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Then Asher died.
A piece of Ry went with him.
Ry’s world folded in on itself. He erected ten-metre-thick armour-plated walls around an impenetrable vault in which he locked his heart. He hissed like a cut snake at everyone and everything. He lashed out and drove away so many people. His so-called friends abandoned him in droves, leaving him even more alone. He was as rudderless as Zee and Monroe, and as devastated too.
Ry had lost his north star.
Grief reshaped him into someone darker and harder. But inside was a lost little boy.
Just like Ry’s mum did to Zee’s dad, Zee saved Ry. I wasn’t sure whether it was conscious or instinctual, but she gave him something to focus on. She became his purpose until he could navigate his way through the pain that he was drowning in.
At school, he protected her from the cruel kids who wanted to ask the gory details or speculate on how Ash and Rosa had died. He beat any person who opened their mouth until everyone was too scared to even cast a sideways glance at her.
Then when our hormones started racing and they saw just how gorgeous she was, their morbid curiosity changed. They used her as much as she used them.
Ry was there for the good, the bad, and the ugly. He never treated looking after her like a job, but that job was what had saved him. Ry had moulded his duties to be her shadow. He’d protected her from the worst of the men trying to get into her pants.
He’d protected her from herself too—her own destructive spiral was just as vicious as his—but when Zee was involved, Ry put aside his own pain and stepped up for her. I’d done my best to give Zee a soft place to land, to let her know she was safe with me no matter what happened, but it was Ry who’d actually kept her safe. He’d intervened with the dangerous ones, dragged others out by their hair, physically tossing them off the yacht on occasion. He’d made sure she got home every night and that the guys who’d come onto her yacht didn’t stay beyond their welcome.
Their bond was iron-clad, and they needed to rely on that to get them through this latest slap to the face that fate was dealing them.
I flicked my gaze to Ry. His eyes were glassy, his lips pressed in a straight line as he struggled to stay composed. He stared unseeing at a point on the wall, his hands fisting and unclenching as he tried to channel his anger and devastation.
Ez shifted, and I met his stare, a silent conversation passing between us. We knew exactly what needed to be done, and we worked in sync like we’d done it a million times before. Ezra spun the chair around, and we reached for Zee’s hands, pulling her to her feet. She went to step into Ezra’s embrace, but he turned her to face Ry instead. They collapsed into each other, Zee white-knuckling Ry’s shirt as he buried his face against her shoulder, his own shaking. I wrapped my arms around both of them and rested my head on her shoulder, needing to be just as close to her as Ry did. Ezra stepped aside, moving around Ry and tangling his fingers in Zee’s hair. He pressed a chaste kiss to her temple and sucked in a shuddery breath.
“We need to find these fuckers and make them pay,” Ry growled, his voice gravelly. “I’ll cut their fucking heads off myself.” Rage, deep and dark, vibrated off him, but he held Zee tight like she was his lifeline.
I shifted my hand, moving it up to squeeze his shoulder, only to find Ezra’s hand already at his nape.
“I want that too,” Zee whispered. “And I want Tristan.”
Ry stilled, his muscles locking up tight, and Zee responded by wrapping her arm around his waist, holding him closer. I hadn’t seen what happened between Tristan and Ry, but I heard the growled “Fuck you,” from Ry, saw the punch, and watched as he stomped away. Tristan hadn’t said a word about it, and Zee followed his lead, saying it was not her story to tell.
Ez replied, “I’d rather he was with us too. Do you want to go to him, or should I bring him here?”
“Here,” Ry answered without hesitation. It didn’t surprise me; Ry was a creature of habit too. He liked his routines and his space. He needed that, and I was proud of him for speaking up.
“Yeah, here,” Zee agreed, her voice muffled in Ry’s chest.
She looked at Ezra and his gaze softened with adoration. A warm smile tilted up his lips and he kissed her forehead.
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“Not at all. Like I said, I’d prefer he was with us too.”
I stared at the wall, shaking my head at the complexity of the graph Zee had created. The map of shareholders and their heirs looked like an upside-down tree with ReimagINC at the top and branches sprouting from it. Apart from the names, there were dollar amounts and bank account numbers listed for every entry. She’d meticulously set out every detail—details that I still had no idea how she managed to get her hands on. Zee had some serious ninja hacking skills to find it all out and be confident enough to rely on it.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen the graph—the earlier version had been pinned to Zee’s wall for a few weeks now, but she’d been working on it since then. Some of the boxes at the lowest level were highlighted. It looked like she was progressing through the list in alphabetical order, having done most of the first three letters with a few exceptions. Two boxes in the As and a lone box in the Bs. The latter stood out among the other branches; it was a level lower than the ones on either side of it. Whoever the investor was, they’d passed away and their heir was listed, or the company had closed and its sole shareholder was listed.
Tristan slipped in behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I snuggled back into him. “What are you up to, angel?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. I cast a glance at Zee, who was fast asleep on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket. I smiled at the way her nose twitched as a piece of hair fell across her face. Ezra was curled up with her, and Ry was up on deck. I suspected he was avoiding Tristan judging by the frosty reception he’d given the man on his arrival. But now that I’d heard the story, I understood why. It was wishful thinking that Ry would ever be attracted to any of us guys. He was about as straight as they came.
“Looking at this.” I gestured to the graph. “I think she’s highlighting the ones she’s verified, perhaps? I’m not sure what the highlighting is or what the different dollar amounts are.”
Tristan dropped a kiss to my throat, trailing his nose up to my ear. “She’s incredible. The amount of work she’s put into this far exceeds even what I’ve done.”
“It’s personal.”
“It is.” He nodded, his stubbled cheek brushing my own smooth one. I shivered, and Tristan chuckled, tightening his embrace. “I’ll keep you warm.”
