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I look away, a lump in my throat. “I’ve never had a choice. That doesn’t mean I just give up.”
“I know,” Maddoc says, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him again, his eyes burning with intensity. Then his lips crack in the smallest of smiles. “But you’ve got a choice now. Help us.”
“So you can be the ones to use her instead of Austin McKenna? How would you even…” I let the question trail off, my mind racing until the final piece clicks. “You’ll force her to marry you.”
Again, Maddoc doesn’t deny it.
“Which one of you?” I demand, my glare taking in all three of them as something ugly and hot tries to claw its way out of my chest. “Which one of you is planning on—”
I snap my mouth closed. I almost saidbetraying me again, but that’s not right. I don’t even know where it came from.
Fine, I do. And it hurts in ways it shouldn’t.
Here I thought there was something growing between us. Something real with Dante. A magnetic connection with Maddoc. Even something with Logan that resonates inside the darkest, most fucked-up parts of me in a way that nothing else ever has. And all along, one of them planned on marrying my sister.
I swallow hard, forcing the words out of my tight throat. “Which one of you is planning on forcing yourself on her?”
“If we leave her out there too long, it will end up being McKenna,” Dante says, his grim tone so at odds with his usual demeanor that it brings my priorities back into focus.
It doesn’t matter what they’re planning and which one of them was going to do it. I still don’t plan on letting them win. Whatdoesmatter is that they’re right about how much danger Chloe is in.
More than I realized, and more than I can protect her from on my own.
“Help us bring her in before it’s too late,” Maddoc says. “You don’t know what McKenna’s capable of.”
I do. I fucking do. And while he’s a fucking monster, so are they.
I’ve never hated the three men surrounding me more than in this moment. Chloe being in danger is my fault. I’m the one who sent her out there with a target on her back.
But only because they lied to me. I’d have found another way if I’d known the truth.
I lift my chin. “I don’t need to help you. She’s probably already left Halston, and West Point’s reach isn’t that far.”
If I just give her enough time, refuse to cooperate, Chloe can get far enough away to build a new life for herself. Eventually, I’ll find a way to let her know about the inheritance, and then she can use it to keep herself hidden and safe forever.
It’s a pipe dream that Maddoc shatters with a single question.
“Do you really think she’s left the city?”
“No,” I have to admit, swallowing hard but refusing to cry again. “I wish she would. I told her to go. But she’ll wait for me.”
The truth is, there’s almost no way Chloe would leave town without me. I honestly don’t know where she would have holed up, but the idea that she’d leave me behind is ridiculous. She’d no more do that than I ever would.
Which means Maddoc is fucking wrong. I still don’t have a choice.
But I do have conditions.
“I’ll help,” I say, the words feeling like razorblades as I force them out, “but only if each of you swears that you won’t use her. Won’t… force her into a marriage just so you can control her money.”
“You don’t understand what’s happening out in the streets, princess,” Dante says, crossing his arms over his chest. “This fucking war…”
“I don’t care,” I snap. “I’m talking about my sister’s whole life!”
“We need the money,” Logan says flatly. “But Chloe will be taken care of. All Reapers are.”
I see red and I can’t even be sure which part of that statement to blame it on. “Taken fucking care of?” I repeat, practically spitting as I surge to my feet.
“Riley,” Maddoc says sharply, grabbing my wrists as he stands too. “We’re wasting time.”
