“Not into that either. Jesus, you’re scary, woman. No wonder they say the quiet ones are the kinkiest.” He physically grabs Creighton and uses him as a shield. “Protect my lordship from her venomous claws, spawn. This cougar will kill me in my prime.”
Creigh doesn’t move, but he tilts his head back. “And that’s a bad idea because…”
“What the fuck? What the actual fucking fuck? You’d sell me out for Cecily? Jesus, my lordship is having an existential crisis. Listen up, spawn. If you don’t have me, no one will be able to translate your weird shit.”
“Oh,” Creigh says.
“That’s right. You need my lordship’s presence.”
“He has a point,” Creigh tells Cecily and starts to move the chair.
“What’s with all the noise?” Ava emerges from her room, sans mask and with her hair loose.
She immediately figures out the situation and goes to Cecily’s rescue. But Creigh is already moving the chair and Remi’s laughing like a dark overlord.
I let the commotion slip to the background and step toward Bran, then touch his arm. “Are you okay?”
He’s smiling at the whole scene, and I love seeing Bran smile, probably because he finds it hard to. At least, not genuinely.
So I’m ready to put up with all the noise if it’s to see him happy.
“I am now,” he tells me.
“I heard about the fight club. Why did you even go there, Bran? You don’t like those scenes.”
“I didn’t have a choice.” He retrieves his phone, scrolls through it, then shows me the last bit of the conversation he had with Lan.
He has him saved as ‘Spare Parts.’ It started when they were in their teens. Back then, Bran had Lan saved as ‘Other Half,’ but Landon made fun of him and said he was saving him as ‘Spare Parts,’ so out of pure spite, Bran saved him as ‘Spare Parts,’ too.
Something that Mum chose to think of as a joke while Dad was super pissed.
In the conversation, Lan sent Bran a picture of me in the crowd. It’s zoomed in to show me clenching my hands and my expression alarmed.
That was in the middle of Creigh and Killian’s match.
Spare Parts:Our little princess is in trouble. Care for some saving?
I briefly close my eyes, then sigh. “I’m sorry, Bran.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. Besides, I did watch him get knocked down by the other fighter, so it’s not a complete disaster.” He watches me closely. “Are you really okay, though? It looks bad in the picture.”
I clear my throat and tuck a blonde strand behind my ear. “You know how I get in violent situations.”
“So don’t go there anymore, Glyn. I can’t protect you from Lan in his environment.”
“I don’t need protection from Lan. I’m not scared of him,” I say it and mean it this time.
Dealing with Killian has taught me that there are always monsters worse than the ones you know.
Even monsters have levels of depravity, and Killian’s is on the highest pedestal.
Bran gives me a look. “Just be careful.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
Seeming to be satisfied with my answer, he pulls me to his side as we join the others. We sit beside Remi, who has already moved all our sofas and even decor lamps to create a circle that resembles Satan’s summoning ritual.
Creigh’s munching on some snacks while sitting on the floor, his legs crossed.