Read Online Blood Blade Sisters Series by Michelle McLean - Free Book Online

Jake’s family in Boston, but Leo’s appearance on their doorstep answered the question of whether Jake had gone home. Their next best bet had been Jake’s contacts in San Francisco. If they didn’t know where he was, as it appeared they didn’t, then Cilla was very much afraid something horrible had happened to him. And she thought that Brynne felt that too, deep down.
    But if Brynne wasn’t willing to admit it, Cilla certainly didn’t have the heart to say it. Yet she didn’t want to go riding off on a senseless search and leave the ranch and her sisters unprotected either.
    “Brynne, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave you alone here.”
    “I’m having a baby, Cilla, I’m not dying. I will be perfectly fine here without you for a few weeks. I am the eldest, remember? I’m the one who is supposed to take care of you, not the other way around.”
    Cilla looked away, not wanting to meet her sister’s eyes. Yes, that was the way it should have been. And the way it had been for much of their lives, in some ways. Brynne was the mother figure, the one who had cuddled and nurtured and chased the monsters away in the dark of night. But Cilla had always been braver; the one who’d chased the spiders and snakes from the house, who’d fight kids in town who’d taunted them as children. Who’d put a bandana over her face and taken to the darkened forest trails to take back some of what had been stolen from them and others. Brynne was strong, but she might hesitate at the wrong moment.
    Cilla wouldn’t.
    “Frank has gone to Sacramento for several weeks. Everything here is running smoothly for the moment. There won’t be a better time to go. Besides,” Brynne continued, “I won’t be alone. It’s really insulting that you think we’ll all fall apart without you here to run things.”
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
    “That’s what it sounds like.” Brynne rubbed her hands over her ever-expanding belly in what had become a soothing gesture.
    Leo took off his hat as he entered the room, looking from one sister to the other. His gaze locked with Cilla’s for a moment before he turned to Brynne.
    “Lucy said a letter had come from San Francisco?”
    His face lost its hopeful expression the moment the words left his mouth. The sadness on Brynne’s face seemed to answer his question. “They know nothing,” he guessed.
    Brynne shook her head. “He’s not there. They haven’t seen him.” Her face hardened into determined lines and Cilla’s stomach sank. She knew that look. Her sister could be just as stubborn as Cilla when the mood took her. She wasn’t going to back down.
    “We’ve done everything we can from here, Cilla. If we are ever going to find Jake, we need to go farther afield. Take the portrait Leo has, show it to people. Someone, somewhere must know something .”
    Cilla sighed, her desire to find Jake buried in the fear she had for her sisters. What if something happened to them when she wasn’t here to help? But Brynne wasn’t going to let this go. And Cilla wouldn’t have either if the tables were turned, if someone she loved had been missing.
    Her gaze strayed to Leo again. He was staring back at her, the intensity in his eyes piercing Cilla straight through the heart.
    “All right, Brynne,” Cilla said, tearing her gaze away. “I’ll leave in the morning.”
    “ We’ll leave in the morning,” Leo said.
    Cilla turned on him. “Excuse me?”
    “There is no way you are going off to search for my brother without me. I’m going with you.”
    “I don’t need you coming along to babysit me.”
    Leo’s brow knit together and Cilla had the distinct impression he was trying not to shout at her. She folded her arms and glared at him. He could get as riled up as he wanted. He wasn’t coming.
    “I have no intention of babysitting you, Priscilla. But you are going out to look for my brother and, no offense, but there is no way on God’s green earth that I am