Release!: A Walker Brothers Novel (The Walker Brothers #1)(47)

I’d just turned the knob when a very strong, very large arm snaked around my waist and Trace’s voice boomed loud enough to wake every soul in the house. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing!”

“Trace, I have to go.” I struggled, but my strength was no match for the furious male who had yanked my body against his.

“Bullshit. You aren’t going anywhere. You f*cking love me. I heard you say it,” he rasped loudly.

I dropped the bag and the jacket I was holding as he lifted me up, strode over to the bed, and dropped me unceremoniously onto the sheets. I started to roll over and out of bed, but he quickly straddled my body and pinned my hands beside my head.

“Explain,” he said in a clipped, angry voice.

I looked up at him, my cheeks still streaked with wetness from my tears. He was enraged, but I wasn’t afraid of him. Even though his eyes were stormy and his nostrils flaring with anger, he wouldn’t hurt me. “I can’t explain.”

“You damn well can explain, and you will.”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Tell me, Eva. If you have a good reason, I’ll let you go.”

My mind was racing with thoughts. “You promise?”

He nodded sharply one time.

Maybe telling him the truth was the only way he was going to let me leave. And I did have to go.

I took a deep breath and started to speak. “Britney knows everything. She stole my mother’s diary. I think she read more of it than I have. If I don’t go, she’ll publicize everything, and she’ll tell Dane that she only slept with him to get to you. She’ll hurt him.”

He looked confused. “That’s it? That’s a terrible reason. You aren’t going anywhere.”

“It’s enough. She’ll destroy your father’s reputation, and yours. And she’ll hurt Dane badly.” I yanked at my confined wrists irritably and glared at him.

“Honestly, sweetheart…no, it isn’t enough. I f*cking love you, Eva. Do you think I give a damn what Britney does?”

He loves me? “You obviously heard me talking, so you know that I love you, too. I can’t let her destroy you. She threatened to expose everything about your father getting duped into marrying my crazy mother.”

“My father is dead, Eva. And I don’t give a f*ck what she says about me or you. But I doubt she’d even carry through on her threats. Dane already knows she’s using him. She isn’t going to break his heart.”

“He knows? He isn’t in love with her?” Admittedly, I’d never thought Dane acted smitten, but he was a quiet sort of man.

“No,” he answered flatly. “Now let’s talk about us.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I looked up at him, speechless. His eyes were still burning with intensity, and I didn’t see any signs that his anger was fading.

He continued when I didn’t speak, “If you leave, you’ll break me, Eva. I’ve never felt this way about any woman, but I don’t think I can ever put the pieces of me back together again if you go. I need you to stay with me. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it together, but you can’t run away. I can’t handle that.”

My heart squeezed until I felt like it was going to burst. “Why me?” I asked softly.

He loves me? I still wasn’t able to wrap my head around that statement, and I didn’t get why he’d want me. Oh, I knew he cared, but he loved me to the point where I was his weakness, a woman he desperately needed. Me?

“Why not you?” he asked in a calmer voice.

“I’m a mixed-race nobody, Trace. A woman who was in prison for most of her adult life—”

“Because your mother was a lunatic,” he finished. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. I think I knew from the moment you admitted that you didn’t know Chloe that I was doomed. I just didn’t want to admit it, so I convinced myself I just needed to f*ck you. But it’s not true. Hell, I do need that, but I need more than that. I need everything from you.”


He sounded disgruntled, and I had to smile. “Do you think you can let me up?”

His grip on my wrists became gentler, and he finally pulled me into a sitting position as he grumbled, “I’ll release you, but I won’t let you go.”

He got a firm grip around my waist and tugged me between his legs.

I sighed as I felt the warmth of his body against my back. “I want to stay with you, but I’m afraid of what Britney will do. I didn’t want to go, Trace.”

“You’re not going, and I don’t give a flying f*ck what Britney does. She’s out of here. I’ll apologize to Dane for losing him his f*ck buddy, but I need you more than he needs her.”

I sat there for a moment, stunned. It had to be the first time in his life that Trace had thought about his own needs first, and I told him so.

“I have to this time,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t be worth a damn if you leave me.”

I kicked off my shoes and let them fall to the floor, then I turned, positioning myself on my knees and wrapped my arms around his bare shoulders. “I love you. I thought my heart was going to break,” I mumbled tearfully.

“I would have put it back together again, baby,” Trace said huskily as he nuzzled my ear. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”