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We have no choice. “Is it going to be you or me?” Sin asks.
Kyle comes into the foyer. “Sorry to interrupt, boss. Jamie told me to get help for Lorna. She’s passed out.”
Great. This night couldn’t be more perfect.
We go to the guest room and find Lorna out cold in the arms of Blare. “I caught her as she was going down.”
Jamie doesn’t look up from working on Leith’s wound. “She’ll be fine. Move her to the couch in the office.”
Ellison moves to look over Jamie’s shoulder. “The skin has an abrasion collar around the entrance wound so he was shot from a distance with a small caliber handgun.”
“Very good assessment.”
Jamie holds out a pair of latex gloves for Ellison. “Help me roll him over so I can look for an exit wound.”
Leith groans loudly when they flip him onto his side.
Ellison points at Leith’s back. “There it is. Slit-like and marginally larger than the entrance. That’s good. It means the bullet didn’t hit anything to slow down its momentum. Those can be some nasty injuries to treat.”
“How do you know so much about trauma?”
“I worked in the ER in a town with a ridiculously high crime rate. We saw at least one of these every night.” Ellison holds out her hand. “I’ll clean and dress this while he’s on his side. No need to roll him again since it seems to be causing him quite a bit of discomfort.”
Leith chuckles, followed by a loud groan. “It’s a little more than discomfort, lass.”
I’m back to being pissed at Leith now that I know he’ll be all right. “Discomfort is the least of what you deserve.”
“Please don’t let her leave without seeing me. I have to talk to her.” His voice is desperate. Good.
“We’ll see.”
I’m in no mood to offer him comfort by promising I’ll have her come to him. Let him worry she’ll slip away.
Jamie and Ellison work as a team to quickly dress Leith’s wounds. “You know the drill. Antibiotics for prophylaxis and let me know immediately if you run fever. We don’t need another case of sepsis.”
“Another?” Ellison asks.
“Aye. Sin nearly died from a bad case a few months ago.”
Ellison stalks toward the door. “Bleu. I need to see you. In private.”
This isn’t going to be easy for Bonny. “Want me to be with you?”
She nods. “Please. I can’t do this by myself.”
We follow Ellison into our bedroom and shut the door. “Somebody better start talking.”
I cross my arms and lean against the wall. “She’s your sister. The floor is all yours.”
Chapter Eleven
Bleu Breckenridge
I’ve had more than a month to prepare myself for how I’ll tell Ellison about my life within The Fellowship. I’m not a damn bit closer to finding the words than I was five weeks ago when she unexpectedly appeared in my hospital room. “You should probably sit since there is no short version to this story. It goes back almost nineteen years.”
She retreats into the corner chair. “You’re scaring me.”
She should be frightened.
“When I woke in the hospital after my mother’s murder, I was afraid. I knew the man who killed her would find out I didn’t die and possibly come back for me. So my seven-year-old mind decided I should pretend to remember nothing about that night’s events. I thought he might spare my life if he believed I couldn’t identify him. I was a child who’d undergone a traumatic experience so no one pushed me to remember anything.”
Ellison looks pained. “Oh God, Bleu. You remember that?”
“Every terrifying second.”
“And you bottled it, never telling anyone.”
Here we go. “I spent my entire childhood fixating on how I would make my mother’s killer pay for what he’d done to us. When I turned twelve, I was ready to begin learning how to make that happen.”
“I don’t understand.” Of course she doesn’t. No normal person could fathom what I’m about to tell her.
“I told Dad I remembered everything and that I was going after my mom’s killer.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“My intentions were to murder her killer––shoot him exactly the way he did my mother. I told Dad I was doing it with or without his training. He feared for my safety so he agreed to teach me.”
Ellison’s brows are scrunched. I know her so well, I easily recognize it as her “thinking hard” look. “You expect me to believe that Dad taught his twelve-year-old daughter how to kill? Do you even know how crazy that sounds?”
This story has so much more crazy to it than she can possibly imagine. “He trained me until I entered the police academy. My entire career as an officer and then as an agent was so I could further my education to learn how to infiltrate an organized criminal organization called The Fellowship. Everything I did was so I could get close to her killer, Thane Breckenridge. The plan was to do that through his son, Sinclair. Which I did.”
Breck takes my hand and squeezes it. “But then I fell in love with Sin and couldn’t go through with any of it.”
“Your father-in-law is your mother’s killer?”
“I thought so, but I was wrong. We still haven’t figured out who he is but we’re getting closer every day.”
I put my hand on my belly. “I’ve hired Dad’s old partner Debra to take over the investigation since it isn’t safe for me to be out tailing potential killers while I’m pregnant.”
“What is Fellowship?”
This part is going to be trickier. “A group of people, much like a family, with designated leaders. Thane is the head authority. His son, Sin, is second in charge and will one day step into his shoes as leader when Thane decides to retire.”
Sugarcoating what we are will be lying. I won’t do that to my sister. She needs to understand everything about The Fellowship if she’s to consider staying. “We’re similar to what you know as the Mafia, but not Italian. The Scottish version.”
“They’re criminals and you’re part of it?”
“Sin is my husband and this is his way of life. As his wife, I’m a part of everything he does.”
“You’re an FBI agent and you’ve chosen to marry into a family of criminals? That doesn’t make sense.”
She’s stuck on the criminal part. “We’re more than that. These people are my family. I love them dearly.”
“I am your family.” She looks hurt. That’s not at all what I want.
“You are and always will be, but my place is here with my husband within The Fellowship.”
“Dad is rolling in his grave.”
I’m about to burst her bubble––and I hate that. “Dad knew. We told him everything before he died.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. Dad gave us his blessing.”
“He wouldn’t have if he’d understood what this was all about.”
“He understood everything. We watched The Fellowship for years so we could find the best way for me to infiltrate. Dad knew every detail about the Breckenridges and their circle. He came to like Sin very much and was happy to see us marry.”
The next hour consists of a lot of things: honesty. Tears. Yelling. Lots of explanations about what The Fellowship does or does not believe in or practice. What becoming a part of this world really means.
The conversation with my sister isn’t pretty but Sin never leaves my side. He clarifies things about The Fellowship that I canno
t.
“I feel like I don’t know who you are anymore.”
The truth is Ellison never knew the real me, but this is my opportunity to show her. “I’m the sister who loves you. The one who wants you to stay and become a part of my world. I need you. And my babies need you. You’re the only Auntie Elli they’ll ever have.”
Yeah. It may be a low blow to use my babies as a means to convince her to stay but I don’t care. I’m prepared to be a little selfish if it means I get to have her in my life.
“Becoming a part of your world means accepting this culture as my own. I’m not sure I can do that.”
I understand her hesitation. This is a lot to learn about in one sitting. I’ve had years for it to sink in. “I have a wonderful life, Ellison. I couldn’t be happier.”
“You’re on cloud nine. I don’t dispute that at all, but we’re very different people. I’m not sure I’m cut out for this.”
“I wasn’t certain I could do it, either, but now I can’t imagine being anywhere else in the world.”
“It’s bizarre that a man would volunteer himself to be beaten in my place so I can become his. And part of this.”
I understand her confusion. I was once the outsider looking in. It isn’t an easy thing to comprehend. “It’s extreme for a reason––so the act of bringing a person into the brotherhood isn’t taken likely. Only a man who truly loves you would volunteer to do it. It’s a huge sacrifice but I can promise you this: you’d never doubt his love for you and no one within The Fellowship would, either.”
“It’s barbaric.”
Sin bursts into laughter. “I think your sister is understanding our ways perfectly.”
I punch Sin’s arm. “Not helping.”
“If I loved the man back, how could I let him put himself through that?”
“If he’s anything like Sin, he’d do it without telling you.” Which is probably best. I don’t think I would’ve gone along with it had I known. Especially since I wasn’t planning to become a member of The Fellowship at that time.
“You found out after the fact?”
Boy, did I ever. “Yeah. Sin looked like he’d been run through a meat grinder.”
