“What do we do now?” he asked, realizing only after the fact that he’d intended to ask whatshewas going to do. But he didn’t bother attempting to correct himself.
“I suppose that’s up to you,” Karissa said softly, gazing back down at her cake again. “Part of me wants to try and fix what my family broke. But there’s another part that can’t help but wonder if it’s too late for that.”
Hale almost jumped to his feet, his inner wolf ready to tell her it definitely wasn’t too late—that it would never be too late for them—but Karissa interrupted him before he could get the words out.
“Of course, if I’m being honest, there’s yet another part of me that wants to board the next plane to Chicago, kick in Lorenzo’s front door, and give him a piece of my mind, then do the same to my dad.”
“Maybe you can wait on that,” Hale said with a chuckle, even though he wouldn’t mind joining her. “I’d prefer to focus on the part about trying to fix what your family broke.”
She continued to study her cake, her hand still holding his. When she finally lifted her head to look at him, her gaze was full of hope. “I want to focus on that, too, but how do we even do that?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted, wanting desperately to tell her about the soul mate thing but knowing now wasn’t the time or the place. “What do you say we start with finishing our dessert and then take it from there?”
Karissa seemed to consider that for a moment, then smiled. “I’d like that.”
Chapter 12
“How did dinner go?” Deven asked as he walked through the door from his adjoining suite. “Did you and Hale have a pleasant evening?”
Karissa looked up from the bottle of water she was opening to see that while she’d changed into her comfortable T-shirt and pajama pants after getting back to the hotel, her brother was still wearing his suit. It made him look older than he really was, which was why he probably liked to wear one as much as possible.
“Pleasant evening?” Karissa said with a snort of laughter, taking a sip of water. “What are you, eighty?”
Deven chuckled as he walked around the peninsula-style counter and over to the fridge to dig through her stash of junk food. A moment later, he reemerged with a bottle of water and three packs of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. That was her entire supply. Good thing he was her favorite brother or she might be tempted to pull her sword on him.
“I wasn’t listening in on your dinner conversation. Promise,” her brother said, taking a seat on the couch and tearing open the first package. “But I checked out the video feed every now and then.It looked like you and Hale were having a pretty intense discussion. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
Karissa grabbed a Snickers, then joined Deven on the couch, sitting back with a sigh. She’d loved how the designer dress and killer heels had made her look, but she was glad to be out of both after the long evening. Dinner hadn’t been that bad since she was sitting the whole time, but then Patterson had decided to move his business event back to his penthouse suite, which meant organizing a secure motorcade on the fly, then standing around in sky-high heels for three hours while her client schmoozed a roomful of the rich and powerful.
“It actually went well,” she said. “I mean, I found out a few very disturbing facts, but it all worked out in the end.”
Deven gave her a curious look, peanut butter cup halfway to his mouth. “Disturbing facts? That sounds kind of ominous.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Things about why Hale and I broke up.”
Karissa bit her tongue the moment the words were out. She shouldn’t have told Deven about that. What she and Hale talked about wasn’t going to paint their brothers—or their parents—in a very good light. But Deven wasn’t only her favorite brother. He was also her best friend. If she couldn’t talk to him about this, who could she talk to?
“And?” he prompted, looking even more interested now.
Sighing, she told him about Lorenzo and their other two brothers beating Hale so severely he’d ended up in the hospital, then threatening to send his father and brother to prison for life. On the far end of the couch, Deven sat there looking totally stunned.
“Do you really think Mom and Dad told our brothers to do something like that?” Deven asked, the disappointment on his face making it clear he already knew the answer to that question.
Karissa unwrapped her candy bar and took a small bite, hoping she didn’t regret consuming so much sugar at this time of night. “Can you honestly imagine Lorenzo coming up with something like that on his own? The senseless violence part, I guess. But blackmail definitely isn’t his style. Mom and Dad were behind all of it.”
Deven shook his head. “That’s seriously messed up.”
“Tell me about it,” she muttered.
She couldn’t think about what her family had done without it making her blood boil. Every time she thought about what Lorenzo, in particular, had done to Hale, she wanted to cry.
“Should we confront Mom and Dad now or wait until this job is over?” he asked. “I’d be lying if I said I can’t wait to watch you trounce all three of our dumbass brothers at once.”
Karissa sagged with relief. She’d been relatively sure that her youngest brother would take her side, but it was still nice to hear him say it out loud.
“After,” she said firmly.
He nodded. “Okay. So where does that leave you and Hale?”
