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And all he could do was sit there, desperately searching for an argument, a way to keep this from happening, all the while knowing the only way to stop it wasn’t a choice he could make.
He’d known walking away from her was going to feel like splitting himself in half, but he hadn’t expected the tearing sensation to begin even before it was time to leave her.
He finished his drink, not even feeling the burn he knew should be tearing its way to his belly. Hell, it was his third drink—he should be nearing that point where everything felt numb. Nothing felt numb though. Each pulse of blood through his body was a lash of agony resonating through his senses, and he wasn’t quite certain how to handle it.
If he was hurting, Summer was hurting worse. The second she pulled her hair over her shoulder and began to form the intricate braid, the knowledge of her pain struck at his chest.
Her eyes were like wounded violets in the stark features of her face, and she seemed unable to hide the pain that filled her features.
The conflict she felt more than matched his own and made him murderous. It made him dream of ripping apart the man who would make Summer pay for the fact that he and Raeg loved her.
“It won’t work,” he told her. “I know you, baby, like no one but Raeg knows you, and I know this isn’t going to work. Just as you do.”
He and Raeg would go insane watching a bunch of bastards socialize with her, the knowledge that she would eventually be choosing a husband, possibly from one of the men she met at the arranged parties, uppermost in their mind. The men in attendance would be men who knew their own minds, their own strengths, and the very nature of those chosen for Summer to consider would ensure they went after what they wanted, what they thought they could have.
Seeing that in the men, knowing that once he and his brother left, Summer had every intention of building a life without them, was killing him, even though he knew he couldn’t blame her. No one could blame her, least of all him and Raeg.
They blamed themselves, or the past—a monster without remorse. That was who they blamed, that and the very things they couldn’t eliminate.
“I’ll kill the bastard who touches you within my sight.” The savage, naked fury brewing in Raeg shocked Falcon.
Summer’s face whitened, her breath hitching audibly as her gaze swung to his brother.
Falcon glanced at Raeg, then rubbed at the back of his neck in resignation. He had only said what Falcon felt as well.
“Raeg…” She whispered his name, regret filling the sound as tears gleamed in her eyes. “This wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t what I planned.”
* * *
“But you knew I’d fucking lose my goddamned mind with it, didn’t you?” Raeg wanted to throw something.
Son of a bitch, he clearly understood why Falcon had slammed his fist into the barn wall earlier. Better the pain of a shattered hand than a shattered soul.
She shook her head, her lips parting to deny the charge.
“Of course you did,” he bit out furiously. “You knew or you wouldn’t have taken our names off the invitation list. You would have made damned sure we knew what you were doing if you hadn’t known what it would do to us.”
She blinked furiously, her fingers linking together nervously as she shook her head, her expression stark white and filled with shock.
“I didn’t want to know you didn’t care,” she said, her voice resonating with so many pain-filled emotions that he hated hearing it. “That’s why I took your names off the list. The thought of you showing up, amused…” Her voice broke, a hand lifting to cover her lips, but not quite quick enough. He caught the subtle trembling, the sound of tears that thickened her voice. “I couldn’t bear it.”
“You knew I would care,” Falcon objected, and regret filled Summer’s expression.
“And I knew you wouldn’t do anything even if you did,” she stated, that knowledge stamped on her face, filling her eyes. “I’ve always known the two of you would never commit to a woman separately. It’s simply who you are and I was too frightened that Raeg wouldn’t care. That he didn’t care.”
“Don’t fucking do this while we’re here, Summer.” Raeg wanted to make it an order, he wanted to demand she have mercy on all of them, and he couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” her voice broke again, lips trembling before she fought back her tears, breaking his heart with the knowledge that like them, she was holding back the pain tearing her apart. “If I do what you want, Raeg, then it will break me when you leave. Is that what you want? Is that really what you want to see as you walk away?” Her lips trembled and Falcon swore the tears filling her eyes would fall. “That’s not what I want for you. For whatever reason, you feel you have to go. But I don’t want you to be alone when you leave. I want you to find love…” A sob almost escaped, and Falcon’s throat tightened, the agony trapped inside him threatening to escape in a howl of pain. “I want you to be happy, even if you can’t be happy with me.”
Turning, she all but ran for the stairs then, reaching for the banister as Falcon jumped to his feet to run to her.
Raeg beat him to her. He gripped her upper arm, pulling her around and against his chest, one hand pressing her head to him as his arm wrapped around her fragile body.
He bent his head over hers, and Falcon watched his expression twist painfully, eyes closing as Summer’s fingers clenched in his shirt and her body bowed into the pain he knew was exploding through her.
She wanted them to find love, wanted for them what she wanted so desperately to give to them, and she had no idea the depth of love they felt for her, Falcon thought. She couldn’t know, or the betrayal she would feel later would only be deeper than it would already be.
Standing several feet from his brother and the woman both of them treasured, Falcon could feel the murderous fury threatening to steal his control, and the veil he’d kept between him and that fury was torn away. Hatred crept from the darkness where it had hidden, pure, bitter, complete hatred for the man who caused this, a father who would strip their souls without remorse.
