Something that looks a lot like what I’m starting to feel for them.
The realization hits me so hard that I have to look down into the mug clasped between my hands before any of them see it on my face.
I take a long sip of my coffee—which Lawson made just the way I like—even though it’s well into the evening, and I let the warmth of the ceramic ground me. Even though I’m bundled up in one of Lawson’s sweatshirts—one that’s so big, I had to roll the sleeves several times—and a pair of Lincoln’s sweatpants, I can’t quite shake the chill. But the longer I sit here on this couch with wool socks hugging my feet, my hair twisted up into its usual messy bun with loose strands tickling my neck, and each of their stares on me, I feel it.
Warmth.
Protection.
And a knowledge that whatever happens after today will changeeverything.
“You don’t have to tell us yet,” Lawson says quietly, breaking the silence. “We can wait if you’re not ready.”
I shake my head. Slowly. Carefully. “No,” I say, my voice somewhat hoarse. “I want to.”
That gets all of their attention.
Jasper stops pacing.
Beau’s hands stop moving.
Lincoln leans forward slightly.
I take a breath. Then another. And then… I tell them. “My sister is alive.”
The words land like that broken mug all those weeks ago.
Jasper swears under his breath, sharp and vicious. Linc closes his eyes for a brief moment. And Lawson’s jaw tightens with so much force I worry for his teeth.
Beau is the one who asks, “You’re sure?”
I huff a humorless laugh. “I know what my sister looks like. Or at least… I did. She looks so…” I shake my head at the memory of the woman I know to be my sister. A woman who looks just how I remembered her, and yet, so… soempty.“She was there. In the barn. She tried to take me out to the tree line because she didn’t want to risk one of you seeing her. I thought she just wanted to talk, but—she didn’t want me near them.”
“Who?” Lawson seethes, clearly already knowing the answer.
“Miles Keller,” I answer. “And the Coates brothers. They—” I know as soon as I tell them this, the way they view my sister will change. But they need to know the whole picture. Theydeserveto know. “They told her they were going to attack the four of you. She thought she was protecting me. But they double-crossed her.”
The room shifts.
“Why is she working with him in the first place?” Jasper asks, his eyes dark as night.
My fingers tighten around my mug. “He’s… he’s not just some low-life developer. He’s Bratva.”
Lincoln curses under his breath. “You’re sure?”
“She told me,” I say. “They sent her here after… after everything that happened in New York.” I take my time telling them everything Kat shared with me—how my parents were buried far deeper in debt than either of us ever knew. How handing Katerina over to Aleksandr was no longer enough. Now they wanted me, too, for Maxim. I tell them what kind of men Aleksandr and Maxim were, and how Maxim was—by far—the worst of the two evils. How Kat didn’t know how to undo the damage our parents had done, but she believed she could at least keep me safe from Maxim. I explain everything she did to get herself sent away, forcing me into a marriage with Aleksandr, instead—the heir to the Russian mafia in New York. And I tell them that, despite Katerina’s relentless efforts to protect me, despite being sent here to serve yet another monster, despite spending her entire life trying to shield me from the worst of it all… Aleksandr still died at the hands of the very men who saved me. And in the end, I suffered Maxim’s wrath anyway. And that, somehow—by some cruel twist of fate—I ran straight to the same place that became her new prison.
Lawson exhales slowly through his nose. “Jesus Christ.”
“She didn’t know I’d ever end up on this ranch,” I continue quickly, the words tumbling now. “Onyourranch. Her mission wasyoulong before I got here. She said if she had known I’d show up—she never would have agreed to any of it.”
“Agreed to what?” Beau asks softly.
I hesitate. Because this is the part that hurts.
“She thought… she thought that if she helped them, if she stayed useful, they’d leave me alone.” My voice cracks. “She thought it was the only way to keep me safe.”
Jasper lets out a sharp laugh. “By puttin’ you in the middle of it?”
