Fractured Sky (Tattered & Torn #5)(16)

I saw Shiloh turn the idea over in her mind. “I don’t want to make you do that. I know you don’t like people on your property.”

I hated it. But Shiloh wasn’t people. She was something else altogether. The truth was, she’d become a touchstone over the last several years. And I had a burning urge to help. To protect. Maybe because I knew how it felt to believe there was no way out. Maybe because I saw those wings of hers that had been so badly clipped. The offer might’ve been reckless, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.

“I’ve let you onto my property since day one. That’s nothing new.”

She studied me. “Why didn’t you kick me off? I heard you once fired a shotgun at someone who drove down your drive.”

I huffed out a breath. “Tall tales.”

Shiloh arched a brow.

“I shot at the ground in front of his van. Not at him.”

A laugh broke free from Shiloh, and it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. Her eyes glimmered in the low light. “So, why didn’t I get shot at?”

My lips twitched. “Kai liked you. He doesn’t usually like anyone but me.”

Shiloh stilled. “I think animals are the best judge of character, too.”

“Just one rule.”

“What?”

“Only you. No friends. No boyfriends. No one comes onto my property but you.”

She stared intently at me. “I don’t have any friends.”

Damn, that twisted something somewhere down deep. “Then I guess it won’t be a problem. So, what do you say? Want to live in the guest cabin and see how that feels?”

She worried a spot on the inside of her cheek and then nodded. “This is going to blow everything up.”

I met her gaze. “Sometimes, a little destruction is a good thing.”





The handcuffs cut into my wrists as I walked, and the guard gave me a hard shove. “Pick up your pace.”

The guy behind me snickered. “Not in a fuckin’ mansion anymore, rich boy.”

I pulled the cuffs tighter, using the bite of pain to keep me grounded as we walked towards the detention facility. The tall fencing had barbed wire at the top and cameras every few feet. I swallowed against my dry throat.

Another line of teens exited the building, walking towards us. A man with a shaved head zeroed in on me. He looked larger than the rest, and a tattoo curved around his neck with symbols I didn’t recognize. I let out the breath I’d been holding when his gaze moved to the guy behind me.

“Keep moving,” the guard ordered.

I tried to move faster but couldn’t seem to get my feet to obey. These were my last moments of fresh air—or any hint of freedom. I looked up at the sky, wanting to hold the image in my mind as best I could. That was my first mistake. But it wasn’t my last.

Someone grabbed my shoulders and, without warning, leveled a blow to my rib cage. Burning pain bloomed there. I tried to get off a punch to defend myself, but someone held my arms.

The guard shouted something that I couldn’t hear.

The man with the buzzed head sneered as he leveled two more hits into my side. “Your stepdad wanted you welcomed proper.”

The hold on my arms loosened, and I couldn’t keep myself upright. That was my first clue that I hadn’t simply been punched. The blood seeping through my tan jumpsuit was my second. The world dimming around me… was the third.

I jolted upright in bed, beads of sweat sliding down my face. I threw back the covers and swung my legs over the side of the mattress. My lungs seized as I tried to pull in air, locking down tight. I focused on the floor in front of me. The rug. The wide floorboards beneath it. The trunk against the wall.

Kai pushed into my side, whining. A tiny bit of oxygen made its way into my lungs. I listened—Kai’s breathing, the wind against the windows…

I felt the sheets beneath me, now damp with sweat. Kai’s soft fur against my side. The rug under my feet.

More air came now. My lungs loosened just enough for shallow breaths. Then deeper ones.

My fingers sifted through Kai’s coat. “I’m okay.”

He licked my leg.

Hell. It had been months since I’d had a nightmare like that one. I’d started to think I was past them for good. But memories like the ones I had locked away had a powerful hold.

I pushed to my feet and strode into the bathroom, the first strains of sunrise lighting my way. I turned the water to hot and stepped under the spray. No more freezing showers in a place where I always had to watch my back. When I’d bought the ranch, I’d had extra water heaters put in so I’d never run out. I could stand under the spray for an hour, and the water would still be as hot as it was now.

Those water heaters and the property had been bought with money that shouldn’t have been mine for decades to come— my mother’s money. A trust fund she should’ve used to buy her freedom, but one that she’d never found the courage to use.

I rinsed off the sweat from the dream and then shut off the stream and stepped out. Kai eyed me carefully as I toweled off. I gave him a scratch behind the ears as silent reassurance.

I dressed quickly and headed downstairs. I ignored the kitchen and went straight for the front door. Food and coffee could wait. Right now, I needed fresh air. I pulled the pine scent into my lungs. Freedom. It was a smell that had always grounded me. The first thing I’d wanted when I got out of prison was this scent.