Scales: Of Justice (Broken But ... Mending Book 3) by Dale Mayer Read Free Book Online

Her beloved brother. Without him, she wouldn’t have survived her childhood. She knew he felt that she’d returned the favor but she hadn’t – not really.
    “Feeling better?” Weaver’s voice was deep…clogged.
    Not wanting to show him her puffy face, she frowned and looked down. But he wouldn’t let her hide. He tucked a finger under her chin and slowly lifted her face toward him.
    She tried to pull free. He let her.
    “You shouldn’t hide your emotions, you know. They are honest and therefore beautiful,” he said in such a pensive voice she couldn’t take umbrage with him, but his words did startle a laugh out of her.
    “Maybe honest, but also downright ugly.” She pulled out of his arms and dashed into the bedroom then the bathroom to the side. There she stared into the big mirror. Red splotchy skin and eyes too big for her face. It went along with the equally large mouth. But her eyes glowed. Tear-rinsed and shiny, she wondered if the release of emotion might have made them look better.
    “Maybe I should cry more often,” she muttered. “Not.” She took a moment to use the facilities then used cold water to rinse her face, hoping to ease back the puffiness. When she figured she’d waited long enough for him to have left, she opened the door and walked out.
    He stepped up beside her.
    Shit.
    *
    “No, don’t avoid me, please.”
    She turned her face away.
    He sighed. “You look fine now.”
    Laughter bubbled out from Paris’s mouth. Weaver was delighted to realize it was real. He grinned. “Okay, let me amend that. You look great for having just been through a crying jag.”
    “That’s better, I suppose,” she muttered. “My face always looks so horrible when I’ve been crying.”
    “Well, it’s over and time to fix the rest.” At her honest smile, he added. “I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what brought tha—”
    Before he could finish she was shaking her head, stopping his question. “No.”
    He lifted his shoulders in surrender. “I was just hoping to not trigger it again.”
    “You didn’t,” she said. “Jenna did.”
    “Oh.” Well, that’s what she was supposed to do, and likely it was a private matter that he was never going to know about. Damn it. Although he’d planned to stay detached and separated from everyone attending, he was finding that wasn’t likely going to happen any time soon – not from Paris.
    She wiped her eyes and said in a muffled voice, “I think I’ll stay in my room.”
    “Or we can go back to the seminar and get through the afternoon session like the trooper you are.”
    Her smile was still watery but it was normal. “I look like a mess.”
    “And you won’t be alone. That’s why we all came, remember?” He studied her, watching her gaze narrow and turn direct.
    “Is that why you came?” she challenged. “I thought it was for your stupid publication.”
    “You forget, I’m damaged too. Whether this was my choice or not or whether the seminar works isn’t the issue. One can’t be here in a setting like this, with healing going on, without having change happen within your own psyche. Maybe I didn’t come prepared with a big issue I was hoping to overcome, but I’m going to come up against issues regardless. Life is like that.”
    He might have forgotten that point too along the way but being here now like he was, watching her, dealing with the repercussions of his report, being around growth, well, he wouldn’t be able to escape. He remembered that now. It really didn’t matter. He’d move forward one painful step at a time – whether he liked it or not.

Chapter 8

    T he afternoon seminar moved quickly, being mostly group activities. They were easier to do and allowed Paris to pull back inside her shield so the world wasn’t scraping her raw. There was a lot she could do to protect herself.
    By the time they were almost done, Jenna called out, “For the next hour, work in pairs on your project.”
    She stood up.