Swallow (Kindred Book 2) Read Online Free

home, lifting weights or running. I thought it was an improvement, you know? At least he was taking care of his body and he was drinking and eating again.”
    He rolled his seat closer and his hand came into view near her elbow. “And for the last month?”
    She sighed. “He’s been back and forth,” she said. “Sometimes I almost see glimmers of his old self coming back, then just when I think we’re getting somewhere, he locks himself in his room again and I don’t see him for days.”
    “It’s a process,” Tuck said, pulling his chair close enough that he could take her hand. “You’re not going through this alone. If there’s anything I can do to help—“
    “You’ve been amazing,” she said, turning her hand over to link her fingers with his. “Every time I call, you pick up… I can’t say the same about Brodie.”
    “He’s lucky to have you,” Tuck said. “You’ve kept him alive for the last three months.”
    “Sometimes I come into the house and I can’t find him, I have no idea where he is.”
    “You won’t have that problem now that I’ve shown you how to access and control the motion sensors. You’ll be able to look after him no matter where he is.”
    “He can take care of himself… I’ve just been helping out.”
    Sometimes while sitting at her desk in CI, she wondered how Brodie would have dealt with Art’s death had he not had her. Maybe she wasn’t helping at all. Maybe if she hadn’t been here he’d have been forced to carry on and to look after himself. There would have been no alternative. But abandoning him had never occurred to her because if he didn’t pick himself up and move on, the alternative was too horrific to even entertain.
    “Are you two still…?”
    “I stay over most nights,” she nodded. “But I’m… I moved my things into one of the guest bedrooms because you know… he needs his space and I don’t like to intrude.”
    “Are you telling me that since Art died you haven’t—“
    “Oh no, we’ve had sex,” she said. “When he wants it, he seeks me out. Sometimes he’s waiting for me as soon as I arrive. Other times he comes to me at night, you know? But he hasn’t left this house. I still have my apartment where I stay when I’m not here and he hasn’t visited me there. He’s still so angry about what happened. He blames himself and sometimes he needs the vent.”
    Tuck sucked in a breath. “What about your needs?” he asked. “The guy needs a good punch to the gut. He can’t just breeze into your life any time he wants to take out his frustrations with some angry sex… Not that I’m one to talk about healthy relationships.”
    “How is Kadie?” she asked, referencing the girlfriend Art had told her about.
    “I haven’t seen her in a while. All of this it’s just… it reminds me how dangerous what we do is. If I had been the one to take that bullet… she would never have known…’
    “It’s not too late to change your life,” Zara said. “Art told Brodie not to be like him… I’d guess that goes for you too.”
    “I wouldn’t know how to change,” Tuck said. “My life has been like this for as long as I can remember. I met Brodie and Art in Thailand when I was twenty-two… just a few weeks before my twenty-third birthday. Art planned a huge party for me when he found out I had never celebrated a birthday before”—his smile grew more distant as he turned it away—“I didn’t know half the folks there, but… I’ve been knocking around with them on and off for ten years. Art taught me a lot about control and indulgence… Man, I was an idiot back then.”
    Concerned that Tuck was dealing with his own torture alone, she wanted him to confront what he was dealing with. Repressing it could lead to further damage. “He was like family to you too,” she said, slipping a hand under his jaw to make him look at her. “You need to grieve the loss as well… And there’s always a place for you here. You’re still