Page 107 of Forbidden Bond

“No!”

“Take me off payroll, won’t make a difference. I’ll still show up, I’ll still get in front of that bullet. Just means I’ll have to couch surf, but there’s plenty of beds in Stag.”

If Stag was even still there. God knew what mess they’d left behind.

“My brother hates me.” Didn’t he get it? How many different ways could she say it? No one understood. Yes, pathetic, but she’d never displeased Lach before, not like she had by being with Conn. And her father, it almost felt like her brother held her responsible for that too, somehow. “I don’t know how to make it right.”

Strat frowned. “This something to do with Vyne? You cut things short after he showed.”

“He’s always supported me. Always been on my side.”

If Strat couldn’t help her make sense of this, no one could.

“He’s still on your side. Love doesn’t go away just ‘cause someone’s angry.”

This wasn’t just anger, it went deeper than that. “He’s spending all this time with Conn.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know what they’re doing, neither of them will talk to me.”

And she wasn’t used to being so far out of the loop with either of them.

“It’s business.”

Did he just—he better not… “Do not tell me you know what they’re—why would they tell you and not me?”

“I don’t know. Believe me, I don’t.” Telling Strat would be tantamount to telling her. He’d share if he knew, wouldn’t he? “The guys have noticed Lachlan’s around the place when he never has been before.”

Was that a first? “Did you just call him Lachlan?”

“Yeah, shut up. If he’s going to be on the team, we’ll have to get used to him.”

Was that it? Her brother would be around long term? What did that mean for his job?

“Can he be a cop and—he’d never do it dirty.” The Lachlan she’d grown up with wouldn’t. The one who’d raised and nurtured and… she breathed out. “Shit.”

“What?”

“Shit. I figured it out. Damn, I’m slow. Spending so much time with my father killed a few hundred brain cells.”

“You figured it out? What did you figure out?”

“Will you take me to Lachlan’s?”

“We’re supposed to go to the mansion.”

“I don’t have my phone.” Strat was lucky she was dressed; clothes very nearly hadn’t been part of the deal. “You have to take me to his apartment so I can talk to him.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“And I have no patience. We left Conn behind, I don’t know if you noticed. You tell me the Byrnes are bringing down the roof, then expect me to toddle off to bed and get a good night’s sleep? That ain’t happening.”

“I have to follow orders. Boss says I’m close to my pink slip.”

“You’ll be closer to God if you ignore me.”

A phone rang. Strat’s phone. He dug it out of his pocket to answer. “Yeah…? Yeah, I got her.”

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