Read Love and Decay, Episode 10 for Free Online

for Tyler’s hand and held it in mine. She trembled in my grasp. I could feel how shook up she was, how desperate to get out of here. I just wanted to fix this for her. My heart ached in my chest and all I wanted to do was protect her from this.
    I didn’t exactly blame Gage for the emotional trauma Tyler was going through- she was a little bit fragile to begin with. And she had pressed him to tell her the truth. But, it was up to me at this point to pick her up and help her escape.
    “Just tell me what to do, Gage.” I patted Tyler’s hand and waited for my community service to be handed out.
    Gage’s grateful gaze met mine and I had to assume he was thankful to have the conversation moving again. “I need you to get him washed and looking as human as possible; clean him up. His injuries are still pretty bad, so he’s going to need help with…. everything. Make him look and presentable and then give him a convincing goodbye speech.”
    “Why can’t this wait until tomorrow?” I groaned.
    “You’re going to the bunker tomorrow. This has to be done today,” Gage sighed.
    Ugh, he was right.
    This was officially horrible. But the good news was, I just had to get through today and then Kane Allen would be out of my life forever.
    “I hate this, you know that, right?”
    “I’d kick you out if you actually liked it,” Gage grunted.
    “I’m sorry, Reagan,” Tyler whispered on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry my brother’s making you do this.”
    “Tyler, it is not your fault,” I promised her. “And I will never, ever blame you for what he does to other people. Yeah?”
    She sniffled but nodded. “Yeah.”
    I looked back and forth between Tyler, who was pulling herself together, and Gage, who was staring at Tyler with a furrowed brow and somber expression. There was definitely something there.
    Not that I could tell what it was exactly from all these telenovela-worthy-dramatic-glances, but I would somehow get to the bottom of this.
    Just not right this second.
    Standing up, I declared, “Well, I need to get this over with before I talk myself out of it.” I pulled Tyler to her feet and smiled sympathetically at Gage. “Is he still upstairs?”
    “Yes.” Gage stood too. “Do you want me to walk you?”
    A quick glance at Tyler and that would be a hard no. “We can find it.”
    “Alright. Whoever is keeping watch now will walk you down to the creek. They will stay there while you get him ready so that you’re not alone. Make sure you tell him you guys are leaving tomorrow.”
    “Sure. Got it. Piece of cake.”
    “Reagan,” Gage warned. “Don’t let him… just, uh, he can be…”
    “Gage, I got it.” I held my palms up to keep him from trying to explain what I already knew- what I knew the moment I met Kane. “I’ll be fine.”
    Gage turned his attention back to Tyler, “We’ll talk later, Ok?”
    “Probably not,” she snapped back. I breathed a sigh of relief at her returned snarkiness. “I loved Logan, Gage. I still do. You have no right to question that.”
    “I never questioned your love for Logan,” he growled, suddenly an entirely different creature than the apologetic, defeated version of himself. Now he was fierce with conviction and determination. “I watched you love Logan my whole life!”
    “Then you’re familiar with me choosing him over you.”
    Gage reared back and stared at Tyler with a mixture of anger and hurt splashed all over his face. I slipped out the door and pressed my back against the wall for Tyler to wrap that up. I didn’t think my infatuation with the drama in Tyler’s life included this kind of train wreck. I mean, I planned on listening, but neither of them needed me hovering.
    “Tyler, I have never, not once, asked you to choose me over Logan. And I’m not asking you that now. I walked away from you and that town a year ago and I have not once come back for either of you. Don’t try to drag that dried-out bullshit here now. This is not about