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She and Falcon shared that warmth of spirit, he realized. The teasing charm and sense of drama, yet, he realized, he didn’t feel left out of it, and he didn’t feel that his brother possessed a part of her he didn’t. It felt right somehow. The two of them needed someone to keep them out of trouble when they were together. He would have been good at that, he thought somberly. He would have enjoyed it. If he could have had the chance to do it.
“He likes playing with you,” he answered rather than allowing her to sense the darkness of his thoughts.
Acknowledging how much Falcon enjoyed playing with Summer over the years had been hard for him though. It had taken a while for him to realize how much he enjoyed watching her and his brother playin
g, teasing each other.
Her lips twitched. “I like playin’ with him too.”
There was a softness, a sudden hint of vulnerability in her expression.
“You like fooling us,” he said, hating the ache in his chest. “Playing games.”
She straightened at the accusation, and he told himself that wasn’t a shadow of pain he’d caused that flashed through her eyes.
“Games? You think that’s all I am?” she asked, anger flashing in her dark eyes. “You think I play with Falcon because I like games?”
He wasn’t going to answer that question. He couldn’t. Damn her though, if it wasn’t games, then what was it? And why the hell did he have to say anything about it, take that laughter from her eyes when he’d been determined not to.
“Your whole family seems to excel in them, Summer,” he pointed out, remaining calm, that feeling of being off-balance, of not understanding something and wanting to himself, bugging the hell out of him. “You play the happy, loving family, but that’s not the truth either, is it?”
Her nostrils flared, the pout on her lips tightening to a thin line.
“Why don’t you just tell me what the truth is, then, Raeg?” she suggested with silky heat. “What do you think you know about me and my family?”
They were facing off again, and despite his regret, despite the fact that he didn’t want to hurt her—he never had—by God, he wanted the truth for a change.
“You’ve run back here every chance you’ve had for as long as I’ve known you.” He flattened his hands on the counter and leaned toward her. “But I was there that night Davis Allen and Margot brought you back to DC, beaten half to death because your father was passed out drunk when you were attacked. And you act like he never betrayed you. That he didn’t leave you defenseless. You fucking idolize him and I want to know why.”
Her chin jerked up, her eyes darkening until they looked like bruised violets. Her delicate nostrils flared, and the pain he saw in her eyes was because of him, not because of her family.
“He didn’t leave me defenseless, Raeg.” There wasn’t so much as a hint of that accent in her voice now. “Whoever attacked me got a knife buried in his balls because Daddy taught me how to protect myself.” Her face flushed, anger burning hot and bright inside her along with a glimmer of pain that had him wanting to kick himself. “You don’t know me and you don’t know my family.” She pointed her finger to him furiously, the slender digit shaking with whatever she was feeling. “And as far as I’m concerned, you don’t even deserve the chance to know any of us. Why don’t you just go back where you belong and leave me and my family alone!”
Before he could stop her, she turned, stalking through the doorway on the other side of the kitchen, through the dining room, then up the stairs.
“Fuck!” The curse slipped past his lips as he shoved his fingers through his hair and pivoted on his heel, intent on returning to the living room.
As he turned, he glimpsed the figure standing on the porch, the tall, broad form of Summer’s father as he stared silently through the open kitchen window.
Raeg hadn’t known he was there. Had no idea the older man had managed to slip up onto the porch.
Dark blue eyes stared at him emotionlessly from an expression carved in granite.
Cal didn’t say a word, just turned and, with military precision, moved across the porch and down the steps to the walkway leading back to his own house.
Wonderful.
This was just fucking wonderful.
Chapter
SIX
The bastard.
Deceitful. Conniving.
He’d just been waiting to slice her open with that one. To rip into the happiness she was feeling and make certain he destroyed it.
