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“No,” Ryan says in a voice that seems unmovable. “I don’t trust anyone to be near her. Charlotte has her spies within the firm. She’ll deploy them all. If she can’t use Aurelia, she’ll try to destroy her.”
Luke blows out a breath. “He’s right. As much as I’d like to think our mother will take the high road and walk away, we all know that’s not going to happen. She’s going to make the four of us pay.”
“She can try,” Kane says.
“By now, she can probably feel the noose tightening around her neck. Even a dog, when backed into a corner, bites,” Luke says. “She’s going to bare those teeth and try to bring us back into line. We need to be ready for that.”
“We are ready.”
I wish I had Kane’s belief. I think I align myself more with Luke’s thoughts. “Ryan and I can leave town. We can disappear.”
“No.” Ryan’s firmness makes us all turn in his direction. “This is your home, Lia, and your family. I will not allow her to take you away from them.”
I can see his words impress Kane, not an easy feat.
“Do you want to call her,” I say, “or should I?”
Kane glances at Luke, who shifts his shoulders. The youngest of my brothers has changed a lot since he’s been with Sariah. He is nowhere near as intense as he once was. That’s not to say he’s soft. Luke will never be that. But I like this side of him, the easy side.
Kane pulls out his phone.
“I want to hear this,” Luke says. “Put it on speakerphone.”
My eldest brother looks irritated by the request, but he places it on the breakfast bar and dials Charlotte. He hits the speakerphone button, and the sound of the phone ringing fills the kitchen. Nervous tingles race through me. I know my mother can’t hurt me, not anymore, but it doesn’t stop the fear. I’ve lived under her shadow for so long, never believing I would ever be free, but this seems like a dream.
As if sensing the direction my thoughts have taken, Ryan slips his hand into mine and gives me a gentle squeeze.
“I wondered when I’d hear from you.” Charlotte’s voice sounds loud from the handset.
“You sent men, in the middle of the night, to abduct your own daughter.” Kane snarls the words. “You’re lucky I haven’t slipped a knife between your fucking shoulders.”
Charlotte doesn’t seem to take the threat seriously. “She was perfectly safe. Had she just come with them without fighting, there wouldn’t have been an issue. One of my men is dead, two more in the hospital. This isn’t how we conduct ourselves, Kane.”
“Aurelia is no longer your concern.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. She’ll always be my concern. She is my daughter.” Her words make me laugh. She has never treated me as anything more than a piece on her chessboard.
“Is that meant to be a joke?” I demand.
There is a slight pause, then Charlotte speaks again. “If you come home now, I might be able to salvage the arrangement with Lord Huntsville. The man has a mansion or two, a holiday home in Spain, and a title. I couldn’t have found you a better deal if I tried.”
“Let’s not pretend you did any of this for me,” I scoff. “All you’ve ever cared about is yourself.”
“All I’ve ever cared about is this fucking family.” She hisses the words out, her composure breaking for a moment. “You will come home, or I will fucking drag you home.”
“She’s never coming anywhere near you ever again,” Luke says. “We are done with your bullshit.”
Charlotte loses her temper, something I’ve never seen her really do before. “I will rain down fire on the four of you if you do not cease with this temper tantrum.”
“There’s no deal to be had,” I say around a laugh. “You can’t marry me off because I’m already fucking married.”
The silence that follows is deafening. It puts me on edge, and I glance at both my brothers, looking for reassurance. They are both focused on the phone, however.
“This had better be a fucking joke.”
“It’s not,” Kane says.
“And who, exactly, has she married?”
“None of your fucking business,” I say, not wanting her to know that Ryan is now my husband.
“You ungrateful little bitch,” she erupts, all her anger and rage directed at me. “The sacrifices I’ve made for you. The things I have had to put into place to ensure you married a good man. And this is how you repay me? You don’t need to tell me who you’re married to, I’ll find out. You can remarry if you’re a widow.”
The line goes dead, and my heart feels like it’s going to explode out of my chest. Coming at me is one thing, but targeting Ryan is something else entirely. If she lays a hand on him…
“We have to end them.” My voice is soft as I speak, but still, my brothers and Ryan all look at me. “We can’t let them live.”
“And we are not going to,” Luke says.
