Page 7 of Ransom

"Blair-fucking-McKenna is a woman! That's a pretty big fucking detail to leave out, Ransom!" Nick's all fury and drama as he storms into my place. Maverick, following right behind, is a little more subdued, but not by much.

I put my coffee down on the island and flatten my palms on the counter. I knew this day would come. They're too damn persistent to have left it alone forever, but I didn't expect it this soon. I'm not ready for it. "I asked you not to go there." Did I hope they would respect my wishes? Yeah. Did I know that was delusional?

Also yeah.

Maverick crosses his arms over his chest. "You did, but this shit was going south really fucking fast, Ran. You know that. You were asking us to bang our heads on the wall repeatedly. My assistant is on an all-expense-paid vacation in Hawaii thanks to this Blair woman. She is a little unhinged. You realize that, right?"

Long dark hair, flashing eyes, and that head tilt flash through my mind. "Yeah, I realize." Blair McKenna has always been a little unhinged. A little different.

She doesn't give a fuck what anyone else thinks of her.

Not even me.

Nick drops onto the stool across the island and pins me with a glare. "Don't you think it would have been helpful to have that information?"

He's asking about our history, I know he is. But I take one last crack at playing dumb, hoping they'll give me a pass. "The homemade glitter bomb didn't tip you off?"

Nick and Maverick trade glances, and I sigh. "Don't do that. Don't try to handle me. I shared what I needed to. Nothing more."

"We need more now," Nick says flatly. He's trying for firm, but it still comes out like a question. They never push back. They don't pry. They keep a respectful distance that I hate as much as I take advantage of. I could put them off again. But I know exactly how that will go. They're too fucking curious, and they'll stew over it. Then they'll get Declan involved, and before I know it, they will have pried into my whole past.

Maybe they have already. I can't know for sure. But they've never talked to me about it, and I'm grateful.

I'm not ready to share everything about my past. Everything I've lost. Everything I've done.

But I can give them some of it.

"What do you want to know?"

Another look. Then Maverick sits, resting his folded hands on the counter. "She seemed a little upset when we talked to her. She wanted to make it very clear that she wasn't going to sell under any circumstances."

"Made it clear how?"

"She said something to the effect of having to pry her cold dead body out from under a car when she's eighty. She sounded pretty damn convincing."

She said those exact words to me when she was seventeen, parked under the cover of a willow tree, head on my shoulder. When I met with Robert a year ago, after not seeing him for twenty-four years, I told him the same thing, yet, like a fucking idiot, I agreed to buy the garage. Key word is buy. Not offer, not annoy her with paperwork. Buy. Why the fuck did I do that? Why am I putting us both through this? "How… how did she look? Was she okay?"

Nick's eyes widen. "Okay? The woman is a fucking knockout. I was both turned on and a little afraid for my life." His gaze turns hazy. "It was really confusing."

Confusing. That's exactly how I felt about her when we were teenagers. Confused and fucking horny. Then, things got even more complicated. "That sounds about right."

"Did… fuck. How did you know her? Why did she seem ready to murder you if you showed your face?"

"Probably because the last time I saw her, she told me she'd stab me in the throat if she ever saw me again."

Maverick whistles. "Shit. She seems pretty fucking capable of doing it too."

"Yeah. She is. She's always been really fucking tough. And totally no bullshit."

"How do you know her?" Nick asks.

There are a lot of ways I could answer that. She's the daughter of the man that saved my life. She's the person I most wanted to fuck when I was fifteen. She's the woman I'm still in love with. I settle on, "She's my foster sister. I haven't seen her in twenty-five years."

"Fuck," Nick breathes, eyes bulging a little. "And she still hates you? What the fuck did you do to her?"

Broke her heart. Lied to her. Destroyed everything we could have had. Everything I dreamed of.

Saved her.

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