Stryker set his drink down and leaned forward, his gaze snagging my own. “To be clear,” he said carefully. “I don’t care if you have money or not. I have enough for several lifetimes.”
“You clearlydocare. A lot. Enough that a small loan to your brother caused you to have a falling-out.” The words left my mouth before I could take them back. I watched as a wall seemed to slam down over his features.
“It wasn’t really about money,” he finally confessed, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t truly care about money.”
In the short time I’d spent with him I’d watched him give generously, so I believed that part could be true. But I’d also seen him freak out over people stealing from him, proving that hedidcare.
“Then why did you stop talking to Adrien?”
Stryker sighed, looking like he wanted to run from the table.
“I am the eldest quadruplet brother, even if only by a few minutes, so I became a lord before any of my quad brothers,” he said. “When I first arrived in Easteria as its lord, I was barely fifteen.”
Fifteen!My jaw unhinged. That was so young.And quadruplets!His poor mother.
He continued, “Right away I uncovered three theft attempts. That’s not allmymoney, it’s also for my people. For new roads, for wells, for farm equipment, or schools, there is so much that a lord provides for them. When money is stolen from me, it’s stolen from them too.” He growled the last part, speaking so passionately about this that my heart softened toward him.
I reached out and grasped his hand and he took it into his this time. I knew what he was saying was true because it was the same in my court. The people paid taxes and we certainly kept a portion but the majority went to schools and roads and everything he said.
“So, what happened with your brother?” I stroked his palm.
He sighed. “The first assassination attempt on my life happened just after I moved in and became lord.”
I gasped. “First? There have been more than one?”
I couldn’t imagine having someone try to take my life at fifteen.
He nodded. “And people were stealing and I was overwhelmed so I put out a call to my three younger brothers for help. Begging them to help me or ask my older brothers, who were lords at the time, for reinforcements, or advice. Anything.”
I held my breath, knowing this story wouldn’t have a happy ending.
“They all wrote back with their apologies and said they had their own problems and could neither do, nor spare, anything,” he finished through gritted teeth.
“So you felt abandoned.” It was a statement, not a question, because that’s how I would feel too. It all made sense now.
He nodded. “And then the first month into Adrien’s lordship, he had the audacity to ask for a loan.”
It truly wasn’t about the money, it was about feeling used. This poor man felt like he couldn’t trust anyone.
“You were so young, so they must have been young too,” I said.
“I know what you are getting at, but they could have—” Stryker’s words were cut off by someone who’d just leapt up next to our table.
“Brother!” A blur of dark hair leapt into our booth and hugged Stryker.
Brother?
“Aribella!” a woman’s voice nearly sobbed.
I froze. I recognized that voice.
I slowly spun in my seat.
Dawn Ambrose stood before me with tears in her eyes.
“We found you,” she breathed.
I peered over at Stryker, who sat woodenly in the man’s embrace. It was as if by merely speaking of them, we’d conjured one of his brothers.
