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“A lesson,” I said.

That frightened them more than anything, because their imagination got to work. One of them took a step backward, probably hoping the other two would take the brunt of the lesson. This was camaraderie at its best.

I took a step forward and pointed a finger at her. “We’ll start with you.”

She shook her head frantically. “I… I don’t want a lesson.”

“But you don’t even know what kind of lesson it is,” Kyran taunted, smiling sadistically. “Now ask what kind of lesson it is.”

“No… no…” She shook her head so fast I was certain she’d get whiplash. “I don’t wanna.”

“Ask,” I roared, causing all three of them to jump.

“What kind of lesson?” one of them asked in a whimper.

I didn’t even care to put their name to their face because they were so insignificant, and after today, I’d never think of them again.

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Kyran tsked. “We’re going to teach you a lesson on the damages of bullying.”

“Because I’m sure Sienna Baldwin wasn’t the first nor last person you bullied,” I added.

“We… didn’t⁠—”

“You bullied her into doing what you wanted,” I cut her off.

I’d learned that these three made an art out of bullying those they deemed less important than they were. They dropped little threats. They isolated. They uttered cruelties disguised as jokes.

“It was a dare,” one of them cried.

“We were kids,” the other added, gulping.

I leaned toward her. “So was she.”

We hadn’t touched any of them. Fear was remarkably easy to manufacture when you knew where to press.

By the time my brother and I were done with them, all three were crying.

Kyran and I walked away, leaving them frazzled.

I was so ready to go back to Ireland and have Sienna in my arms, but I had one more stop to make.

Sienna’s family.

It was too late to pay a visit tonight, so I’d do it first thing in the morning and then I’d fly back to Ireland.

My twin must have sensed that because he announced, “We’re throwing you a bachelor party tomorrow, so you’re not going anywhere. And it’s pointless to resist. If you do, I’m going to share all the embarrassing details about you with Sienna.”

TWENTY

TYRAN

The hours until morning dragged by while I tried and failed to get some shut-eye in my penthouse. Instead, my time was filled with endless checks of the castle’s surveillance cameras.

Sienna had another nightmare.

I watched it take hold of her from across the ocean, her whimpers and twists beneath the sheets gutting me alive.

It fucking killed me that I couldn’t crawl in next to her and comfort her, or better yet, enter her head and extinguish all her nightmares, even if I was the cause of one of them.