Page 110 of Savage Hearts

But fuck, those shields I tried so hard to hold up were wavering with each day that passed, and my brothers seemed to have gotten more captivated with our little captive.

My fists clenched and unclenched by my sides as I walked to the front door. The small camera placed in the corner of the porch watched me.

This place was a fortress. No one was getting in or out without our permission, and that was one of the reasons Maverick had decided to buy a house that reminded me so much of our childhood home and live in it, despite all the bad shit and bad memories.

I could still hear the screams of all my father’s prisoners echoing in the walls. Men he had taken and brought back to the same house he raised his sons in, men he planned to torture.

The old man didn’t care.

He liked that our mom feared this—feared him—and he truly believed he was doing us a favor.

Exposing us to all the evil in the world, to prepare us to be the biggest monsters of all.

Shaking away the thoughts and the memories that had long haunted me, I walked inside.

All the lights downstairs were off.

Rachel had probably retired for the night. I felt like a ghost walking around in my own home.

Silas and Maverick stayed in the office to get some shit done, and though I had my own work, it could be put off until the morning.

Right now, I was goddamn tired.

I rubbed my weary eyes and moved up the stairs noiselessly.

My room was in the left upper portion of this house, far away from where we were keeping Mila—which I should be happy about, if I didn’t find my thoughts wandering to her.

Even I had to admit to myself there was something about this girl I couldn’t leave alone.

I was attracted to her, that was true.

I didn’t want to be, but I was, and there was fuck all that I could do about it. That fucking kiss she gave me back in New Orleans would be the death of her. It was only a matter of time before temptation got to be too much.

My brothers and I usually shared. There had been some instances where we’d gone solo, but those instances were few and far between.

Silas was definitely the most hopeful out of the three of us.

He had gotten it into his head a few years back that things would be better for us if we shared a woman… permanently.

Maverick was harder to read on the topic, though I didn’t hear much protest from him when we’d brought Mila home.

As for me, I had long ago decided a relationship and marriage weren’t for me.

I couldn’t find it in me to trust anyone but my brothers, let alone a woman.

It was because of a woman that we were forced to leave Chicago and start over.

It was the very reason we were hunted and beaten like dogs on the street until we learned how to fend for ourselves.

So why the hell would I let any girl—especiallythisgirl, who seemed to have my brothers by the balls—come into our lives?

She didn’t want to be here.

More reason for us to get rid of her, lest she decided to do something we would regret for the rest of our lives.

But Silas—and even Maverick—had some kind of attachment to her, and that made her untouchable to me.

At least, not in the way Ishouldwant.

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