Page 86 of Silver Tears

Archer holds his hands up in front of him. “I’ve just never seen you so protective of someone who isn’t family before. There’s no shame in admitting you care.”

I roll my eyes. “Just because you’re loved up, it doesn’t mean the rest of us want to be.” I’m acting defensive, I know it, but his questions are making me uncomfortable. I’m confused as it is over how I’m feeling right now, but that doesn’t mean I’m serious about Mills or that I’ve caught feelings. My need to protect her is a basic male response.

“Is her mum the one who’s drug debt you paid off?” Rafe asks me, sharing a look with Archer that has me frowning.

“Maybe. Does it matter?”

Rafe bobs his shoulders at my question. “Just curious, that’s all.”

A soft rap at the door pulls our attention and Milly peers cautiously around the door. I hope she didn’t hear too much of that conversation.

“Can I come in? Sorry to interrupt,” she apologises, hesitating in the doorway.

“You’re not interrupting, Mills,” I assure her. I watch her come into the room, chewing on her lip, and nervously observing the three of us. She stops in the centre of the room where she can face all of us. She picks at her fingernails and hesitates. “Spit it out, precious.”

She nods her head, sighing. “You all know my secret now. I’ve just been going through it in my head about everything that went down last night. Thinking about everything that could have happened if I hadn’t been able to reach for that knife.” She pauses, blowing out a breath. “I can’t do this on my own anymore. I’ve failed at keeping them safe. I need your help. I need your help to keep Charlie and my mum safe. So,” she glances down at her feet, not able to give any of us eye contact, “I’m asking if you’ll help me?”

I sigh. I feel such a sense of relief that she’s finally trusting me and realising that she doesn’t have to do this alone anymore. I close the distance between us and. I place a finger under her chin and force her to look up at me. I know how hard it was for her to come here and ask for our help.

“You haven’t failed them. You have done amazing looking after your brother and keeping him fed and a roof over his head. Precious, don’t you know you don’t even need to ask? It’s a given. You’re my girlfriend and these boys are my brothers. There is nothing we wouldn’t do for each other and the important people in our lives.” I wrap an arm around her neck and pull her to me and I feel all that tension leave her body as she allows herself to lean on my chest. “I swear to you. We’ll keep you all safe.”

“It might make things easier if you told Damon and your family,” Archer pipes up and I immediately feel her tense up again.

“No.”

“What are you scared of?” Rafe asks her, tilting his head and observing her. “Are you worried he’ll be angry with you? I’m sure he’d understand.”

Mills shakes her head firmly, glaring at him. “I said no. So, either you keep my secret and help me, or not, but I’m not involving my family.”

I shake my head at Rafe, warning him not to push her on this. I agree with him—she should tell her dad and brothers, but Mills is so scared of letting her dad down that there’s no way she’ll even consider it.

Rafe holds up his hands and takes a step back. “Forget I mentioned it. So, what do we do next?”

Archer takes a seat on the small leather sofa in front of the desk. “We hunt him down. In the meantime, you carry on as normal, as if nothing has happened. If your mum asks you if you’ve seen Lenny, you tell her you haven’t seen him since they left together last night.”

Milly nods her head as she discreetly untangles herself from my hold and creates some distance between us. There’s an innate need in me to pull her close again. I glance at my watch, it’s getting late. We need to get her home soon.

“Let’s eat breakfast while we plan our next course of action.”

* * *

“Are you okay?” I ask her as we pull up outside her house. She’s been silent most of the car ride over here, lost in her own thoughts.

She nods her head, and our eyes meet. I smile at her, and she smiles back at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She’s haunted by what happened last night and I can tell she is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she stabbed someone. “Stop that,” I order her, reaching for her hand and enclosing it within mine. “You have nothing to feel guilty for. You did what you had to last night to survive and if that low-life fucker died because of it, then that is no one’s fault but his.”

We left Chops with the boys back at our house. She was reluctant to leave him, but if she would not tell her family, then she has to return home and carry on as normal.

“I know. I know you’re right. You’ll text me and let me know Charlie’s okay?”

I nod my head. “He’ll be fine. He’ll have a great day with me, whilst Archer and Rafe get out there and track down that fucker.”

“Thank you. You’ve been a real rock through all of this. I feel like I made judgements and assumptions about you and maybe I got it wrong. I don’t know what I would have done last night if I hadn’t had you to call for help.”

I surprise both myself and her when I lift her hand and place a kiss on it. “I’m glad you felt able to call me. Now get inside and get ready for work and I’ll pick you up later at the café.”

She nods her head, giving my hand a gentle squeeze before she pulls away and exits the car. I watch her go inside and she gives me a wave over her shoulder as she closes the door behind her. Twenty minutes later, I’m climbing the stairs to our beach house. Archer is on the floor in front of the television with Chops and they are busy colouring in pictures. Rafe is sitting over at the dining table, his head buried in his laptop. He glances up and beckons me over and, with a quick hi to Charlie, I make my way over.

“Look,” he says, gesturing towards the screen. I lean over his shoulder and look at what he’s showing me. My blood boils when I see a grainy image of Lenny on the CCTV footage, staggering down the street under the light of the streetlamps, clutching at his right side.

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