Loving His Forever Read Free Page A

comes back in. I’ve bitten my lip to the point it’s almost bleeding. I don’t want to involve the police, but I honestly don’t know what to do next.
    “My brother will be here soon,” she tells me, and I nod and stare at the wall.
    “You want to take a shower?” I can hear the hesitation in her voice.
    A shower sounds like bliss right now; to be able to get the alleyway off my skin would be a godsend. She leads me upstairs and into a bedroom with a joint bathroom. She gets me clothes from her closet, then searches through cabinets until she finds me towels, razors, and a hairbrush.
    She smiles and turns around. Touching her arm, I stop her. “Thank you, Sydney.” I give her the tiniest smile I can muster.
    “Go shower. I will be downstairs.” She pushes me gently toward the shower. Thanking her again, I close the bathroom door behind me.
    Ethan
    After getting Sydney’s call, I rush over to her house, fearing the worst. I have been on edge ever since she was attacked a few weeks ago. The sight of her battered face will forever haunt me.
    Pulling up in front of her house, I hear another truck pull up behind me and see Kane stepping out of his black truck. Confused, I step out and walk over to him.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “To see your sister.” He smirks at me.
    Jerking my head back, I glare at him. “My sister?”
    “Yeah.” He shrugs and walks past me. I turn around and see my sister standing on the front porch. She looks shocked at seeing him here too.
    Kane walks up and stands directly in front of her. I hear him say, “You have been crying.”
    What the fuck? I double-time it up the steps and stand beside Kane. “What happened?” I lean down until I’m closer to eye level with her, my hand on her shoulder.
    “My friend is in danger,” she answers me and sniffs.
    “Your friend?” Kane asks and looks at me.
    She doesn’t answer but says, “She will explain.”
    She? What? I didn’t even know Sydney had any girls as friends; there was only one I know of, and she disappeared off the face of the earth three or four years ago when Sydney was in college.
    Sydney opens her front door and motions for us to follow behind her. I close the door behind me and look up as I hear a creak of the floorboard.
    My heart literally skips a beat when I see her. She has to be the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. She has long, blond hair that is close to her waist and ocean-blue eyes with a darker ring around the outside.
    Then I notice how small she is; she can’t weigh any more than one hundred pounds. She is too tiny. She looks down at the floor, and I can see her whole entire body shaking. It’s taking everything in me not to run over and hide her from the world.
    “Braelyn, this is my brother, Ethan.” Sydney points at me. Braelyn glances up at me before looking back down to the floor. I don’t take my eyes off of her.
    Sydney walks over to her and leads her over to the couch. She doesn’t look up at me again, and it’s killing me, thinking she is scared of me. I sit down on the edge beside her, close, but keeping my distance.
    “Braelyn, I know this is hard, but you have to tell Ethan what happened. He is a police officer,” Sydney tells her softly and wraps her arm around her shoulders.
    Braelyn sighs loudly before she looks up at me. I inhale sharply and almost fall off the couch. She flinches and drops her eyes back to the floor.
    Lifting my hand slowly, I place a finger under her chin, lifting her face so she’s looking at me. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Her eyes search my face before she relaxes.
    Then she explains everything. Rage bubbles up in me so powerfully, it’s taking everything in me not to fucking hunt this guy down and rip him to shreds for doing this to her. You would think I’d get used to hearing these things as a police officer. It never gets easier, but this girl brings out the overpowering need in me to protect her from the world.
    I stand to pace