Chapter 30

THIRTY

AELLA

A fter a moment of shock, my dad sets his gift down half-heartedly.

"Why are you here?" I ask.

"I came to check on Braxton, is all," he says, and something strange comes over his face. It's as if he's hiding even more that he doesn't want to speak on. He's an enigma. There has to be more.

"You have some fucking nerve coming here," Miles says, and I come up to his side and slide my hand into his. It's shaking, and I squeeze to let him know I'm with him. Even though my dad is in the room, I'm on their side.

Braxton's eyes register where I'm holding him tightly, and the barest smirk lifts his lips.

"You still think I had something to do with her disappearance after all this time?" Dad asks, and in his eyes, I see the ringing truth. It makes my stomach uneasy .

He looks at me. "How do you know these two? Is this why you work for me? To spy for them?"

His being right on target sets me on edge, and I shift.

Now, it's Miles who squeezes my hand in silent strength.

"It doesn't matter how I know them, Dad."

"We know you had something to do with her disappearance," Braxton says, trying to sit up. I know after what we just did, he's in a lot of pain. He needs to lie down. So he doesn't hurt himself further.

Dad closes his eyes, pain pinching at the crow's feet on either side of them. "I will never harm a hair on Susan's head."

Something strikes through me—a feeling.

He's speaking in the present tense.

He knows more than he's letting on, and I know the instant Miles shakes again that he's heard it, too.

"Then what happened to her, hm?" I ask, stepping away from Miles and towards my father, standing at the end of the bed where I just had the most thrilling moment with these two men.

"I don't know," he says, and my stomach twists. He's lying. But why?

"You need to leave," Braxton says. "We told you at her funeral that we didn't want to see you again, Walter. We fucking meant it," he adds.

I bristle slightly at how he's spoken to the man my DNA belongs to, but I don't know him. Not truly.

I come to the side of the bed and sit next to Braxton, grabbing his hand.

Now, Dad's brows raise. He looks at the three of us, sussing out what he can from the moment, but says nothing.

"Aella, might I speak with you in the hall?" he asks, and Brax grasps my hand harder. I look over, pleading with him with a look that says I'll be fine.

"Keep it brief," Miles says, looking at me next. "I'll be just inside the door if you need me."

Dad scoffs but doesn't say another word.

The Cobras already have him in their crosshairs. Continuing to press them wouldn't be smart.

I lean over and kiss Braxton, hovering for a moment. "I'll be right back."

He nods, breathing me in for strength.

When the door closes behind me, Dad crosses his arms. "What are you doing with those two? Do you know who or what you're mixed up with?"

"Oh, now you care about my life and what I choose to do with it? Or is this show of fatherly love all because if the press finds me out, it'll reflect badly on you?"

He rolls his eyes and turns his back to me, scrubbing his hands through his hair and mussing it up. Something I've never seen him do. He's always the picture of perfection, the calm inside the storm.

"Aella, you need to…"

I cut him off with my hand held high. "Did you kill their mother?"

He takes a step backward to look at me in a new light. "Of course, I didn't," he rushes out.

My stomach doesn't twist. "Did you have anything to do with her death? Did you have a hand in why she's missing? "

He closes his eyes against the weight of the questions. "I need you to stop. It would be best if you left it alone, Aella. You don't know what you're stepping into. And, what, you're with both of them? What the hell? Carter didn't love you that much? He dismissed you so much that you're that needy for attention?"

Rage becomes too much to handle. I step into him quicker than I can think and slap him across his face hard. His head turns, and he pauses, letting the sting wash through him. The moment is so fucking much to process.

I went from not knowing my father at all to never seeing him to him being in front of me, throwing accusations at me. As if he fucking knows me.

"You don't have the right to speak to me like that. What I do with my life is my business. Fuck you, and fuck your standards." The words set between us, and I realized a nurse behind the nurses' station glared at us like we were her entertainment for the evening shift she was pulling.

"Just leave," I tell him, my voice even and calmer than I expected it to come out.

"Be careful with them, Aella, for all our sakes. I love you," he adds.

Surprise becomes me as he steps closer, and his arms hug me to his chest. His suit smells like the one I remember when I was a child. When Mom would make us take one posed Christmas portrait every year, I was on his side, snuggling next to his body, a fake smile on my face.

I say nothing. I don't hug him back, either .

I don't realize I'm crying until I return to the room, and Miles rushes to me, wiping the tears off my face.

"What happened? What did he say?" Brax says, groaning as he tries to get out of the bed. Neither Miles nor I have the energy to fight him, so we stand in one another's arms as I let the overwhelming feelings break me down. Tears flow out of me like rain, and it's poetic. This is the turning point in our journey together, the collective us that I'd have to become a new me to mold into this new life with them—shed my old skin as I grow and change like the Cobra I've become.

"I'm fine," I finally say, pulling away from Miles and shoving Braxton back on the bed. He hisses and growls in annoyance as I cover him with the covers. "I don't think he did anything to her. My gut when I questioned him didn't feel off at all. I'm not saying he doesn't know something, though…"

"The way he spoke about her in the present tense…" Miles trails off, turning and beginning to pace.

"I caught that, too," I tell him. "We stay on track. I'll keep working for him. See what it turns up."

"I don't know, Aella." Braxton's face pulls tight with worry. "He knows now. He's going to be on high alert."

I shake my head. "I don't think so. If anything, I think he will give me a wider berth." My eyes think of the moment my face connected with his face, wincing slightly and closing my eyes.

"I think I need to swap to night shift," I tell them.

Miles scoffs. "Over my dead fucking body."

Brax looks away when I swing my gaze at him as if hiding the ghosts in his eyes. The ones that have been haunting him for most of his adult life. "She worked the night shift," he whispers.

"All the more reason for me to do it. I need to sneak around, and I can't do that in the daytime," I tell them.

Miles sits next to me on the edge of the bed, his hand going behind me. But it doesn't land on me. No, it lands on Braxton's leg in comfort and boils my blood.

The thing we're building is something I stand to lose if this goes left, and I don't know that I can stand it.

"We're going to have Sully on you at work, then." Miles's eyes heat as he relays his orders, and a poisonous shadow in his eyes threatens to strike if I push back.

I nod. "I wouldn't feel comfortable without a Cobra on my six."

This makes Miles smirk and lean closer. "Getting used to having venomous snakes protecting you, hm, princess?"

I lick my lips, leaning closer.

"Knock it off, you two, damn." Braxton's command isn't said in anger. The vibrations in the surrounding air of the hospital bed shift, and I smirk as they skim their electric fingers across my skin.

"Baby brother wants us to behave," Miles says heatedly.

"Fuck, you two are going to kill me. Did you bring me food?"

Miles sighs and stands, grabbing for the fast food bag. "I'll go find a microwave."

"Great, turn it even more potent than it already is," Braxton says.

I climb over him as the door shuts, snuggling beside him where I've been sleeping. He turns his face and breathes me deeply as if I'm becoming his gravitational center. The one holding him together when the world is too much to bear.

"If we lost you…" he says, and I close my eyes.

"You won't."

"You can't promise, though. This game—this world—is a dangerous one. When you stepped onto the board, you gave up your safety. Even the idea of it. As much as we want to shelter you, we can't hide you away for only our eyes."

"I've got this, Brax. I'm going to get you answers."

His eyes lift to mine, and their weight on me is almost too much. It feels like I'm standing bare before him, waiting for him to judge my soul.

"Then what?" he asks, and the look on his face makes more sense.

"What do you mean?" I ask, breathless from the way he looks at me.

He's different from anyone I've ever met before. He gives me the attention I've craved for as long as I can remember. One that's unshakeable. He sees all of me and doesn't judge a fucking morsel of what he's looking at.

"What happens after all this shit? When we have the answers, and we've settled every single piece of bullshit that's going on around us?"

What he's asking hits me hard.

Because, to me, I thought I already gave him enough to know I would be with them. That this thing we're doing isn't a fucking meaningless experiment for me .

"Yeah, princess, what comes next?" Miles chimes in as the door closes behind him.

He lays the food out on a tray and rolls it towards us. I sit beside Braxton on the bed, using the button inside the railing to raise him more easily.

"What's growing between the three of us is what I want. Nothing is going to change that. It's different and something new to navigate, but I'm already so… attached to both of you. Looking forward, I can't see myself without you in my life. I've changed. I'm different. You two are a part of that."

Miles and Braxton share a look as Miles shoves food towards Braxton. "Eat."

The sternness in his voice makes my stomach lurch with heat, but I gulp past it. I hold the burger Miles hands me, feeling the warmth through the tinfoil wrapper surrounding it and letting it keep me to reality.

"It's too early to know where this is going to go, but wherever the road leads us, I'm all in," I add.

I look at Miles, and he looks over at us both. He nods.

We both look at Braxton, who shoves a fry in his mouth. "Don't look at me. I'm in fucking heaven with the two of you."

I laugh, and tension lifts off the three of us, heading through the ceiling like never before.

"We finish this with your dad, but we're smart about it. You don't put yourself in any more danger than you have to," Miles says, stealing a fry from my carton on the tray.

I nod, biting into my burger and groaning in pleasure. My stomach rumbles in thanks, and I realize how hungry I was.

"When I'm done eating, I'm going home," Braxton says. "I don't care if I have to rip these tubes out myself, Miles. So, go make it happen."

Miles shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "Ever the fucking brat. I'll go see what I can do."

"Mmm, do that. Swing your big dick around and make them listen."

I nearly choke on my burger at Brax's words, and Miles's lips lift in a sinful smirk.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Just like that, the tension has returned.