Whispers of a Broken Halo by Abbi Glines

I nodded.

She looked back at Rio and said nothing. He, however, seemed to understand what she was saying without words. He gave one nod, and she turned back to me.

“I’ll look into things. I can find out if your sister left behind any debt,” Rio said.

“Thank you,” I replied, not sure how he would do that but thankful he could and was willing to.

“He will also stay here tonight to make sure you’re safe,” Henley added.

“He d-d-d-doesn’t n-need to do th-that,” I stammered, feeling my face heat at Rio’s reaction to that.

He would not want to be here or help me.

“If Tory owes someone, then, yeah, I do,” Rio said.

Henley smiled, obviously pleased with the plan.

I stood there, confused by him agreeing to stay and afraid to try to argue. My words were once again a struggle. I stared at Rio, torn between wanting the security of him being here and hating the idea of owing him anything. Even gratitude.





Chapter Seventeen

Rio

What the fuck had I just agreed to? I looked over at the kid. He was supposed to be watching the movie, but his gaze locked with mine. He knew he’d been caught listening, and his eyes went wide before he swung his attention back to the television.

How many times had people come knocking on our trailer door, demanding money from my mother that she didn’t have? How many times had I hidden in my room, under my bed, in my closet, while she paid them back with sex acts that I could hear? How many times had she left with them and not come home for days? How many fucking times had Tory done this to her son?

I turned my attention back to Bryn. “I’ll stay just to be sure no one comes tonight. Then, tomorrow, I will handle things. I know who she was tied up with, and most of them were arrested. They won’t stay locked up forever, but when they are free, Tory should be, too, and she can clean up her mess.”

Bryn massaged her temples, then sighed before finally looking at me. “Whatever n-n-needs to be done to-to-to keep Cullen s-safe,” she said.

She hadn’t said anything about herself. She hadn’t said us . Just Cullen. Henley was right about one thing; I seriously doubted Bryn was using drugs too. She didn’t act like someone using.

“That’s settled then,” Henley said. “I will call tomorrow and see what I can do to help out. Just let me know when you go back to work.” She turned and walked to the door then.

“I’m walking you to the car,” I said. There was no way I was letting her walk out there alone, coming from this apartment.

She didn’t argue, and I was relieved. Cullen was still listening to us. The tilt of his head said as much. The less he knew about the world his mother lived in, the better his life would be. I didn’t know how much Bryn had managed to shelter him from, but from what I could tell, she had done everything but take him away from his mother. Which, in my opinion, was what she should have done a long time ago.

“Lock the door behind me. I’ll knock when I’m back,” I told Bryn, not looking back at her.

The walk out to the car and the few moments away from her would give me time to think. Being in there and watching her had my head messed up. My concern was for the boy. Bryn could take care of herself. She had been doing so for a long time.

When we were far enough away from the apartment, Henley looked back at me. “She’s not what you think she is. She might have lived some awful life, growing up, that you think I wouldn’t understand, but it made her strong. She’s tough. She’s resilient. She doesn’t fall apart when things get bad. She does what she has to for those she loves. She is protective and nurturing to Cullen. He is well taken care of. Whatever you think her life did to her, you’re wrong. That woman is not a drug user. I just hope you see it before you do too much damage to undo it.”

Sighing, I looked down at her. “What damage am I doing? I’m staying, aren’t I? Keeping them safe,” I reminded her.

We reached the car, and Henley turned to me. She pointed a finger at my chest and glared up at me. “The kind of damage that ruins any chance you might have at getting to know her again. She’s under your skin, and I think she has been since you were kids. You can’t shake it, and you ignore it. But I see the way you look at her. Under all that fake crap, there is something there, and you hate it. Well, you’re gonna hate it more if you lose it.”

Henley had no idea what she was talking about. I didn’t trust Bryn, but I wasn’t going to tell my sister I suspected she had tracked me down and was probably desperate.

“Text me when you’re back at the house,” I told her. “So I know you made it safely.”

She smiled and climbed inside the car. I waited until she pulled out of the parking lot to turn and head back to the apartment.

Henley was wrong. There was a past with Bryn and me. When I looked at her, memories of the girl she had been came back, and I couldn’t help that. It was hard to keep this Bryn and the girl she had once been separate. We had just been kids, but Bryn had been special.

Henley was reading things into the memories that haunted me and nothing more. Well, except the attraction, but I was a man, and Bryn was impossible to overlook. Her face, hair, body, the way her top lip was slightly bigger than her bottom, smooth and tan skin that appeared too perfect. Yeah, I fucking looked at her, but it was lust that Henley saw in my gaze. Nothing more.