All Chapters of Her Craving, His Brother : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

97 Chapters

Chapter 81: Anxiety

Lumi POVThe trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth looked too real for something staged, yet the way she’d crumpled felt rehearsed. My cheek still burned from her slap, it was as if she mapped my face with her hand, and my hand still hovered in mid-air where I’d been ready to swing back. The apartment that had felt like a safe little bubble with Briggs now felt like a crime scene. The faint hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen suddenly seemed deafening, and I could smell the opened chips turning soggy on the counter. My legs felt like they might give out any second, but I couldn’t look away from Wren’s still form.“What the hell do y’all think you’re doing?” I yelled, my voice cracking louder than I meant it to. The words echoed off the walls and came back to me sounding small and desperate.Eleanor didn’t even flinch. She kept the phone raised, the red recording light still blinking. Wren stayed perfectly still, one hand loosely curled near her stomach like she was protectin

Chapter 82: Fire?

Briggs POVI gripped the steering wheel tighter as I sped toward the apartment, the video looping in my head like a bad reel I couldn’t shut off. Wren on the floor, blood at her mouth, my mother’s voice screaming that Lumi had kicked her. It didn’t add up, but the image burned anyway, and every red light felt like it was mocking me. My knuckles ached from how hard I was holding on, and I kept glancing at the phone in the cupholder like it might ring again with worse news. Traffic crawled in front of me, horns blaring somewhere distant, but all I could focus on was the way my chest kept tightening with every mile. What the hell had happened in the time it took me to leave Dara’s office? The doubt sat heavy in my chest, making it hard to breathe right. I replayed the thumbnail again in my mind, trying to spot anything off, but it only made the panic climb higher.I parked crooked in the lot and took the stairs two at a time, heart hammering against my ribs. The door was ajar, which m

Chapter 83: Classic me

Clover POVI woke up feeling like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull and then set the pieces on fire. The hotel room spun in lazy circles around me, the cheap curtains doing nothing to block the brutal morning light that stabbed straight into my retinas. My mouth tasted like regret and bits of whiskey, and every heartbeat sent a fresh wave of nausea rolling through my gut. I knew I’d left with someone last night—the ache in my thighs and the faint scent of unfamiliar perfume on the sheets told me that much—but the details stayed stubbornly out of reach. My smaller senses, though, were screaming that it was Cameroon. That same reckless, familiar pull I always regretted. Fury bubbled up fast, hot and bitter, because of course he’d wormed his way back into my life even when I swore I was done.I rolled over slowly, the sheets tangling around my legs, and spotted the figure lying beside me. Broad shoulders, short dark hair, facing the other way like they were still asleep. My

Chapter 84: At the hospital

Lumi POVThe engine hummed low as Briggs drove, one hand loose on the wheel and the other tapping the gear shift like he couldn’t quite sit still. I stared out the window at the passing storefronts, their lights blurring into streaks, but my mind kept looping back to what he’d said twenty minutes earlier. “Just wait at the hotel,” he’d told me, voice flat, eyes already on the door like the conversation was over. I’d shaken my head right there in the hallway of his penthouse, fingers curling around the strap of my bag. “I’m not staying behind while you walk into that hospital alone,” I’d answered, and the way his jaw had clenched told me he’d expected the pushback. Now the refusal sat between us in the car like another passenger, thick and unspoken.My cheek still pulsed where Caius had hit me, a warm throb that made me press my tongue against the inside of my mouth every few seconds just to feel something else. Briggs didn’t look at me, but the muscle in his forearm jumped when

Chapter 85: Stubborness

Lumi POVThe hallway outside Wren’s room had already started to feel too small by the time the nurse stepped aside and let us in. Nobody spoke on the way there. Caius moved first, all hard angles and bruised pride, with Eleanor just behind him, her heels clicking like she was still trying to keep control of the situation by sound alone. Brianna lingered near the back, arms folded tight across her chest, her face unreadable in that way people got when they were trying very hard not to pick a side. Briggs stayed beside me the whole walk, close enough that I could feel the heat of him even through the thin sleeve of my blouse.The door opened on a wash of white light and disinfectant.Wren was propped up in bed, hair loose around her shoulders, IV line taped to the back of her hand, her face still pale in that theatrical way some people wore weakness like jewelry. A half-full cup of water sat on the bedside table untouched. The room was quiet except for the faint beeping of the monitor

Chapter 86: Gossip

Her voice came through clear and sharp, cutting straight past the polite hello. “Lumi, I’m outside the hospital. I got the address from Briggs’s last text—don’t ask how I convinced him to send it. I’m coming in right now to check on you.”I leaned against the cool wall, the bruise on my cheek throbbing in time with my pulse. “Clover, I’m fine. Really. You don’t have to—”“Stop,” she said, and I could already hear the rustle of her moving, the faint slam of a car door. “I heard it in your voice before you even said my name. You’re not fine. And don’t lie to me about Wren either. Is she actually hurt or is she still playing her little victim game?”The words caught in my throat for a second. I glanced back toward the room where Briggs’s low voice was echoing faintly, Eleanor’s sharper replies snapping like glass. “She’s pretending,” I said quietly, the admission tasting bitter. “The whole thing was staged. They tried to pin it on me again.”Clover made a sound halfway between a scoff

Chapter 87: The spectrum lounge

Clover POVI kept my gaze on the back of Lumi’s headrest, watching the way the streetlights slid across her hair. I should’ve stayed with them, but the bar was only a few blocks away and my car was waiting there like a loose end I needed to tie up before anything else pulled tighter.I leaned forward between the seats, voice low so it wouldn’t carry over the heater. “Hey, I’m not coming with you guys wherever you’re headed. Drop me off instead.”Lumi twisted around, brow creasing in that soft, worried way she always got when someone tried to slip away. “Why? Briggs said he’d take you home if you wanted.”I shook my head, the motion quick and a little too light. “Actually, I drove myself here. I left my car at a bar nearby. Figured it was easier to pick the car after seeing you since the hospital is closer.”Briggs caught my eye in the rearview mirror, his expression calm but unreadable, the same steady look he’d worn since we left the room. “Just tell me the street.”“Maple and Sev

Chapter 88: Kidnapping?

Briggs POVThe city lights blurred past the windshield as I navigated the late-night traffic, my hands steady on the wheel while the weight of the evening pressed down on my shoulders. The hospital confrontation still echoed in my head, I’d gotten Lumi out of there, but the bruises on her face were a reminder that my family’s reach was longer than I liked. This second apartment was the right call: tucked away in a quiet building on the edge of the city, no family ties, no eyes watching. Just us.Lumi shifted in the passenger seat beside me, her fingers tracing the edge of the ointment tube I’d picked up earlier. The car smelled faintly of antiseptic and the city’s damp night air seeping through the vents. She turned toward me, voice soft but persistent.“Where exactly are we going, Briggs? You’ve been quiet since we left the pharmacy.”I kept my eyes on the road, merging onto a side street that would take us away from the main routes. “Somewhere safe. Away from everything tied to t

Chapter 89: Where is she?

Clover POVI drive fast enough that my thoughts don’t get a chance to settle into questions. The lounge fades behind me, the lights smearing across the windshield, but my body stays locked in that fight-or-flight that never asks permission. I can still feel the way my pulse wouldn’t slow when I watched him—when I saw him act like he belonged in my space without my permission.Not after what he did, not after how he broke me and then looked at me like I was supposed to be grateful he’d shown up at all.I glance at the rearview mirror again and again, like the men from earlier might materialize there. I’m not imagining it. I’m not making patterns out of nothing. Cameron’s breathing isn’t normal—too quick, too shallow, like he ran the whole way to me and only stopped because he ran out of road.My eyes catch details my brain insists I ignore.His hands are shaking.There’s a bruise blooming across his jaw, edging into his neck like someone grabbed and held on too long. His jacket smells

Chapter 90: Women Haven

Lumi POV Two days after The morning light filtered through the blinds of the discreet apartment like it was trying to sneak in on a secret. I sat at the small kitchen table, phone in hand, staring at the blank social media post I’d been drafting for the last twenty minutes. My fingers hovered over the screen, the silence in the room broken only by the low hum of the fridge and the distant city traffic outside. Briggs had stepped out for coffee, giving me the space I needed, and I was grateful for it. The past forty-eight hours had been a blur of conversations, his steady presence, and the way he’d treated my bruises without ever demanding more from me. I hadn’t told him about the fire yet. Not the full story, not the way it had traumatized me every night since that day. I wanted to open up when I was ready, when the words didn’t feel like they’d choke me on the way out. Briggs had made it clear he wouldn’t push, and that patience had become its own kind of anchor. But

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