Page 86 of Sunrise

She waves my concern off. “It’ll be fine.”

“He knows something’s up with you, Soph. We’ve all known it.” Knox grabs her plate and brings it to the sink. “He’ll want to know the truth if we suddenly become temporary residents.”

That must strike a nerve because she freezes and drops her gaze. I almost thought Ryker knew whatever Sophie’s secret is, because he’s always so incredibly protective of her, but I’m starting to realize none of us really know her.

I don’t like it.

This feels like a strange kind of betrayal. Theonly reason I’m not exploding about it is because I truly believe she wouldn’t hide something from us unless she felt it was absolutely necessary. And if it’s like that, then it must be really goddamn bad.

My protective instincts kick into fifth gear. “We’ll play it by ear. But you will stay with one of us, or both of us, every night. That’s my only rule moving forward.”

She swallows hard, mulling it over. “I can do that.”

“Good.” Getting busy, I start gathering dishes to wash and Knox grabs cleaning spray from under the sink so he can hit the counters.

“Stop,” she orders. “I don’t want you doing that.”

Knox shrugs. “It’s fine, we got it.”

“I saidstop!” She’s irrationally angry over us cleaning her house.

Okay. Wait. Maybe it’s not irrational at all. Maybe this is another clue.

I raise my hands and back away from the sink. Knox puts the spray down and stands next to me. He’s only two inches taller than me, but sometimes, like now, he feels like a giant.

Sophie groans with her eyes closed and rubs her temples. “Fuck, guys. I’m sorry.”

We hold steady and keep silent as she collects herself. The woman I’ve fallen in love with is not the same one sitting across from us right now. I’m feeling a lot of ways about it.

“You can’t clean,” she explains calmly. And a fucking tear trails down her cheek. “I had a sub do that for me once… and it ended badly.”

My brows pinch together. “How badly, Soph?”

She gestures at the locks around her house and then herself. “Thisbadly.”

When? Who? If Sophie was having a Monarch Club member overstep her boundaries and scare her enough to turn her into this, then we need to know.

“Did you tell Ryker?” Knox asks.

Her eyes widen with more terror, which has the hairs on my arms rising.

“Sophie, if a Monarch member…”

“It wasn’t a Monarch member,” she quickly states.

The color drains from her face. She looks like she’s going to pass out.

Is she lying? I can’t tell.

If Sophie thinks meeting members outside of the Monarch will get her in trouble… she’s absolutely right. It’s not safe. Ryker will have a fit if he finds out.

“Please,” she begs with a trembling voice. “I…”

“It’s okay.” I don’t want her to think we’ll rat her out. “Just… don’t ever meet members outside the club again.”

“No, it wasn’t a member.”

“When was this?”

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