In black and f.u.c.king white.

"Have you always known?" Colin asked as he handed it back and studied Marcus's face, looking for clues, for the family resemblance. Michael, Ryan, and Colin had plenty of differences, but they all looked like brothers.

Did Marcus fit the mold, he wondered. Marcus had the same eyes as Colin. The same square jawline. Colin saw shades of himself in this boy, and it was odd to be looking at him in this new light.

"Pretty much. Even if my dad and stepmom had wanted to hide it, they wouldn't have had much luck. My stepmom has, um"-Marcus held up his arm-"darker skin than me."

"Ah, got it," Colin said, speeding onto the next questions. There were so many, they were piling up, but he desperately wanted to make sense of this. "So there was no hiding that you weren't her biological kid. And you knew who your biological mom was, but Luke swore you to secrecy when you were younger?"

Marcus nodded. "Exactly. He told me they were threatened. That's why he left Las Vegas in the first place. He said once she went to jail, my mom and dad were threatened that I'd be hurt." He paused, drew a breath. "And I guess you guys, too."

Ryan flinched. "Are you kidding me? He said that? That we would all be hurt?"

Marcus held up his hands. "I don't know every detail. I was really young. All I know is what my dad told me-that it was too dangerous for us to stay in Vegas so he moved to San Diego with me and met my stepmom there."

Ryan dropped a hand on Colin's shoulder and exhaled, hard. His words came out dry and crackly. "You know what she said to me the other week? The last time I was there?"

"When she finally confessed to you?"

Ryan nodded. "She said, 'They told me they'd hurt you all. They told me they'd come after my babies if I said a word.' I bet it was T.J. and Kenny who said that."

The hair on Colin's arms stood on end as the full meaning registered. "Do you think she meant all of us?" Colin tipped his chin at Marcus.

But Ryan didn't answer. Marcus did. "That's what she's told me, too."

"She? You've seen her? You've met her?" Ryan asked then stopped himself, halting the conversation. "I gotta get Johnny Cash out of the car. Let's go inside."

A few minutes later, Colin let his older brother, the dog, and his younger brother into his house.

Younger brother.

The notion still didn't compute. "You go see her?" he asked the boy who had once just been another kid at the center trying to rise above. Now he was flesh and blood.

"I have before. A few times. Look, It's not like I have some deep relationship with her," he said, his tone somewhat apologetic. "Obviously she never raised me. I'm closer to my stepmom. But I've visited a few times. My dad took me. He knew it was important for me to go, and I wanted to know who my mother was."

"What was that like? Seeing her?" Colin asked, as he headed to the fridge to grab sodas. It was a natural instinct-invite someone into your house, offer a beverage. Maybe he needed one normal moment in the midst of this madness.

Marcus bit the corner of his lip, then answered. "She's..." He let his voice trail off, searching for words. "She's emotional, and she's not really-"

"She's f.u.c.king crazy. You can say it." Ryan heaved a sigh. Colin handed out the sodas then clapped his older brother on the back. Ryan had been hit hardest by their mom's incarceration, since he'd held onto the hope she might be innocent for so much longer than the rest of them had. It was only fitting that he'd be the one to voice the descent Dora had taken behind bars. "She's losing her mind."

Colin snapped his fingers as more puzzle pieces lined up. "Ry, that must be why she spiraled," he said, like he was the detective now, figuring out the clues. "That's why she started going crazy. She killed the father of her children, went to prison with another's man's kid in her, hid that child, and had the baby in prison. No wonder she's gone off the deep end."

"Prison alone would be enough, but add in the other things and she probably never stood a chance at staying sane," Ryan said sadly, cracking open the soda can.

That familiar action jarred Colin-the three of them drinking sodas at his kitchen table. This was the definition of surreal-the trio parked at the same table where he'd eaten his free-range eggs this morning, a slice of avocado on the side. Now, he was chatting with the instant brother who'd fallen from the sky and into his life this afternoon. And yet, he hadn't just appeared out of nowhere. He'd been skirting the perimeter. "Why are you here now, Marcus?" Colin asked. "Why did you want to let us know who you are?"

Marcus gulped. "I wanted to..." He broke off then dropped his head in his hands.

Colin's instinct to help kicked in. "Hey. What is it?" he asked softly.

"I feel so stupid," he mumbled.

"Don't feel that way, just tell me. Tell us."

Marcus raised his face. Glanced away. Swallowed. Looked back at them. "I just feel so disconnected sometimes from my family. I love them, but I feel like I'm not part of them. Like I'm not part of anything." He levelled his gaze with theirs. "My dad and I don't always see eye to eye, and my stepmom tries to include me, but she's busy with my little sisters, and I just felt like I was grafted onto their family. Like they were all just stuck with me. They had no choice but to take me." His voice turned colder, but sadder, too, as he added, "I was n.o.body's choice."

Colin's heart ached for the kid. His family had been blasted to pieces, but he'd always felt tethered to his siblings and his grandparents. "Is that why you were following us?"

Marcus nodded, a confession in his dark brown eyes. "I wanted to see what you guys were like. That probably sounds stupid, but once I moved out from home this summer, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I didn't lie to you about why I went to Shannon's. I'm part of the Protectors, and I went to Shannon's street as part of a patrol. But also to keep an eye on her. And since I knew your names, and found out you volunteered at the community center, I started going there to hang out."

Colin's breath caught as he processed this new detail. Marcus had been stalking them, but not to cause trouble. Rather to see what the Sloans were like. To gather intel. Colin had no idea if he'd have done anything differently in Marcus's shoes. "You knew who I was when you came to my math tutorial?"

"I did," he said with a nod, and a brief smile formed on Colin's face. He couldn't deny that he admired the h.e.l.l out of the way Marcus said those two words-I did. Because he owned it. He owned his actions. He stood by the fact that he'd been spying on them. "I wanted to know if you all seemed...well, cool."

Colin turned to Ryan, whose expression had softened. The initial shock in his blue eyes had been replaced by something else. Concern, maybe? That was certainly what Colin felt. This kid had been left unanch.o.r.ed in a crazy world, born in the strangest of circ.u.mstances, told to keep secrets. All he wanted now was a connection.

"Did we? Seem cool?" Ryan asked, a playful note in his voice for the first time since this conversation had started.

Marcus laughed lightly then gestured to Colin. "Well, you're the only one I talked to. And yeah, I think you're cool," he said. "And I think it's cool that I'm good at math, like you are."

"Me, too," he said with a smile.

"You need to meet Michael and Shan. They're pretty awesome as well," Ryan added.

"I'd like that."

Colin wasn't ready to invite the kid over for Christmas dinner, nor to break out the family photo alb.u.ms. He wasn't going to take him out for an ice cream and a pizza. But he didn't intend to show him the door either.

He did what he knew was best. Speak the truth.

"Look," Colin said, moving his chair closer to the table. "I don't know what to say. I'm floored. I mean, part of me feels like you were tricking me by talking to me while knowing what you knew." He chose bluntness. His mantra. His mission. No more lies; no more secrets. "But on the other hand, I get it. I probably would have done the same. You had a s.h.i.tload of stuff to deal with, and now I get why you made that comment in the car yesterday about not knowing it was me who was going to be driving."

"I didn't want you to think I was taking advantage of you. Of the fact that we're..." The careful words came out awkwardly, like he was afraid again to say "brothers."

"That we're..." Colin stuck on the word, too, then pushed past it. "That we're brothers."

That sounded so immensely weird. Even stranger without Michael and Shannon being there. He'd call them in a few minutes and invite them to share this bizarre moment. Then he remembered where he was supposed to be right now. At Elle's match. Looking at the time, he realized it was probably almost over, and a small bout of frustration coursed through him. He'd call her soon, too, and explain why he'd missed the match, and surely she'd understand. There was no doubt in his mind that she'd not only be cool with it, but she'd be keen to hear this news. Probably excited, in a way, that one of the boys she watched out for had done something brave.

Because that was what Marcus's appearance here today was. Yes, it was weird and bizarre and shocking. But at the core, Marcus was downright brave.

"I'm sorry to just spring it on you. There's not really a handbook for introducing yourself as the long lost brother. Or a Hallmark card. I was trying to figure out what to do and say, and then you talked to me in the hall at the center," he said to Colin. "That's when I realized I needed to get my act together and just man up and see you and introduce myself. That's what Elle helped me with."

The house went silent. His ears rang with that name, and a chill ran down his spine. "What did you just say?"

"Elle helped me," Marcus repeated, as if this was no big deal.

When it was a big f.u.c.king deal. A huge deal.

"Elle? Elle at the center?" he asked, as if there could possibly be another Elle.

Marcus nodded enthusiastically. "I've been talking to her since the beginning. She's been counseling me. She's kind of amazing."

That definitely described her.

Kind of amazing.

But for the first time ever, other words popped into his head. Words he'd never a.s.sociated with her before. Words he didn't want to a.s.sociate with her.

If he'd felt the slightest bit tricked before, that was nothing on how he felt now.

Elle Mariano was a liar.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

Her right thumb was trying to secede from her body. It was a lemming, fighting its way off the cliff of her hand.

Because...the pain.

The slicing, searing pain ripped through her hand in a tornado of hurt. She gritted her teeth, not wanting to cry. Don't let the opposing team see you weak.

Play had halted. Her teammates skated over where she was curled up in a ball on the rink. Janine wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her up.

"C'mon, girl. Let's get you some ice," she said softly, guiding Elle off the rink.

She whimpered as she skated slowly to the carpeted floor. Camille was there, ready with an ice pack. "Here, let me help you."

With her left hand, Elle waved Janine back to the floor. "Go. Finish. I'm fine," she said with a wince, as another wave of agony crushed the life out of her hand. Her right hip joined in the pity party, too, aching from where she'd smashed onto the hardwood of the rink, her hand and hip taking the brunt of the fall. Carefully, she sat on a bench at one of the tables.

The whistle blasted and her teammates returned to the track, the music blaring again, and the emcee bleating loudly on the overhead PA system. As the game whirled behind her, her sister pressed the ice pack on her traitorous thumb, wrapping it around to the wrist.

Elle flinched from the cold as the biting chill swept over her hand.

"You're going to be fine. I bet that smarts like h.e.l.l though," Camille said gently.

"Is it broken?" she croaked out.

"In my humble opinion as a self-appointed orthopedic nurse, I'm going to go out on a limb and say nope. But you should get it checked out."

Alex walked over and slid in next to her. "You okay, Mom?"

Elle lifted her face and smiled faintly at her son. He patted her back gently.

"I'm going to be fine."

He raised an eyebrow then peered at her hand. "You should get it checked out. Like Aunt Camille said."

Tough Elle slid back into place, and she shoved off the pain. "I'm okay."

"No. We need to take you in to get it looked at. Make sure it's not anything serious," Alex said, slipping into his role as man of the house. He dipped his hand into the pocket of his cargo shorts. "By the way, your phone went off. I didn't look, but here it is."

He placed it on the table, and the text message icon flashed on the screen.

Several times, indicating several messages. Her stomach plummeted when she saw who they were from.

She hurt a thousand times worse as she gingerly unlocked the phone with her left hand and read each one.

He pictured raging waters sloshing over the front of the kayak as he paddled through a rough spot. He jammed the paddles harder into the water than he needed to, but the current-the tension on the rowing machine-pushed back. He rowed faster, the equipment at the row club screeching loudly, as if it were about to snap. Part of him didn't care. Part of him cared deeply. Another part of him was p.i.s.sed, and the only thing that mattered was the battle he was waging with the machine.

And himself.

Maybe he shouldn't have said those things. Maybe he should have been smarter, kinder, softer.

But at the very least he'd been honest.

That had to count for something, didn't it?

The machine had no answers. As it simulated a river, the rowing machine simply jerked and pulled, and he fought back, wishing he were on the water for real, far away from land and able to totally disconnect.

But it was eleven o'clock at night, and this was the only way to fight the demons that whispered temptation in his ear. He was mad, he was frustrated, he was ashamed, and beneath it all, he was strangely happy, too.

For Marcus. For the chance the kid took and the chance Colin had to get to know him in a new way. For Shan and Michael as well. He and Ryan had taken Marcus to meet them, and it had gone well. But dammit. Today should have been something positive and good. Something that could represent a fresh start.

But the day turned sour when he'd overreacted. He'd been a total a.s.shole to Elle. Like Kayla when he broke up with her. He cringed at how s.h.i.tty he'd felt about himself when he saw her messages, and he hated thinking that Elle might feel that way now.

He wished he could erase those messages. Wished he could do the day over again. Pick up the phone. Call her. Or better yet, just show up at the rink and talk to her. Instead, he'd given her a taste of her own medicine.

But with far too much dosage.

Now, all he wanted was to spend the night with his onetime loves.

Patrn and pills.

Instead, he rowed. He paddled. He gripped. The sound of the gears slammed in his ears over and over. Soon, soon, it would drown out his horrible longing. It had to.

Oh G.o.d, please, it has to.