There’s no answer.
The second I pass the threshold, hard metal is pressed into the thin skin of my temple. I know instantly that it’s a gun. There’s something about a gun—you just know when it’s there.
Just weeks ago, this would have been the worst thing to happen to me, but today, I face it with a still silence. Swallowing, I whisper, “I didn’t say a word. Please. The boys need a mother.”
I hear a foreign chuckle and a low voice, the Irish accent even stronger than the brothers’. “So you’re where they’re getting that rhetoric. They never talked like that before you.” The gun pushes even harder into my skin. I stare at the feet, two loafers with gold clasps, and I try to think my way out of this.Do I have time to grab the butt and twist it away? Am I strong enough, fast enough?
I don’t have long to consider it before a strong hand clamps around my wrist, twisting my arm painfully behind my back. Cold steel presses into my palm, and the mouth accompanying the voice is up against my ear, murmuring, “Hold it.”
Another voice—Kellan’s, sharper than usual—adds, “Don’t drop it.”
I look up toward his voice. His eyebrows are pulled together, and one hand is propping up his elbow, the other holding his chin. He watches me with care, but there’s a hardness in his eyes I don’t recognize.
I don’t need to look down to know there’s a gun in my hand. I look around the room and see at the very end of it a man tied to a chair. He’s lit up by one singular standing lamp like a quest, his mouth taped to his hair and the back of the chair. Tears are gathered in his eyes, and I don’t recognize him. He’s a stranger to me. He’s no one, and all at once, he’s someone.
My heart stutters. I try to wrench away from the grip on my arm, but it tightens.
“What is this?” I gasp, struggling. I’m staring into Kellan’s eyes, begging him to stop this. My voice sounds small, fragile, like it might shatter under its own weight. “Where are my sons?” I ask seriously, panic creeping up my throat.
“They’re safe,” Declan assures me. “They’re two floors down in their beds. They can’t hear anything.”
Kellan steps forward toward me. “You say you want to be a part of this family.” His shirt is splattered with something dark—maybe blood, maybe oil, maybe metaphor. Probably blood. “Time to prove it.”
“Prove it how?” I ask, even though I already know. My arm is guided up, the barrel of the gun steadying.
“Pull the trigger,” says Rian. His voice is deep and authoritative, different than I’ve ever heard it.
The man behind me releases his hold, but I don’t move. I can’t. My hands are trembling so badly I’m afraid I’ll shoot someone by accident.
“You don’t have to do this,” I whisper.
“No,” the father says. “You do.”
Declan watches me with gentle curiosity, his head tilted, his lips slightly open. It’s just me and this monster and the man on his knees.
“I won’t,” I say sharply, shaking my head too hard. It slaps my cheeks.
Then Declan is beside me, holding my shoulders, turning me to face him. He bends his knees so he can look at me in my face. I’ve never seen his eyes so gentle, and he whispers, “Think of them.”
“I can’t,” I cry back, gagging at the thought. Across the room, the man has started to struggle, shaking the chair underneath him. I snap my head toward him and look at the desperation stinking off him.
“You have to!” Declan barks from beside me. It’s so loud in my ear that it almost sounds like my own thoughts. “He’s no one!”
“Caroline,” Rian says softly, swooping in. “That man betrayed us. He’s the reason we’re running. He’s the reasonyou’re here.He told the feds about that night. Look at him. He’s your enemy, not us.”
Kellan’s voice is cold and calm. He’s leaning against the wall, sipping a drink. “It doesn’t matter what he did. He betrayed us, and that should be enough for you. If you want to be a part of this family, you’ll learn to be enraged by that. Loyalty is what binds us. Are you loyal to us?”
I slump under the weight of the questions and demands. “I—I have done everything you’ve asked of me.”
“Like what, Caroline?” Kellan asks sharply, his arms crossed. His lanky limbs look alien in this lighting. “You tried to kill us, that I know. And since then, what have you done that we’ve asked? You’ve said you would do plenty. But what have you actually done?”
His cruelty confuses me. It doesn’t feel like him. I didn’t know he had so much resentment built up toward me. “I didn’t tell Alaina anything,” I whisper, tears gathering at my ducts.
“How do I know that?”
The world around me tilts with even more confusion. “You said—people were watching…”
“It was alie,Caroline, something said tokeepyou from speaking. Just like keeping your kids was a motivator. We have no evidence that you’re as loyal as you say you will be.”
