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It was a bad, terrible plan. One I’d have to deter some way. I couldn’t spend one more night in that apartment with Elena and not completely crack.

Frustration weaved through Silas’s demeanor, and he glanced at the smaller house where I normally stayed.

One I’d vacated when I was charged with this mission. Weird, I couldn’t imagine ever stepping foot into it again.

It felt like a lifetime had passed, and it’d only been a couple weeks.

Everything had changed.

The steel inside me bent.

“Fuck, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far.”

“Well, we’re going to have to consider it,” I rumbled. “It’s not fair to Elena to have me underfoot all the time. She’s not really living for herself if I’m constantly there looking over her shoulder.”

I could barely stomach thinking about setting her off on her own. Not after this morning, both the blasphemy that had gone down between us and the near tragedy outside.

Silas eyed me. “I get that, but she doesn’t really seem to mind. I asked her yesterday at the opening, and she said things were going great with you there.”

I had to suppress the torturous laugh.

Nah, things weren’t great.

They were horrible and perfect and so fucked up I couldn’t see straight.

Because I was breaking and the whole fucking problem was that I wasn’t sure I’d mind if she completely split me in two.

“You know Elena.” The gruff words were difficult to press out. “Nothing but sunshine. She’s not going to complain.”

“I don’t know. She seems to be demanding what she needs a whole lot more often,” he said.

Didn’t I know it?

“And it’s what I always fucking wanted. That my family would flourish after what I caused.” His words were rough.

That time that had nearly destroyed him weaved between us. That bond that we’d established when we both were only kids.

“It still fucking terrifies me, though,” he added.

“Silas, get that cute butt over here and eat with your wife.” Brinley’s voice echoed through the air, cutting through the tension.

Somehow in the middle of the mess, a smile hitched at the edge of Silas’s mouth. “Looks like I’m being paged. You two grab a plate and join us.”

He made his, and I warily conceded. Caution in my footsteps as I ambled over to the picnic table. My throat nearly closed off the closer that I got.

Elena peeked over at me as I crossed the space. Lighting me up through the distance. Something coy and flirty and shy kissing the flush of her cheeks.

There wasn’t anywhere else to sit but right between her and Brody.

I edged in and plopped between them like I wasn’t going to get burned alive when I did.

Mine and Elena’s arms brushed, and a flame licked up my flesh.

“So good,” she moaned as she chewed a mouthful of steak, and I had to take a bite to keep a groan from ripping out.

Painful.

Everything was just fucking painful.