Read Damage (Havoc #2) for Free Online

body.
    “Fine,” he finally said with resignation.
    I didn’t look back at him but I knew his eyes stayed on me till I walked out the door.
    ~
    I had gone to sleep in my towel and kicked it off the bed at some point in the night.  By eight in the morning, I was awake, clutching the sheets to my naked chest and looking around for something to wear.  There was nothing but when I cracked the door open, I found a robe hanging on the knob – brand new, slippery silk and blush pink in color.  Grabbing it, I closed the door and pulled it on.  After some mental pep talking, I took a breath and went downstairs.  I could hear Abram’s low murmur in the dining room and figured he was on the phone.  While I wasn’t completely over what had happened last night, I was eager to put it behind us.  I couldn’t dwell on that when there were still a million things up in the air, every one of them more important than my hurt feelings.
    But as I turned the corner into the kitchen, I smashed into what felt like a wall.  Yelping, I grabbed the first thing I could to keep my balance – a shirt.  More specifically one stretched across a lean torso, so startlingly white against such olive skin.  Looking up, I snatched my hands back.  “Jesse!” I gasped, jerking out of his protective grip.
    “Relax, I didn’t want you to fall,” he smirked as I tossed his hands off my sides.  “You’ll know if I’m trying to cop a feel.”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I heard there was a continental breakfast.”  I glared.  “Your boyfriend called me in to discuss business.  But things are getting a little tense so I’m excusing myself for a minute.  So I don’t fucking kill him.”
    “What’s going on?”
    “Long story short we all want a piece of Stefan.  We’re just debating who gets the biggest slice,” he said, as if they were talking about cutting up a birthday cake. I could hardly wrap my mind around it.
    “Jesse, are you even…” I trailed off.  Are you even okay? That was the question I wanted to ask him but it sounded too silly spoken aloud.  Though at the same time, it was legit.  He’d gone through a mental roller coaster last night – grief to anger to shock to joy and finally, devastation.  He’d been emotionally ruined in a million different ways because of Stefan.  And yet here he was ten hours later, nonchalantly bickering for the right to kill him.  It seemed psychologically impossible.
    “Am I even what, Isla?”
    “This is your brother, Jesse.  As of yesterday, you still loved him.  I saw how you looked when you talked about him.  Don’t you need… time to process everything?”
    Jesse plucked a cigarette from his pocket and crinkled his brow down at me.  “That’s cute, Isla, but no.  Not really.”
    “But you were brothers.  You grew up together,” I murmured, tempted to remind him that he’d loved Stefan enough to risk his life for him.  But I spared him because I could hear the sound of Abram’s footsteps approaching, and because I had a feeling Jesse knew what I was talking about anyway. The cigarette dangled idly in his mouth as he studied me, the perma-smug slowly fading from his lips.  He was a second from saying something when Abram came suddenly between us, snatching the cigarette from Jesse’s mouth before turning his rapt attention to me.  “Everything okay here?”
    “Everything’s fine,” I said evenly, ignoring Jesse behind him.  He’d been serious for all of a second but now he wore a big, shit-eating grin on his face because clearly, irking Abram was becoming one of his favorite pastimes.  Suddenly, I wondered if I really wanted to be around while these guys sorted things out.  “Everything’s fine,” I repeated.  “I should just get going.  Rhode’s texted me a million times and I have a shift at Muse Room tonight.  I’ve already missed two this week.”
    Behind Abram, Jesse wiggled his eyebrows and mouthed “ Muse Room ” with a