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A brutal acceptance, er brother had been a defenseless boy when their parents had given hi rooms Never once had Walker heard Judd attempt to justify his lethal actions as an Arrow

No, his brother took responsibility, carried the weight, and in so doing, found his rede beside Judd, "and assign us both to the saanized senior lieutenant, but as Hawke’s right hand, Riley had a lot on his plate at present

"No - I’ht now Frees Riley up for other duties" Judd glanced at hi under the ht "I wanted to speak to you" Dressed in a plain white T-shirt and jeans, his hair tu, as carefree as the novice soldiers in the pack

It was an illusion, of course, but still"Soe to say that, to acknowledge his brother had broken the icy Silence forged in him by the merciless application of pain and torture; that he was free to feel, free to love

Walker’s own Silence had never been as pristine, though he’d concealed the flaws using telepathic abilities so subtle, no one had considered him a threat It was his very need to hide the fact that he would die for his brother and sisterand later, for his daughter, his niece, his nephew, that had led him to develop and hone his skills at the most delicate,or not, those years of unrelenting control had left their ed to co Walker’s line of thought "Brenna," he said, " dress Not only that, she insisted I have opinions about the gowns"

The iruous one, but then, this Judd was not the same Judd who had worked with cold-blooded calculation beside Walker to ensure their defection did not fail, ready to stop hearts, slit throats, seize hostages, whatever it took His own life had been a negligible consideration to Judd, his eyes dead, devoid of hope

Why would such a show interest Brenna? Walker asked, and it was a surreal conversation to be having with his assassin of a brotherand yet it felt strangely good As if they were nors don’t tend to choose traditional wedding gowns for theirceremonies

Brenna’s, he recalled, had been an ice-blue silk sheath shot with silver that fascinated Marlee

Judd’s response was a shrug

Brenna said I should just accept it and consider rin Every week

A slow curl of anticipation in his gut, Walker wondered what Lara would demand from him He wanted to create such memories with her, add them one after the other until the darkness of the past was buried under the brilliance of the present And did you?

What?

Have opinions?

Yes Apparently I have no taste

As Judd grinned again, Walker felt so deep inside hiht be a deadly blade, but he’d been Walker’s younger brother first, his to protect

Except Walker hadn’t been strong enough, old enough to keep Judd fro hurt until he was almost broken, the innocent boy Walker had once known buried under the angry loneliness of believing he’d been forsaken by his entire faift "What did you want to discuss?"

"I’ve told you of ht-dark silence, "but do you personally remember Aden?"

Texture of Intimacy Chapter 3

WALKER’S MIND RACED back over two decades to present hie of a small boy with slanted eyes of liquid brown and hair of silky black cut close to his skull in an effort to keep it taainst his skin, but that boy, he’d had a will akin to a Lauren and a mind that echoed Walker’s own - a telepath dismissed as a power because his ability was so subtle, so very fine-tuned Like Walker, Aden had been erous than indicated by his official classification

Eyes widening a fraction as Aden realized Walker knew the truth "Will you tell?" A child’s voice, but an ancient’s gaze

"No" Never would he betray one of his children "I’ll teach you to hide the truth better, until no one will ever again find you out"

"Why?" A flat question

"Because you deserve to live without fear or pain I can’t give you that - but I can give you a weapon, show you how to use it so that you can fight when the time cole child he’d taught in the Arrow school; every single bruise and broken bone he’d witnessed; every complaint he’d made as a wet-behind-the-ears teacher to the "protective" branch of the training squad, to his superiors, even to the Council itself, before co

It could’ve broken him, but Walker had refused to bucklebecause he did have the ability to give his charges psychic weapons, and sometimes, he’d even been able to protect them, if only for a short while He’d kept more than one student after school, ostensibly for detention or extra tutoring - only to tell that child to sleep, to rest, to heal as e that no one would drag them out of sleep to face so est, their eht of Silence, had ended up sobbing in his arht of their tiny bodies against hi fracturing inside the telepathic wall of protection for instant<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>