Page 11 of Mercy in Betrayal

“Yes, well, your brother will do that to a girl.”

“Ew.” I smile, but part of me can’t help but be wary of Evie. She’s a dangerous woman beneath her smiles and hugs. Is her sisterly veneer genuine, or is she just a cat playing with its food?

Clem meows as if sensing the direction my thoughts have taken.

Sorry, bub. You’re not like that.

“Do you know where Cassidy is?”

Evie nods at the terrace doors behind me. “He’s out there.”

Beyond the glass doors, the sky is the pale arctic blue of January, washed out and devoid of warmth. Evie’s—our—home is a penthouse, so the terrace is high above the streets of Manhattan and doubly cold. I look at Evie with wide eyes. “It’s freezing out there.”

She shrugs. “He doesn’t seem to mind the cold.”

Just then, Pup bounces around from the other side of the kitchen island, snuffling and pushing his nose against Clementine. Clem turns with a sniff and bounds onto the back of the sofa, where he lowers himself to a sit and begins cleaning his paw. There’s no aggression between the two animals, but Clem is clearly too professional to waste time on a young dog.

“Be nice,” I tell the cat and grab my coat.

Cassidy has his back to the inside of the penthouse as he sits in a chair with a cup of coffee in his hand. He isn’t wearing a coat or even a lightweight jacket over his long-sleeved thermal. I open and close the door quickly as I join him to keep Clem from following.

As much as I love him, the terrace is too cold for his paws.

The cup in Cassidy’s hands is no longer steaming, and the liquid is still at the brim. He doesn't notice I’ve joined him.

“Cassidy?”

He turns at the sound of his name, straightening immediately. “Row. Morning, kid.” Whatever thoughts or feelings he may have been processing disappear immediately behind a veil of brotherly affection.

He doesn’t talk about things the way he used to. Not business, not our family. I saw it in his eyes, though—that deep well of pain he couldn’t shutter quite quickly enough. “Ready for your first day?”

“I am. Got my bag all kitted out.” I gesture with my thumb to the messenger bag sitting on the table just inside. Cassidy bought it for me as a gift for getting accepted to Columbia.

“Good, good.” His gaze is warm. “I’m glad you’re going to have this experience, you know. It’ll be good for you, being around kids your own age. Doing normal things.”

I duck my head. “I know.”

“Things back home… They were far from normal. You saw things you shouldn’t have. Knew things you had no business knowing. It wasn’t—” he trails off awkwardly.

“Cass, it’s okay.” The entire conversation is awkward. We always had Derek and Mark around as buffers between us, comedic relief to lighten things up when one of us grew too intense.

We need that now.

We need them.

My eyes fill with tears, and my fist clenches in my lap.

“Rowan—”

“I’m fine.” I’m not fine, but I desperately need him to stop speaking. I’ll cry until I puke if he doesn’t. I smile at him brightly. “I’m good.”

RESET.

The door slides open, and Evie pokes her head out. “Come inside and eat. Now. No lollygagging. Christ, you’ll freeze to death out here.”

Rising, we make our way inside to sit down and eat at that big table like the family we are.

Reset.

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