"I've been kinda busy, Liv," Georgie replied. "I said date the guy. You dated the guy, okay. Then you broke up with him without clearing that with me. Not okay."

So now my sister thought she owned me.

I didn't acknowledge her ludicrous reply.

I asked, "And did it occur to you to maybe ask if I wanted to get involved with Dustin Culver for a night or two or, say, the rest of my life?"

"You might wanna watch your mouth, girl," my father warned.

I looked to my father, taking another step back, which was chicken, but doing it saying, "No, Dad. I wouldn't," which scared the s.h.i.+t out of me saying it but it was very much not chicken.

Dad's face screwed up, his body tightened, and mine did too because I knew he was about to lose it.

But I wanted him to.

I wanted him to beat the living daylights out of me.

And when I crawled to the police and pressed charges then went home to Nick with the umbrella of protection he could offer me, I wanted to watch them squirm.

Because I heard things. I did things.

I knew things.

I knew better than to turn rat. I had Shade blood running through my veins. That was never going to happen.

But I'd never been one of them. I'd never fit. They knew that.

So they didn't know I'd never turn rat.

I was done.

Utterly finished.

Nick could keep me safe. He'd promised. And even Dad had said he and his brother were untouchable.

He'd make me the same way.

I believed.

I f.u.c.king believed.

So f.u.c.k them.

"Tom," Georgia muttered, turning slightly toward Tommy, who was now on the move, coming my way.

"I'd really rather it was Dad who finished the job, Tommy," I told him.

"Quiet, Liv," he murmured, getting close.

Taking my elbow in a firm grip, he turned me to the door.

"Good. You get him to get her outta my f.u.c.kin' sight and then you get her s.h.i.+t sorted, Georgie." I heard Dad order as Tommy escorted me to and out the door. "You get me?"

"It'll be handled, Dad," Georgia replied, managing to sound both conciliatory and annoyed.

It'd be handled, my sister offering me up as Shade property.

Oh yes, I was so done with my family.

Tommy shut the door behind us and I let him walk me five feet down the hall before I tried to twist my arm free.

His grip tightened to the point of pain, and in surprise, my head shot to the side and back to look up at him.

He'd never touched me like that.

"Tom, let me go," I hissed, twisting now not only to get loose but against the pain.

"Shut the f.u.c.k up, Liv," he clipped angrily, not letting go but now manhandling me toward my old office and in.

Everything was still there except my personal effects. The decor. The furniture. Nothing had changed.

And I would find, in short order, that was agonizingly correct.

Nothing had changed.

Not.

One.

Thing.

Tommy pulled me in several feet, let me go and shut the door.

He turned to me and I braced in shock when I saw his face was a mask of fury.

"Are you f.u.c.kin' stupid?" he whispered, his tone harsh with rage.

"You know," I returned conversationally, "I don't need you to be ticked, Tommy. My father striking me four times to push the point home about Dustin Cul-"

Suddenly, he rushed me.

I scurried back, hit a chair, hit a table and hit wall, Tommy pinning me there with his body and his anger.

"I'm not talking about Culver, Liv. I'm talkin' about Nick Sebring."

Fear slamming through me, I stopped breathing.

"Yeah," he bit off. "Harry told me."

Oh G.o.d.

Harry?

I didn't have to verbalize the question. Tommy was more than ready to give me the answer.

"Taught you how to take the tracker off your car. Taught you how to spot a tail," Tommy explained. "Seein' as it's comin' clear you got s.h.i.+t for brains, never occurred to you, he taught you how to spot a tail, he'd know how to tail you without you spotting him."

"But why would he even do that?" I asked quietly, unable to make my voice even a normal volume.

"For money. For me," he ground out, jerking a thumb at himself miraculously in the minimal s.p.a.ce he'd allowed. "For us," he went on.

I shook my head. "Us?"

"f.u.c.k, Liv, do you pay attention at all?" he asked.

Apparently, I didn't.

But I thought I did.

"Tom, I-"

"Your sister is taking over," he said low, getting even closer to do it. "Your dad's goin' down, Liv. She's maneuvered him right out. He's been so taken up with findin' new sources of horse and blow, comin' up with crazy-a.s.s bulls.h.i.+t schemes like marryin' his daughter to some a.s.shole he's convinced is gonna be the next f.u.c.kin' president, for f.u.c.k's sake. Not to mention, generally f.u.c.king things up doin' stupid s.h.i.+t, like gettin' caught up in that human trafficking bulls.h.i.+t that almost brought us all down. He didn't see it."

There was a lot there, none of which I got to process because Tommy was still speaking.

"Now, when Georgia's in charge of things, and she will be and she will be soon, things'll change. And those things changing means I get you. You get me. She gets Gill. Your dad gets ousted however she's got planned to oust him and she's got plans, Liv. Make no mistake about that. She is not f.u.c.kin' around. Not anymore."

I stared up at him, lips parted, frozen in disbelief.

This went on for too long and I knew that when Tommy clipped out, "You wanna snap out of it?"

"You get me?" I asked.

He moved away half a step and tossed both hands up in exasperation. "f.u.c.k, Liv, what do you think I've been eatin' s.h.i.+t for the last six years?"

I could not believe this.

"Your wife is pregnant," I pointed out.

"Yeah, and when I dump the b.i.t.c.h, the kid'll still be mine. He'll be raised half the time by you and me, which might suck, but kids deal with that s.h.i.+t all the time. He'll be good."

I could not believe this!

"When you dump the b.i.t.c.h?" I asked.

"Liv, I'm in love," he pointed a finger less than an inch from my face, "with you. We're gonna make kids. You're gonna do whatever you do at David's office. I'm gonna run Georgia's crew. And it's all gonna be the way we wanted it to be."

"If it's all gonna be the way we wanted it to be, Tommy, how is my cousin pregnant?"

He shrugged.

Yes.

Shrugged.

Then he explained, "It took Georgia longer than she expected. I kept ridin' her a.s.s. She told me she'd deliver. I saw the fruits of her labors, they came slow, but I saw them so I trusted her. In the meantime, your dad kept givin' me a load of s.h.i.+t for not knockin' up my wife. The b.i.t.c.h I got at home was also givin' me s.h.i.+t. To shut them down, keep a lid on it, make them think I was still cowed and to give Georgia time to do what she needed to do, I knocked her up."

Was I once in love with this man?

"Tommy," I started for reasons I didn't know due to the fact this conversation was moot. Regardless of what he thought, there was no him and me. "You'll remember the way we wanted things to be was not being involved in this life."

"Babe, love you in a bikini on a Jet Ski. Love you in a bikini anytime. But you start havin' my babies, the bikini will be out and you'll have kids to take care of, so the Jet Ski will be out too. That was us bein' young and stupid. This," he pointed to the floor, "is our life."

"It isn't my life," I told him. "Or at least I don't want it to be, Tommy, and you know that."

"It isn't yours," he agreed. "You're right. But it's mine. It'll put food on our table. It'll keep us with the family. You do what you gotta do, babe. You leave the rest to me."

I held his gaze as I stated softly, "I cannot believe you're saying these things to me."

He shook his head in annoyance. "I can't believe you can't believe it, Liv. f.u.c.k. You're the love of my G.o.dd.a.m.ned life."

"Did you think of sharing that sometime in the past six years?" I asked.

"I did every time I looked at you," he answered tersely.

This was, I had to admit, true.

"Perhaps you could have used your words," I suggested. "And/or my sister using hers."

"The less people in the know with that, the better. And she was worried. Worried you couldn't keep your s.h.i.+t together. You're sensitive. s.h.i.+t bothers you. You wanted out of stuff, she was diggin' in deeper. We had to keep you in the dark. She saw that s.h.i.+t happen to you and me, she and Gill were gettin' it on, they were tight, things were intense, she knew your dad would shut that down with them. Took her a long f.u.c.kin' time, but she got it sorted. For her and Gill and for you and me."

All of this, all of it, was a surprise to me. My father, my sister, my ex-lover, none of them thought enough of me, my thoughts, wants, needs, even to discuss my own d.a.m.ned future with me.

That didn't matter.

It was too late and Tommy needed to know that.

"I'm with Nick now and-"

"Right, Nick," he interrupted me, spitting out Nick's name furiously. "That's a pile a' s.h.i.+t you created, Liv. Now Georgia's gonna have to deal with him and do it slick 'cause if he's not dealt with right, that brother of his is gonna lose his mind, drag Sloan into it and Denver will be at war. We're buildin' up, we don't need that kind of ha.s.sle."

Unease started creeping.

"Georgia hardly has to-" I began, only to get cut off again.

"Babe, you don't know, you would have totally f.u.c.kin' lost it, Georgia f.u.c.kin' lost it when she found out and that was when her plans went into hyperdrive. But when your dad got messed up in that human trafficking s.h.i.+t, it was not pretty."

He'd been saying so much to me I couldn't believe, I'd forgotten he'd said those words previously.