Page 179 of The Broken Note

The line clicks.

She hung up.

“What was that about?” Zane asks.

Finn’s gaze is steady on my face. “Nothing good.”

“Cadence is in London,” I croak.

“We knew that,” Zane says cockily.

“With Hunter.”

Both my brothers fall silent. They were with me that day in the diner when Cadey acted like Hunter was her boyfriend.

I show them the pictures of Cadence kissing him.

Finn frowns.

Zane pales.

“What are you going to do?” Zane asks me.

I fall into the chair, unable to find the strength to stay upright. Cadey’s betrayal cuts deep and I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can survive the angst. If I get her back and she’s pregnant, will I have to hold my breath until I find out whether the baby’s mine? And what if it isn’t?

“Dammit.” Zane plops into the seat beside me. “No one would expect you to raise another man’s kid, Dutch. It might hurt like hell now, but you can cut your losses. No one would blame you.”

I drop my head in my hands and scrub my cheeks.

“Dammit!” Zane’s voice is louder now.

I squeeze my eyes shut. My knee is bouncing like I’m already on the plane experiencing turbulence.

“Why the hell aren’t you saying anything?” Zane flings the words at Finn.

“Nothing I say matters.”

“Of course it matters.”

“No, the only thing that matters is what Dutch wants.”

I look up at my quiet brother.

He meets my stare head-on. “This is the moment you decide if you meant all that crap you said about her.”

“It’s not that simple, Finn.”

Finn ignores Zane’s outburst. “Did you really love her? Or did you just want to own her?”

“Of course he loved her. But this is… man, this is insane.” Zane paces up and down.

“Now that she’s of no use to you, now that it can cost you something, now that you really have to sacrifice what you want, what will it be? Does she still belong to you? Or did she only belong to you when she did what you wanted?”

Finn’s words lodge in my brain. I fight them as hard as I can, my instincts going wild.

I’ve always lived in full self-protection mode.

My world.

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