Release!:A Walker Brothers Novel (The Walker Brothers Book 1)(12)

“You know something I don’t, Trace?”

“No. It’s just instinct,” I lied.

“The last thing Dane needs is more pain,” Sebastian grumbled. “But it makes sense. Dane is scarred, and it’s going to take a good woman to look beyond that to see who he really is.”

I wished Sebastian hadn’t been telling the truth, but he was. And Dane needed a far better woman than blood-sucking Britney. “We’ll see what happens.” My youngest brother was a far better man than either me or Sebastian. Kinder, gentler, at least he had been in the past.

My plan was to get Britney out of Dane’s life without causing him any heartache, but I wasn’t certain that was possible.

“I gotta go, bro. I ducked out of a party, but there’s a good whiskey calling my name.”

Dammit! I’d do anything to keep Sebastian from drinking himself into oblivion, and a sense of helplessness invaded my gut because of the physical and emotional distance between us. I didn’t want him driving, didn’t want him to get himself killed. Yeah, he was an adult and a dick most of the time, but he was still my brother. “Sebastian, you don’t have to do this. Where are you?”

“Don’t start with the bullshit tonight, Trace. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

The last thing I wanted was to be my brother’s conscience or his moral guide. Fuck, I knew I wasn’t qualified. I just wanted him to be okay. I wanted all of us to be okay.

Truth was, I wanted to hear his voice, too, and I wanted my damn family back.

“See ya in a few weeks.” Sebastian disconnected, and I was left with very few options but to hope I could talk sense into him when he got here.

After slamming the phone back into the charger, frustrated, I got up just as the doorbell rang.

I smiled as I moved toward the door, knowing more deliveries were here, knowing I was going to piss Eva off all over again—if she’d ever gotten over the first time.

Thinking about it, I didn’t care. I’d rather see her angry than looking lost, alone or scared.

I was more than ready to be preoccupied with Eva and her protests.

Ultimately, I knew I would win.

I always did.





Chapter Four



Eva





It really annoyed me that Trace Walker thought I wasn’t capable of taking care of myself. Granted, it might look that way from his perspective, but now that I was going to have a job, a chance at a better life, I’d be fine.

As long he never finds out…

Abruptly, I banished the negative thought from my mind. He’d made a promise, and he wouldn’t break it. I hoped.

I had been upset when he’d told me he’d taken care of my landlord after I asked him not to do it. I had money now, his check safely deposited in my checking account. I was perfectly capable of taking care of my own problems.

We’d argued about the money, too, but he’d insisted on me taking the offered pay of twenty-five thousand up front, and I’d finally decided to just take it. I could give him back what I didn’t need once this farce was over.

Somehow I need to find a way to stop arguing with him!

Maybe if he wasn’t such an arrogant, highhanded dick, we could get along.

I smiled just a little, admitting to myself that his arrogance fueled my temper. Not that I hadn’t met conceited men, but not one quite like him. Even in his most pompous and audacious moments, he was thinking about my welfare. It didn’t completely deflate me, but it made it damn hard to hate him.

Trace Walker was used to being obeyed. Being bossy was obviously in his DNA.

“You look amazing, darling,” a low, female voice crooned, the voice of my new stylist.

I actually have a stylist for God’s sake.

Claudette was superficial, but pleasant enough to be around. I guessed she was probably in her sixties, but she was brilliantly put together, not one dark hair out of place. She was sporting a chic business look that I hoped I could pull off some day.

She stopped fussing with the red cocktail dress I was trying on, and I turned to look in the full length mirror in my assigned bedroom, still not used to being in a place so enormous and elegant.

I’d spent my first night in Trace’s expansive home wandering around in a daze, almost getting lost in the process, before I finally collapsed on the beautiful sleigh bed in this bedroom, a space that Trace nonchalantly assigned as my quarters for the time being.

I froze as my eyes caught my reflection, looking back at an image I barely recognized.

My hair had been trimmed into a sleek style that left it curling around my shoulders. Claudette had worked some kind of magic with carefully applied makeup, and explained how to do it myself. The dress, that ended in a sophisticated swirl right below my knees, had tight long sleeves that clung to my arms like a second skin, and left most of my back bare. It wasn’t a style I was used to wearing, and I’d never felt so naked in something that was long-sleeved.