“What’s the right thing?”Dove seizes my gaze.
The truth hums under my skin, under my ribs, under seventeen years of quiet ruin.It’s a twisted knot of childhood, tragedy, and choices I can’t undo.
I raised her, fed her, carried her, celebrated her birthdays, braided her hair, crawled through her windows, and slept in her doorways because that’s who Iwantedto be for her.
I sold my body, killed her monsters, and looked at her the way a father would look at his daughter because that’s who Ihadto be for her.
Being heranythingwas a goddamn honor.
Then she offered herself to me that night, and everything changed.I saw her differently.Ifelther differently.I imagined her in ways I never had before.And after?I couldn’t erase those ideas from my head.
In the years that followed, I told myself she was too young.When she was in her twenties, I told myself she was my sister.When that no longer worked, I told myself that taking her the way I wanted would poison her life beyond repair.
Because if she were with me, she would never rise above what I am.
She deserves more than the man who raised her.More than the man who whored himself for money.More than the man who still wants her in ways he should never allow himself to imagine.
I shouldn’t have kissed her tonight, but I knew I would never have another chance.
I don’t want to let her go.Cutting ties will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.Walking away and never seeing her again?It’s unfathomable.
Butthatis the right thing.
Expression blank, I stare at her, silent, refusing to answer, because if I put the truth into words, it becomes real.Final.And I need more time.Just a few more minutes to look at her, memorize her face, and make sure she’ll be okay without me.
She absently rubs the scars on her shoulder, the ones from that night that I couldn’t mend, because she ran from me.She’s never stopped running.
Until now.
The room shrinks, and the walls press in, suffocating.
Wolf watches us with narrowed eyes, analyzing our combative stares and unspoken emotions.
“Okay,” he finally says.“Let’s break this down.”He looks at me.“You still have feelings for her.True or false?”
My pulse gives a hard thud, but I flatten my lips and keep my face empty.
“Got it.”He turns to Dove.“You still have feelings for him?”
She glares at him, then at me.
“Is it a stepsibling thing?”He rakes a hand through his hair.“Is that what’s happening here?”
When neither of us answers, his gaze swings back to me.
“Tell me something, kitty cat.Are you here because you love her?”He leans in, putting his face in mine.“Or because you finally learned how to let her go?”
“Both,” I whisper.
Loud pounding rattles the front door.Fists, radios, boots on the porch.The security team.
Wolf blows out a breath.“Time’s up.”
The yacht rocks against the dock pilings, engines humming, ready to depart.The security team forms a loose ring around me, armed and vigilant.They know trouble when they smell it, and they’re not about to let me slip past them again.
But the real trouble is on the dock.
Wolf stands in the middle of it, louder than the wind, shoving verbal knives into every Strakh within range.Kodiak.Leonid.Monty.Even Frankie showed up.
