Page 300 of Dark Love

It also doesn’t mean that I won’t punch you again sometime soon. This family thing is hard.

But kissing Dahlia isn’t. Nor is watching her smile. Or listening to her laugh. Time to do something against my better judgment.

***

“Wow!” Basil gasps at my apartment as he steps off the elevator with his parents. “Sweet penthouse, Man.” He steps forward, giving me a fist bump before wandering over to the wall of windows in the living room.

Dahlia doesn’t have the patience to wait long enough for me to greet her parents. “What’s going on? Why did you invite my family over all of a sudden?”

Eugenia steps out and places a hand on Dahlia’s shoulder. “Give him a chance to explain.”

“Whatever this is, it better be good. We missed our tee time.” Basil doesn’t seem all that bothered.

Basil is starting to irritate me. How could he not see what filth his friend is? Max checked there were no signs that her brother was involved, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take my eyes off him.

Dahlia’s dad wraps an arm around his wife and nods to me.

“I’ve never had much of a family before, but since I’m hoping to be part of yours verysoon—”

“Huh? What is Maverick talking about?” Basil turns to his mother.

“You have eyes. Look at him and Dahlia,” Eugenia snaps.

I’ve wrapped Dahlia in my arms, hoping to shield her from the pain of what I’m about to say.

“Oh. Sweet. Easy money the next time we golf.”

How can someone as wonderful as Dahlia have an idiot for a brother? “—instead of taking care of a problem myself, I thought we should do it together.”

“Problem?” Dahlia looks up into my eyes.

Is this going to trigger her? This was a bad idea. I should have talked about this with her mother first. But she needs to know that none of this was her fault. She was assaulted.

“Don’t even get all overprotective now. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

Rip off the bandage. “I found out who drugged you.”

Her brow wrinkles. “But I thought that was already taken care of.”

And I’m just explaining myself so well. “The first time. When you were fifteen.”

“Excuse me.” Eugenia’s voice could slice you open. “What do you mean the first time? My daughter has never been drugged.”

Well, you just dug yourself a hole. “Dahlia thought when she was fifteen, she got drunk at a party.”

“I did get drunk.”

“You didn’t. You were drugged.”

“But that’s impossible. I was at a friend’s house.”

“Monty’s girlfriend’s house.” Anger and regret rise in me as I watch confusion and fear run across her face. This was a bad idea.

“How do you know where I was? I didn’t tell you.”

Now to dig the hole even deeper. “When you told me what happened to you, I couldn’t let it go. Something felt off about the situation. And all of you should know this right now, I won’t let anyone hurt the people I care about.”

“We can do the touchy-feely stuff later. Who drugged Prue?”

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