Owned (Office Intrigue Book 8) by Nicole Edwards (year 2 reading books TXT) 📗

I motioned to the chair across from me.

Slowly, and never taking her eyes off me, Braelyn perched on the very edge, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. She was wearing a robe that was far too big for her, the thick black cotton enveloping her like a blanket. Was that … Talon’s?

“Are you…?” Tears formed in her eyes and the sight nearly broke my heart.

“Car wreck,” I told her. “But I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “I promise, Brae. I’m fine.”

It was clear she didn’t believe me.

“And yes, I would tell you if I wasn’t,” I said before she could lob that question my way. My sister would make a damn fine interrogator.

“Is that why you weren’t answering your phone?” she asked, her face pinched with worry. “Because you were…” She waved a hand in my direction.

“Yeah. I’m sorry about that, honey.”

She reached over, rested her hand on my knee. “What hurts?”

Pretty much everything. I didn’t tell her that, though. No reason to get her more worked up than she already was.

“Just some scrapes and bruises. I promise, I’m okay,” I assured her again. “I just need to sleep for a while. And I will. Right after you tell me what happened to you.”

“Nothing.” Her eyes remained locked with mine and I saw the tears forming.

“Braelyn.”

She sighed, just as she’d done as a little girl when I had gotten on to her for doing something she shouldn’t.

“He…” Braelyn took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “He found me.”

I knew better than to interrogate her, because that usually resulted in Braelyn clamming up. So I waited, exercising all the patience I had.

“Someone knocked. I thought it was you,” she began. “Or the little boys down the hall. I looked out the security hole and no one was there.” Her eyes lowered. “I know I shouldn’t have, but I opened it, looked out. I didn’t see anyone, so I went back inside. Before I could close it, there was a man…” Her words were coming faster now. “He barged in.”

“Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head quickly. “Didn’t get a chance. I made it to my room, locked the door, and climbed out the window.”

The fear in her eyes told me it hadn’t happened quite as effortlessly as she made it sound.

But I didn’t press. “Good girl.”

Braelyn looked back up and I could see the pain and fear in her eyes. “I didn’t have my cell phone, so I ran to where you said the party was.”

“You ran ten miles?”

She nodded. “I had no choice.”

I could pretty well fill in the blanks from there. It took a minute for me to tamp down the anger that threatened to spill. The mere thought of Jimmy nearly getting his hands on her…

I wanted to kill the bastard.

“Ransom?”

I shook off the thought, forced a smile. “You doing all right now? Talon treating you well?”

She smiled and it was right on the cusp of genuine. “Of course. He helped me at the party, made the security guys leave me alone. Then he called Tiegan and had them search for you.”

Well, that made a lot more sense. It meant that I was right, Talon had been tracking me, but perhaps they hadn’t been following my every move.

“Are you hurt?”

Braelyn shook her head. “Just some scrapes on my feet. I didn’t have shoes, so I was running in my socks. Talon let me shower, let me borrow his robe.” Her smile was shy. “He’s been kind.”

How kind, I wanted to ask but refrained. I hadn’t considered the possibility Talon might take an interest in my sister. Considering what I knew about him, anyway. However, the conversation we’d had in his office had left me questioning my assumptions. Had me thinking back on the fact that I had seen Talon at the club with women. Submissives. Not often, but on occasion. Why I hadn’t considered it before, I didn’t know.

Later, when I was feeling better, I would wonder whether or not that sparkle in my sister’s eyes was something more than gratitude for his help.

“The man who broke in…” The fear returned to her eyes. “I didn’t recognize him at first, but then he called me doll face. That was…”

“I’m so sorry, Brae,” I whispered as remorse threatened to choke me. It was my fault he’d found her, and I hadn’t even been there to protect her. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”

Her eyes softened. She never did like when I worried.

“No, but I hurt him. You know my tiger?” A small smile pulled at her lips. “The one you got me for my twelfth birthday?”

“I remember.”

“I hit him with it. I think I broke his hand.”

“That’s my girl.” I knew there’d been more to the story than simply she managed a clean getaway.

“You trained me what to do, Ransom,” she tacked on softly. “I’m fine. Really.”

I believed her, though it still pissed me off that I hadn’t been there when she’d needed me.

“What are we supposed to do now?” she asked.

“Right now, we’ll go to Talon’s island. Regroup. Figure out how to proceed from there.”

“We’re never going back, are we?”

While my sister deserved all the answers, I just didn’t have them. Not the ones that would make a difference.

“We’ll discuss it. Figure it out together. But later, okay?” Yes, that was me procrastinating. I was in pain, but it wasn’t affecting my ability to talk. I merely didn’t want to go into it yet. This wasn’t the time or place to tell my sister that, in the very near future, the two of us would cease to exist. Again.

At least on paper.

My sister’s eyes narrowed in that way that said she knew I was evading.

Usually she would persist, so I was surprised when she sighed and said, “Can I get you anything?”

That was just like Braelyn, always worrying, always wanting to take care of me. I think she figured it was her duty since I’d been the one