Page 119 of Forbidden Bond

“So you’re just guessing? I don’t want to be…” Her eyes met Strat’s. “What do I do here?”

“Find out what he knows,” her friend said. “I don’t know what he knows.”

“You knew he was hanging out in the basement. I didn’t know that.”

Lach interrupted. “You don’t need to know everything.”

That attitude wasn’t appreciated. “Is it genuine? Your time with the McDades? You really want to be part of the family?”

“This is my sister’s world. You think I want her living in it alone?”

Though he didn’t seem as angry, his motivation still worried her. “I figured it out, you know,” she said, slipping off the desk to go to the decanter in the corner to pour drinks. “Your mood recently. I thought you were pissed at me.”

“I am pissed at you.”

“Yeah, but that’s not why. None of this is that.”

“No?”

Taking a drink to Strat first, her friend welcomed it. Shouldn’t be any need for him to drive again, he could drown in liquor if he wanted. After what he’d done for her, the least she could do was keep his ass safe in McDade World.

Her brother was next.

She put the glass in his hand but didn’t let go of it until he met her eye. “You’re pissed at you.”

“That I didn’t see this coming? Sure.” He plucked the glass from her fingers. “You and Dad do have something in common, your secret lives.”

No longer so secret.

“I chose Conn. This life comes with the man I love.”

“Yeah. And this life comes with the sister I love.”

“You think you let me down. The way you’ve been with me, it’s not ‘cause you’re pissed at me for falling in love with Conn. You think something you did, something in the way you raised me, did this to me.”

“I trust Ire wouldn’t hurt you.”

“No, he wouldn’t.”

“But as long as you’re in this family, so am I. We’re all each other has, our only link to our past. You’re my blood, Sersh. The only blood I’m proud to have.”

Even in spite of her life choices?

Kicking him out of the McDades, demanding he live a righteous life, she’d be isolating him. Lachlan couldn’t rely on their father; they’d never been able to do that. Accepting her meant accepting how she lived, who she loved.

The sting of tears in her eyes diverted them. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I love you. I’d do anything to keep you safe and happy. Anything.”

“Don’t you see that’s what I’m doing? Keeping us together, you and me, we stick together. Didn’t I always tell you I’d never be mad?” A tear skittered from her lashes, another blurred her brother’s features. “You call me and I’ll always come get you, I’ll always be there for you. I’m never mad. It’s my job to protect you, to support you.”

Just as hers was to Conn. “I care about the McDades. About Conn. They may not be the most virtuous, but they haveintegrity. Doing the right thing matters to them. It’s just… the right thing for the family.” Even if that meant breaking laws or bones. “Conn loves me, Lach. Honestly loves me.”

“If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be here. I’m not spending time with him, and the family, to trip them up or call them out. Dad’s taught us there isn’t a virtuous path. Even those we think are on it are ultimately out for themselves. Sometimes doing the right thing is about love.”

Love for a sibling. He was there for her.

“I thought you were mad at me, and I couldn’t—it wasn’t that. You thought you did something wrong, that in raising me, you’d let me down, set me on this path.”

“Whether I meant to or not, I did. We’re here—”

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