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“I see. Her, again. After something, is she?” Royal moved closer. To Sydney.
Oh, hell, no. That wasn’t going to happen.
“Syd, go downstairs to Char. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”
“I am not exactly afraid of these three, Zo,” Sydney said. She smirked at the man. A smirk seemed to be her resting expression today. Zoey wasn’t fooled. Sydney had her battle armor on now. “I’ve faced worse. Scarier men than these three, by far. Why just last week I took a knife to the stomach, remember? Missed my kidney by a millimeter. Almost lost my cute little birthmark, actually. Which I’ve been told is…enchanting. It would have been a pity to have it scarred. Let’s get this over with.”
The look she shot at Slater was one of clear challenge.
“You’re good, then?”
Sydney nodded. “Aren’t I always? Let’s get started.”
Zoey looked at these three brothers. “Sit. Listen to what we have to say. Then decide.”
She waited. And waited. Finally, they sat.
Sydney came behind the desk and stood at Zoey’s right, one hand pressed to her side as she winced. Zoey knew it—Sydney had been on her feet too long. Flying all over the country right now had just been stubborn and crazy. “There are extra copies in the envelope.”
“Sydney, just sit down,” Slater ordered. “You’re obviously hurting right now.”
“I’ll live.” She held up a hand when he almost stormed within touching distance. “Out of my personal space, big bubba. You willnevertouch me again. The longer you keep talking, the longer this is going to take. I deal with you now, Zo gets what she needs, and I forget about you forever. I’m looking forward to that part.”
“So why did you come in the first place?”
“Your younger sister, half sister, is one of my best friends. She is eighteen and naive and believes in happy endings. How’s that for irony? And I willneverlet her get near you. Not knowing the kind of man you are.Ever.”
He just stood there and glowered. And glowered some more.
Sydney seemed completely impervious to it.
Zoey just shook her head. “When you were infants, you were sold.”
“No kidding,” Royal said.
Zoey sent him a look she’d perfected raising a bratty genius twelve-year-old years ago. She was immune to asshole older brothers like this. She had Caine, Luc, and Rafe, after all. Royal Davis didn’t intimidate her in the least. Well, not too much, and not that she would ever let show, anyway. Mostly, he just disgusted her now. He and the great Slater Davis. She had yet to make up her mind about her newyoungerbrother Quade. He was just watching, an overwhelmed look on the face so much like Simon’s. And Pen’s. That’s what it was—he was an older, male version of Pen. That rattled her more than she wanted to think about. “Well, here’s the deal, bigbrother. There are even more siblings out there. We suspect our biological mother may have birthed as many as twelve to fifteen other infants. She did this whole sold to the highest bidder or the fastest bidder depending on the circumstances thing multiple times. With the three of you added to the mix we have found eleven so far. And there are leads on others.”
“Yay, it’s a damned family reunion.” Royal once again. “We don’t give a shit.”
Royal was probably a real royal pain in the ass. “I get you’re not too happy about this. Neither was I when I was first informed. See, I wasn’t sold. She dumped me in foster care, because she didn’t want me any longer. I was being tested for some genetic conditions, and she panicked; twelve months almost to thedayafter she made a tidy profit from you, Royal. Happy almost birthday, by the way. Same for our youngest sister Penelope. She’s eleven years younger than I am and I ended up raising her. And there are others. Three in St. Louis, and four more in Texas.”
“This can’t be for real,” Quade said.
“It is for real,” Sydney countered softly. “And the people involved have hurt people. For decades. And they haven’t all been caught. That’s why we’re here now. Just to deliver information, more than anything. What you do with it is up to you.”
“What’s your stake in this?” Royal looked at her with disgust. “What are you after?”
“Your half brother is married to one of my sisters.”
“Sure he is,” Royal said. “Convenient.”
Sydney went on as if his opinion mattered little. “I’ve seen the pain the people involved in this have caused—to peopleIlove. Let’s just call it a personal quest to stop the people involved, sweetpea.”
“So what do you need from us?” Slater asked. “And how do we know what we tell you won’t end up all over the damned internet?”
“Please, the last thing I want is to be connected toyouonline. Yick.” Sydney’s disgust was hard to miss.
Slater’s scowl deepened.
