Page 81 of Pretty Threats

“Hey, brother. How are things going?”

“Yeah, good.” I wonder if he’s talked to C Crue leadership, and they’ve passed on that we fucked up part of our most recent mission because of me. The thought irritates me. The C Crue leaders already dressed me down and put me on notice. I don’t need a lecture from Liam, too. He’s not my boss.

“So, listen, I had a visitor this morning,” Liam says.

My frown deepens. Here we go. “Yeah? And what did Trick have to say?”

There’s a beat. “I wonder what he would have to say.”

“It wasn’t Trick? Then, who?”

“Raine came by.”

I’m hunched forward but that causes me to sit up straight. “And?”

“Whatever you’re doing, dial it down.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Neither do I, exactly. Forthcoming is not an adjective I’d used to describe her. Scared is, though.”

My gaze rises to her window. Without binoculars, I can’t see anything useful at this distance, but I look up anyway.

“Are you intentionally trying to intimidate her, Killian? Or is it just an unfortunate side effect?” Liam asks this in his typical mild tone. Even when people were trying to sue us and the cops were trying to put me in prison for a good stretch, he was calm.

I’m not surprised. After all, it’s not Marianne who’s scared. It’s Raine. She’s not even really family. If she was, he’d have talked to me about her a long time ago.

“Raine said I’m intimidating her? I doubt that.”

“She didn’t say that outright, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. And that’s not in question. You are intimidating her. You either mean to do it or you don’t. But the fact remains. She’s afraid of you.”

“If she’s upset about something, she can tell me herself.”

“So this is the first you’re hearing of it? She’s never told you to lay off? Never?”

“Raine is none of your business.”

“She’s my stepsister. That’s the same to me as to you.”

“You’re talking fucking nonsense. Do you mean to do it? Or is it an unfortunate side effect of you not knowing a fucking thing about her?”

“Killian,” he says, his voice hardening. “It’s me. The older brother who saved your ass all through high school when you went off the fucking rails. Don’t speak to me like I’m an idiot.”

I exhale a curse. “Yeah, you helped me out. And when you asked me to hunt down your wife, I did. No questions asked. I never said your turning up might scare her, even though she was clearly trying to hide from you. I didn’t say a fucking thing because she was your business, not mine.”

“Olivia wasn’t our stepsister. Olivia didn’t live with Ma or even know her. Raine gets to ask for my help because she’s family.”

“Raine doesn’t live at Marianne’s anymore. She’s eighteen.”

“So?”

“She’s not Marianne’s responsibility. Or yours. She doesn’t belong to anyone in Boston now.”

“That’s not how family works, and you know it. Every one of us is over eighteen, but if I ask Aiden for a favor he does it. The same goes for Luke and you. And if you were in trouble, adult or not, one of us—or all of us—will still show up. Always.”

“Raine is separate from that. She’s not blood to you guys.”

“What is she to you, little brother?”

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