Sarah said, “I’m sorry.”
He fiddled with the guns like he might find something different about them, and the skin around his eyes creased like he was squinting while staring into the sun. “It’s a revelation of his character, not a change.”
“He might have changed since you were in school together. That was a long time ago, too.Years.”
Blaze nodded. “I didn’t realize Logan didn’t have my back anymore. In high school, we were inseparable. We had to be. The rich kids jumped on every damn opportunity to fuck with us. The teachers and counselors didn’t do shit about it. The rich kids’ parents donated too much money to piss them off.”
“That’s unfair.”
He shrugged. “If you were running an ostensibly non-profit school, who would you send to detention: a kid whose parents’ names were on the new ski dorm at Gstaad or were in negotiations to sponsor the school’s new private jet, or the penniless kid with dead parents?”
Sarah sighed. “And that’s not right.”
“I was a financial dead end, and the school knew it. The other kids were cash cows, and thekidsknew it. They knew they could beat up the scholarship kids every damn day, steal our books, trash our computers, rip up our hard-copy homework, and no one would give a shit.”
Her own high school squabbles paled. “Oh, Blaze. I’m so sorry.”
He was staring at the loaded guns in his hands. “But we stuck together. When the four of us were together, the Scholarship Mafia, no one would fuck with us. When I say these guys had my back, I mean wefoughtback-to-back, with a ring of rich kids throwing stuff and landing sucker punches.”
Now that the fire had warmed the log cabin, Sarah leaned forward and shoved the quilt down to her waist. She reached for his hands.
Blaze dropped the magazines out of the guns’ stocks and laid the weapons on the end table beside his chair. Without raising his gaze, he reached forward and held her hands, bowing his head over their grip.
His fingers chilled hers, his flesh cold under his rough calluses.
Blaze’s hands had always been so warm. Shock, maybe? Oh, Lord, Sarah hoped he wasn’t getting sick.
He said, “The lesson that the world is a fundamentally dangerous place has been drummed into me a million times, but allies are how you survive it. That’s how SEAL teams work. We’re force multipliers. We train local military personnel and command them. Our allies areeverything.”
She held his hands more tightly.
“The Scholarship Mafia was my bedrock. They were my last line of defense, and it’s been breached. I’m alone out here.”
“No, you’re not alone. I’m here,” she blurted, her heart breaking for him. Slapping her brother was at the top of her to-do list, right after she kicked those other two guys in the nuts.
With her steel-toed work boots.
When Blaze looked up at her, his dry eyes were wide open and hard. “Are you in on it?”
Confusion.“I don’t understand.”
He precisely enunciated his clipped words. “Are you working withyouraunt,yourbrother, Micah, and Twist to force me into a business relationship with the White Russian Bratva?”
The hot slap of shock was chased by a horrified cold drench. “What?No!”
“I won’t hurt you,” he said, releasing her hands and sitting back in his chair. His preternatural stillness looked like he was gathering himself before a violent attack. “I’ll drop you off near Logan’s building tomorrow morning before I lose myself in the world, but that’s what happened, isn’t it? You set me up.”
“No,”Sarah said, the words tripping on her teeth in her haste.“Absolutely not.I swear to God. I swear to Mary and all the saints. Iswearthat I had zero contact with Logan until I walked into his apartment a few hours ago, and I’ve never met those other two guys, Mike and Twist.”
“But Mary Varvara Bell is youraunt,”Blaze said, watching Sarah like she was small, mousey prey. “You knew each other when you were on the Zoom call.”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Your aunt would have masterminded the whole operation. She had your brother send me to you. It was all a trap, and I went racing off like Sir Fucking Galahad to save you from her fake dragons.”
His unfair accusation zipped in her head. “That’s absolutelynottrue. I didn’t even have any contact with my aunt until both my parents were dead, and she was theonlyperson in my extended family who reached out to me. And then she sent people tokillme.”
He squinted at her like he was scrutinizing her mud-streaked pants and frizzed-out braid for clues.“But they didn’t.They threw you in a car and then turned their backs so I could rescue you.”
