Page 79 of Hide Little Traitor

And now my own brother is going to be what costs me the future I’ve worked so fucking hard for.

You helped him escape with her, I remind myself.

He is not alone in the blame.

Hell, if you want to get really technical about it, I’m the one that woke him up to save Chloe from Ralph. I’m the one that orchestrated their escape.

Can I really blame my brother for doing what I told him to do?

Dropping into one of the armchairs in the living room, I tip my head back and stare at the wooden log ceiling.

I stayed in my room for as long as I could after my brother left with the man responsible for our mother’s death, but I was going stir-crazy. I’m not used to being so stagnant, and that in itself is a form of hell.

Chloe and the bodyguard are outside collecting wood for the fire, giving me what may be my only chance to call my father and tell him our whereabouts.

He’ll be pissed that I’m not delivering Ronan and Chloe on a silver platter, but without access to a car or jet, getting two people across the country is going to be next to impossible.

Hopefully throwing in Kingston Beaumont and his best killer will be enough to make up for it.

And yet I hesitate.

My leg bounces restlessly, my hand wrapped around the burner I swiped from Ronan before he left. He hasn’t been checking it since I was the only one with the number, making it easy to snatch without anyone noticing it missing.

I wish there was another option.

But the way I see it, I either deliver my brother and his woman, and take my throne, or I fail and lose everything, destined to spend the rest of my life on the run.

There is no door three, no get-out-of-jail-free card.

Even with that knowledge, the phone remains on the table in front of me, taunting me to make an impossible decision.

Chloe’s laugh in the distance makes my body tense.

There was a time that sound was reserved for Ronan and me. Back before I accepted my fate. Before I fully understood my obligations to the family as the first-born son.

I used to curse my brother for not being born first, for not having the kind of responsibility that I have, but eventually it was easier to accept that my life was not my own.

It belonged to our family legacy.

It still does.

Her laughter drifts closer, and I swipe the phone off the table, shoving it beneath the cushion and out of sight a moment before the door swings open and cold air gusts through the cabin.

Chloe steps inside, her auburn hair wind-swept and covering her face, but it’s the way her eyes sparkle with delight as she holds the door for Ryker.

Her arms are full of a few light-looking logs, but he’s loaded up. There’s no way we need this much wood today, but I don’t say anything.

Maybe if I ignore them, they’ll ignore me too.

“I’m serious, Siren. The boss can really belt out ‘I Will Always Love You’ if he’s drunk enough.”

“There’s no way Kingston is doing karaoke, drunk or not,” she argues as she nudges the door shut and follows him across the room to the fire.

“You’ll have to ask Rocco when you meet him. I’ve never seen so many terrifying men cry from laughter.”

Chloe shakes her head, her smile so wide it takes my breath away.

I used to do anything I could to make her look at me the way she is at him right now, and then I would do everything in my power to make her miserable so she wouldn’t taunt me with her happiness.