Read Angel for Free Online

you’ was silent, but I heard it anyway. “I just don’t want to add my name to that list.”
    “Kiernan.” I rubbed my eyes followed by the back of my neck. I felt sore and tense everywhere. “I’m your brother. I love you. I don’t want to hurt you the way you don’t want to hurt her, but I’m going to be brutally honest with you. The way you need to be with Jade. You are going to hurt her. There’s no getting around that. When you care about someone . . .” I took a deep breath. I’d promised him brutal honesty and that’s what I’d give him. “When you care about someone you’re going to lose, it hurts. But that’s not your fault. You’re not hurting her on purpose by telling her. You’re not even hurting her by accident. You didn’t choose this. You care about her? You love her? You don’t want to leave her. The only way you’re hurting her is by not telling her.” At this point, I figured we’d both reached our ‘touchy-feely’ quota for the day. I was brain fried from recent events and the cracks in my façade were beginning to show. If I couldn’t lighten the mood, the whole thing was likely to come crumbling down. Plastering on a grin that felt no more real than the smiley face sticker Kiernan had stuck to the bottom of my desk when we were kids, I slugged him on the shoulder. “So, grow a pair and tell her already. And while you’re at it, tell her how you feel about her, you chickenshit.”
    Kiernan’s answering smile was no more convincing than that damn sticker.

 
     
     
    Five
     
     
    “Cal! Wake up!”
    “What?” My eyes sprung open and clocked the darkness still filling the room in about as much time as it took the rest of me to bolt upright in bed. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
    Kiernan stood beside my desk, hair disheveled from sleep, but fully dressed in jeans and a hoodie. “Nothing. Relax.”
    “Relax?” Jesus Christ, my heart felt like a battering ram trying to bust through my ribcage. “You just barged into my room in the middle of the night like the house is on fire and you’re telling me to relax ?”
    “It’s not about me, okay? But I need your help.”
    “Help with what?” I don’t even know why I bothered to ask. I was already half out of bed, knowing full-well that whatever the answer was, I’d do it.
    “Jade. She’s in trouble.”
    I froze with only one pant leg on. It had been over a week since my not-so-smooth introduction to the girl. Kiernan barely spoke about her and I didn’t ask. If I did, I was pretty sure I knew what the answer would be, and then I’d have to say something. I didn’t want to say something. Kiernan was happy. As long as I didn’t think about whose expense that happiness came at, I could be happy for him.
    “What kind of trouble?” Jade struck me as the quiet type. I couldn’t imagine her getting into the kind of trouble that required a two A.M. wake up call. I also couldn’t imagine, of all the people on the planet, she’d want my help. But if she was desperate enough that Kiernan was there asking for it, she was going to get it. Like it or not.
    “The kind that involves the police. Hurry up.” He waved impatiently at my half-dressed body.
    Stumbling around, I managed to pull my other leg through the jeans and slip a long sleeved thermal over my head. “She got arrested?”
    “Not yet. Let’s go before she does.”
    ***
    The farther we drove the tighter the knot in my stomach grew. We sped through the nicer part of town where we were fortunate enough to live, past the somewhat underdeveloped area, and deep into the downright scary section.
    “What the hell was she thinking coming out here alone at night?” My stomach turned over at the thought of what could have happened to her.
    “I don’t know.” Kiernan slowed to check a street sign and then pressed on the gas. “She was supposed deliver something.”
    “What?”
    “I didn’t waste time with the details, Cal. All I know is the police are there