her with a dark look. “Who hit you?”

That quickly, she was just tired of keeping secrets. Maybe great sex had mellowed her, or perhaps it was time to let Ryker in. She’d told him of the worst day of her life, and he’d comforted her. It was time she stopped being so afraid and started to live. Sure, opening up to Ryker was a huge risk, but he was worth it. She felt it. So she swallowed several times and decided to trust completely, feeling every bit like she was jumping off a cliff. She was tired of being completely alone. “Jay Pentley hit me.”





CHAPTER


11


Ryker rocked back, anger trying to claw through him. “Jay Pentley—the mayor and your client?”

It sounded even worse put that way. “Yeah. He’s a wife beater, and I’ve been helping his wife out, so he felt free to challenge both of us.” She shrugged. “I’m violating legal ethics by helping Julie, and if I get caught, I’ll be fired and the firm will be sued for malpractice.”