Stepbrother Protects (His Twisted Game Book Six) by Chloe Hawk

 
 
 
    STEPBROTHER
PROTECTS (HIS TWISTED GAME, BOOK SIX)
    by Chloe Hawk

 
    Copyright 2015, Chloe Hawk, all rights
reserved.   This book is a work of
fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.       All characters depicted in this book are eighteen years of age or older.

 
 
    COLE

 
    I snapped.
    It was wrong.   I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself.   Seeing someone put their hands on Avery, seeing someone try to hurt her, filled me with an
uncontrollable rage.  
    I’d felt something shift inside of me as
soon as that cop grabbed her.   It
was the same feeling I’d had the night I’d seen Gordon ogling her.    I would give anything to protect
Avery and keep her safe – taking a beating from some shithead cops was a
small price to pay.
    You’re in love with her.
    The words echoed through my brain as the
officers surrounded me, as they manhandled me and roughed me up and then,
finally, handcuffed me.
    Avery was crying, the tears sliding down
her face and creating trails on her beautiful face.   I hated seeing her cry, hated seeing her upset and
vulnerable.   I was supposed to be
protecting her, and here I was, just making things worse.
    “It’s okay,” I told her.   “It’s going to be okay.”  
    She shook her head.
    “Look at me.”
    She looked at me.  
    “Take my keys.”   I motioned to the driveway, where the keys had fallen out of
my pocket during the scuffle.   “Take my car and go back to my apartment.   It’s going to be fine.”
    I didn’t know if it was going to be fine.
    But what else could I say?
    They pushed me into the back of a police
cruiser, and I watched through the window as Avery climbed into my car and
turned the key in the ignition.
    Good.
    The only thing that would drive me
crazier than not being able to protect her was knowing she was with Gordon.
    That, and the words that kept echoing
through my head.
    You’re in love with her.
    I couldn’t be in love with my stepsister.
    It was too fucked up.
    I shook my head.
    We were connected because we’d grown up
together.
    What we had wasn’t love – it was just
lust and dysfunction, swirling together to create something forbidden and
destined to end in disaster.
    As we pulled onto the main road and
headed toward the police station, I told myself I needed to be careful.
    Love was not a word I wanted to associate
myself with.
    Not with anyone.
    Not ever.

 
    AVERY

 
    I gripped the steering wheel tight,
trying to keep up with the police car in front of me.   There was no way I was just going to drive Cole’s car back
to his apartment in the city – not without knowing he was okay first.
    But cruiser turned its sirens on and
began zipping and weaving through the streets.   I couldn’t keep up and after a few moments, I lost
them.   So by the time I got to the
station, there was no sign of Cole.
    I walked inside, but the cop manning the
front desk told me I couldn’t see Cole, that he would be booked and arraigned
tomorrow morning.  
    “I just need to talk to him,” I
said.   “I need… I just want to make
sure he has bail money.   I’m his
sister,” I added, just in case the cop thought I was some kind of obsessed
girlfriend.
    But he was unmoved.
    “You cannot communicate with a prisoner,”
he said.   “He’ll be allowed a phone
call like anyone else.”
    “He’s not a prisoner,” I said.   “He just… he just got arrested.   And besides, I was a witness.   I am a witness.   I need to give my statement.   Please, can you just check with someone else?”
    The officer sighed.   “What’s his name?”
    “Cole Buchanan.”
    He raised his eyebrows.   “Cole Buchanan?” he repeated.   “What’s he doing back here?”
    “He was…” I didn’t know how to answer
that.   Fucking me in my old
room?   Threatening his dad?   Stealing some mysterious papers from my
stepfather’s office?   “Can you
please just find