“Who’s here?” Her voice is barely a whisper as she attempts to blink away the sleep from her eyes.
“Family.” Sterling’s tone is gentle for her. “Just family, Clover. We had to make sure you were okay.”
She blinks at them like she’s not entirely sure they’re real. “Right.” She frowns. “That makes sense. Ah, I’ll just let you catch up with Valen then.” She spins in place as though she doesn’tknow where to go. Then her shoulders slump, and she stares at me, so…sad and lost that I move on instinct.
But fucking Chase beats me to her.
He practically flies into our bedroom and wraps my girl in a hug.
“Silly girl,” he rumbles, picking her up off the ground and swinging her through the air. “We’re here for you too.” I want to kill him. I’m going to do it too.
Her face crumples, and her chin quivers when he finally, finally sets her the fuck down. Before I can move, she’s crossing the room and walking straight into Grant’s arms.
Grant’s fucking arms.
My body is so hot, I’m surprised steam isn’t rising from my skin.
My cousin—my brother—catches her without hesitation, wrapping her up and holding her like she’s something precious.
And yet, I want to throat punch him too.
“We’ve got you.” His voice carries an almost fatherly cadence that does nothing to quell the beast rising inside me. “We’ve been waiting for you since we were kids, Clover. We didn’t say anything earlier because we didn’t want to overwhelm you. But Valen told us about you so often, you felt like our kid sister without ever laying eyes on you. Then, when our mom started making plans to help you escape…”
His gaze darts to mine, but I don’t know what he’ll say next.
He closes his eyes, like he’s giving confession. “My brothers and I helped decorate a room for you. That whole month, we picked out stuff a teenage girl might like. So while you’ve always been connected to Valen, he isn’t the only one who lost you that night. We’re your family too, Clover, if you’ll have us.”
I didn’t know anything about a room for Clover at the Harrington estate. I’ve never seen it.
“We packed it all up and put it in the attic after Valen’s attack,” Sterling says quietly, meeting my gaze. “Mom told us she was safe, and your doctors warned us against sharing anything you might find traumatic. As time went on, Mom said she lost track of Clover, and we lost her a second time.”
“We looked for you,” Grant tells her. “But it wasn’t until after Mom passed away that we found any clue as to who you had become. We wanted to be sure it was you before reuniting you with Valen, and then… Well, here we are.”
That’s when she starts crying.
Not the quiet, suppressed tears from earlier. Real gut-wrenching sobs that shake her entire body.
Grant holds her through it while I stand by, watching helplessly as though I’m the stranger here. Sterling moves to her other side, one hand on her back, while Chase positions himself at the door, standing guard.
I don’t move even though I’m the one who should be holding her. She didn’t come to me.Why didn’t she come to me?
“Valen.” Roman’s hand presses into my shoulder. “She’s not choosing them over you. She just—she needs someone who isn’t carrying the weight of this with her. Someone who can be strong without being destroyed by it.”
He’s right. I know he is, but before I can figure out how I feel about that, she peels away from my cousin, crosses the room, and collapses into my arms. Only then does my frantic heart rate settle.
It takes over twenty minutes for Clover to calm down. Twenty minutes of my cousins murmuring reassurances, comforting us both, and standing guard while she pulls herself together.
When she finally removes her face from my chest, her skin is blotchy and her eyes are swollen, but the trembling has stopped, and she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
“I’m sorry,” she says, wiping her face. Her voice is a breathy whisper. “I didn’t mean to— I’m sorry.”
“Stop.” All it takes is one word to convey everything I needed her to hear.
She will never apologize for processing her trauma again.
“We brought food,” Chase announces, having retrieved bags from what looks like every restaurant between here and Charlotte. “And Sterling brought his emotional support bourbon, so we’re fully prepared for whatever kind of stakeout this turns into.”
“Bourbon sounds good,” Chief says from his perch by the coffee maker. “Real good.” I don’t think he’s slept at all either.
