Page 93 of Forbidden Bond

That much was obvious. “My brother, he’s important, he’s a good man. I don’t want him left behind. You’ve got Jagg, I’m with Conn, and… Lach looked up to my grandfather, and my dad isn’t exactly the type to put his children first. We have to look out for him.”

“I’ll reach out, talk to him, but… he doesn’t trust me like he used to.”

When they were a couple.

Strat straightened a fraction. “Shit,” he exhaled.

“What is it?”

“Trouble at two o’clock.”

As she turned, it arrived.

“Lach?” she asked. Shit, how did he do that? “What are you doing here?”

Except he didn’t answer, just grabbed her arm. “Excuse my sister and me a second.”

Dragging her out of the booth, he pulled her to the door though they didn’t go through it.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

“What am I doing? My job as your sister. I’m worried about you.”

“Little late for that, don’t you think?” he asked only then releasing her arm. “Imogen is my business.”

“You broke up.”

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t want her involved. Don’t want any of our family crap tainting her, you hear me?”

“What are you talking about? Where is this attitude coming from?”

This hostility, the frustration, it wasn’t the Lachlan of old, this was exactly her fear, that he’d be hardened by events.

“She’s not to know.”

Not to know? What? The list of “could be” was long.

“About Dad?”

“About Dad, Vex, Byrne.” What the fuck? “None of it.”

“How do you know about Byrne?”

Vex was another question mark, but Lach would be more likely to come across information about him than a man, and contract, almost a thousand miles away.

“Baby sister, you made your choices, I’m making mine. Stay out of it.”

“Out of it?”

“My life. Your choices are yours, mine belong to me.”

“No deal, sorry. I love you. Haven’t we looked out for each other all our lives? You can’t ask me to stop now. Is that your plan? To give up on me?”

“I’m not giving up, I’m playing the hand, seeing this through to the end.”

What the hell did that mean? End of what?

“I need you more now than I ever have in the past. I need you, Lach.”

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