Creature of Habit (Book 3) Read Free Page A

brother. He doesn’t want you to have a romanticized notion of who we are and what we come from. Each of our lives were born from violence. Some more horrific than the rest.  In the end, we had something taken away from us—something we will never regain. Miles has given us a chance to attempt to heal these wounds and it helps, but it’s still incredibly difficult. Never underestimate that. Not with Grant or any of us.”
    I swallow and nod. “Thank you for your honesty.”
    “Anytime.”
    He moved to stand and I blurted out, “Do you feel the same way? About me and Grant?”
    He shook his head. “No. I hate that you being here has caused Sebastian enough pain that he felt like he needed to leave, but I understand that his wounds are deeper than your presence. You may just be the catalyst he needs to work through some of this.”
    “I’m sorry he left. Last night I got to know him a little better. I liked him.”
    Ryan smiled. “He’s a cool dude. A little stunted and moody, but that’s pretty typical around here.”
    “Again, thank you for your honesty. I’m sure telling that story was hard.”
    “You’re welcome,” he said, with the first smile I had seen from him. “Welcome to the family.”
     
     
    ~*~
     
    Ryan and I climbed the back stairs and found Grant and Genevieve at the computer. Grant gave me a tense grin as we entered and hopped up to greet me with a kiss at the door. "I missed you," he whispered. It was gruff and I could feel overwhelming distress gripping his body. His hair was matted from constantly touching it and he had black newsprint ink smeared across his jaw. The situation had taken its toll. I wanted to press a smile on his lips and bury myself in him to take away our mutual pain, but hiding wouldn’t fix this. Instead, he hugged me a little longer and I felt his hand slip down the edge of my pants, brushing his cool fingers against my warm side.
    I asked, "Any progress?" loud enough to include the others in the conversation.
    Ryan moved to the seat behind the desk, while Genevieve had positioned herself in one of the leather chairs across from him. He looked even more exhausted after our talk. His normal, bigger than life persona, had vanished. Dredging up the past probably wasn’t the best idea for anyone right now.
    "We’re just waiting for the blasted sun to go down and looking for a direction to go on. We have nothing more than we had yesterday," Grant declared with darkened eyes.
    "We need a set of fresh eyes; Amelia, can you look at this?” Genevieve asked.
    “You want my pathetic human eyes to look for something you missed?”
    That brought a small smile to Ryan’s face. “Can’t hurt. We’re coming up empty.”
    “Sure, I guess I can give it a shot.”
    “We're just going over what happened over the last couple of months with Caleb. Trying to figure out what we missed."
    "What's that?" I asked, and leaned over the desk, pointing to a plastic bag with several pieces of jewelry in it.
    I felt Grant's body press against mine from behind, his hands reaching around me for the bag. "Caleb left these on your door a while back. Olivia and I got to it before you did,” he said. He pulled out a long chain with a dangling cross. "This belonged to Jenna. She was wearing it in the missing posters."
    I reached out and he pooled the chain in my palm. A shiver ran down my back at the memory of the girl and how my life changed the night she was destroyed. I tapped my finger to the other piece of jewelry in the bag. "Who does that belong to?"
    Grant cocked his head questioningly and glanced at Ryan across the desk. "Amelia," Ryan said softly, "we assumed it belonged to you. It has an 'A' inscribed on it."
    I frowned, taking the brooch out of Grant's still hand. "No. It isn't mine. It's beautiful though."
    "It isn't yours? Are you sure? I didn't want to concern you and had planned on putting it back in your room before you noticed. It slipped my mind with everything going on,"