Page 87 of Barristers & Bones

“What didn’t you know, Sweetness?”

“I didn’t know my father was a partner in Bitter Creek Ranch.”

He was still in his clothes from yesterday. It didn’t look like he’d been home yet, and there were bloodstains on his shirt.

His body locked, and he studied me carefully. “How did you find out?”

I sat up and scooted back, my heart sinking as I wrapped my arms around my knees. A small part of me had hoped he didn’t know–that it had all been a crazy, cosmic coincidence I’d ended up as his intern. Would I ever get away from my father’s reach and his ability to wound and damage me?

“Alexa figured it out. The internship, my being from Arizona, and the Ranch being located there didn’t add up for her. So she dug around last night and found tax documents that linked him.”

“Get your things, let's go.” He turned and started walking out of the bedroom as if he expected me to follow him.

“Am I safe with you, Roman?” I asked quietly.

He stilled, his head down as he faced away from me. “No, and not for the reasons you think. But you’re mine now, and I vow to keep you safe from everyone else.”

He walked out, and I slowly got out of bed and dressed. The house was quiet and dark in the early morning, and when I entered the kitchen, he and Fenn stood glaring at each other. The silence felt deadly, and I almost wished they were yelling instead.

Shouldering my backpack, I cleared my throat. “I’m ready.”

Fenn didn’t break his stare. “You don’t have to leave with him. You can stay here with Ezra or, better yet, move in with me again–just like old times.”

Roman’s eyes glittered dangerously, and Fenn was purposefully trying to bait him. Sylvie and I had sometimes stayed with him when Ezra went out of town before we moved into the mortuary apartment our senior year in high school.

“Thanks, Fenn. But I need to go home and figure a few things out.” I turned to Roman. “Can we go through a drive-thru and pick up coffee on the way? I need caffeine badly.”

Roman smirked at Fenn. “Yes. We’ll hit a drive-thru on our wayhome.”

Fenn shook his head. “She called your place ‘home.’ I get it, you fucking bastard. But if you still plan to use or hurt her to get to Montgomery Cross, know this. I will hunt you down personally and do my best to take you and your partners out. I’ve lost enough family, and I refuse to lose anyone else.”

His words warmed and chilled me all at once. As I felt the animosity and anger swirling around these two men, I realized what a horrible idea it was to have them in the same space when emotions were running this high. They were both extremely alpha and used to controlling their environments and the people around them.

Even knowing all that, I walked over to Fenn and cupped his cheeks. “Thank you for loving me like your own sister and protecting me when I was so vulnerable and lost. You, Kilian, and the twins are my brothers, and I would die for you. But now I need to find out where I stand and see whether Roman and I can work through this, or part ways and call it a day. If that happens, I’ll need your help again.”

He kissed my forehead as Roman growled behind me. “Get your fucking lips off her.”

We both ignored him, but I knew what Fenn was doing. “Stop flipping him off behind my back. Please keep Alexa and Sylvie safe, and tell Ezra I’ll call him later today.” Then I walked over to Roman, took his hand, and pulled him out of the house.

I sipped my large coffee and studied his profile on the way home. “What happened last night, why do you have blood on your shirt, and where's Lionel’s safe house?”

His lip quirked. “Lionel got away, but he has a bullet in his thigh, and his soldiers are… incapacitated. You make me fucking daft. We’re going to have a long talk about what will happen if you keep putting yourself in danger.”

“You already mentioned that, several times.”

“If you hadn’t used that taser on the driver, we may not have gotten to you in time. Where the fuck did you get something like that, anyway?”

I decided not to tell him Fenn had given it to me. “Where’s his safe house?”

Roman shook his head in disgust. “In a penthouse condo just off the Strip, if you can fucking believe it. The man’s a moron.”

Chapter 28

Luna

Despite knowing about my father’s involvement, and understanding more about Roman’s reasons for forcing the internship, I was still relieved to be home. Roman’s house had grown on me, and having my things scattered around made it feel more like my home.

A stack of books littered his coffee table, and my hoodie hung on the ugly modern sculpture in the entryway. His house wasn’t as pristine and lifeless as it had been the first time I saw it. But now, I needed to reassess whether I could stay here with him.

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