“I’m going there,” I tell him.
Alex exhales sharply. “Bad idea. He’s pissed. Sydney’s a wreck. You show up unannounced and it’ll blow up.”
“I have to make this right. For her.”
He doesn’t argue further. Maybe some of the old brotherly understanding is still there beneath the estrangement. “Take two of my guys as extra eyes. And tread carefully, Maxim. That girl loves you. Don’t fuck it up more than you already have.”
I drive to the hospital with security tailing me. Mercer is down, but he has pissed off friends, and we still don’t know if they’ve made the connection between me and the fed’s takedown.
My mind’s racing. I’ve spent the last day putting my new mission into play. The hospital bills are paid in full anonymously. A private rehab plan is set up for Ben. I have flowers and security upgrades already in motion for wherever Sydney wants to go next.
But I need words and actions with her brother first. He raised her. He deserves to hear from me directly that I’m not the monster who bought and used his sister. I’m the man who, on some level, has been in love with her since I saw her picture in the back of his repair shop.
I nod to the nurses who recognize the security detail and step inside alone.
The man in the bed looks is an older version of the mechanic who saved my life. He looks like a harder, male version of Sydney. Same determined eyes, now narrowed at me in instant suspicion.
“Ben, do you recognize me?” I ask, keeping my voice steady.
“Yeah. Max, what the fuck are you doing here?” And then understanding arrives, and he shakes his head. “Fuck no. You’re Sydney’s Max?” He pushes himself up slightly, but then lies back down with a grunt.
I stand at the foot of the bed, hands visible, trying to project calm instead of the dominance that comes naturally. “I’m the one who’s been covering your care.”
Ben’s face darkens. “The sugar daddy. The one who bought my sister at some twisted auction and fucked her while I was lying here like a vegetable.” He tries to move again, but is defeated by pain again. “What the fuck, man. I save your life and you fuck my sister as a thank you?”
The crude words sting because they’re true on paper. “Yes. I bought her for a year. But it stopped being a transaction the first time she looked at me.” I shake my head. “It wasn’t planned. I was at the auction and she walked in. I recognized her from thepicture and had to do something before some bastard actually bought her for real.”
He laughs bitterly. “Save the romance novel shit. She told me everything. You used her when she was desperate. Possessive gangster bullshit. ‘This pussy is mine.’ That’s what she said you’d growl at her. While paying her like a whore to save my life.” He glares at me. “If you wanted to help her, you could have taken her home without fucking her.”
Heat rises in my chest, but I force it down. He’s protecting her. I respect that. “I said those things. Because from the moment I saw her at that auction, she was mine. But not in the way you think. I didn’t know the full story, why she was there. I was too wrapped up in her, too scared to ask and make it real. That’s on me.”
Ben’s eyes bore into me. “She dropped out of college, gave up her apartment, worked herself to exhaustion for me. And you swooped in and took what you wanted.”
“I did.” I don’t flinch. “But the nights with her wasn’t just sex. It was the only real thing in my world while I was undercover. The way she melts when I touch her, the trust in her eyes when I hold her after… I fell for her. Hard.” I shake my head. “That’s why I sent her to Alex. I was terrified someone would use her against me. I didn’t know how to handle how much she means to me.”
He studies me for a long moment. The machines beeping steadily. “She thinks it was all fake. Your name. Your feelings. Everything.”
“It wasn’t. The name is part of the cover, but what I feel for Sydney is real. I love her. I want her. Not as a sugar baby, but as my wife. Permanently.”
Ben rubs his face, still weak but stubborn. “She’s my little sister. If you hurt her again?—”
“I won’t.” I step closer. “I’ve paid off every bill. Set up the best rehab. No strings. And I’m going to grovel until she believes me. I need your blessing, man. Not because I’ll stop if I don’t get it, but because she loves you and your opinion matters to her.”
He’s quiet for a while. The anger doesn’t vanish, but it shifts into reluctant assessment. “She’s at the cafeteria with some of Alex’s guys. Go. But if she tells me you pressured her, I’ll find a way to kick your ass even from this bed.”
A small crack of hope. “Fair enough.”
I leave his room and head downstairs.
Sydney is sitting at a corner table, staring into a coffee cup, flanked by two of Alex’s enforcers who nod and give us space when I approach.
She looks up. Her eyes widen, then fill with a mix of pain and longing that guts me. “Max.”
“Sydney.” I slide into the seat across from her, fighting the urge to pull her into my lap and kiss her until she remembers how perfectly we fit. “Ben’s awake. I just spoke to him.”
“You what?” Her voice shakes. “Why would you?—”
“Because I needed him to hear it from me. That I’m sorry for how I handled everything. For being cold when I sent you away. I was scared, baby. Scared of losing you to the danger around me, scared of how deeply I’ve fallen for you. The big feelings hit me hard. I wasn’t ready to deal, but I am now.”
