Page 44 of Zachary

Garrett snatches the phone from his hands and dances out of his reach. “No.”

Jaw dropped, Asher stares at him.

“Garrett’s right,” Ronan says. He sounds more composed now. “I don’t know the full story here—matchmaking and your jobs and the rest of it. I know she volunteers you for things, and I know your family runs on her whim. But you can’t report her to Gideon—this is Gideon Bailey? Your cousin?”

“Yes,” I murmur. “Why can’t we report her?” Because I can’t lie, right now, I really want to. My resort is a viable idea, and she never even let me tell her about it. Asher’s right—it’s time to be done.

“First, because it’s not your place. It’s mine. For this to have the most impact, the report would need to come from me—or Garrett. It would also need to be made officially, not in an angry phone call to a relative. Second, the minute you report this, we lose our leverage over Damaris. Right now, I can make her agree to anything I want.”

“I don’t know.” Cam pulls a face. “She’s pretty strong-willed.”

Ronan’s smile is one I’ve never seen on his face before. It’s not his hesitant social one or the genuine one that peeks through sometimes. This is hard and mean and speaks of a background I know nothing about. “Iwillmake her agree.”

There’s a tiny silence as we all digest that, and Asher’s face relaxes a tiny bit.

“And third,” Ronan continues calmly, as though he didn’t just claim he could take on the scariest woman alive, “if a report goes through and the consequences are what you said they would be, the village council is going to be in disarray. Getting approval for anything out of them will be that much harder.”

“Um.” Zoe half raises her hand. “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to know anything about whatever you’re talking about, so I can just go away for a while and come back later?”

Shit. I forgot that part.

“Can we trust you?” Garrett asks, and Micah sucks in a breath. I get it—this secret has the power to ruin our grandmother and potentially our whole family.

“Yes.” Zoe’s answer is firm and without hesitation. “I’ll swear it on anything. I’m Team… whatever team this is.”

We all look at Asher. He’s the oldest. He’s the one who was ready to burn everything to the ground a minute ago.

He nods. “Then let’s make a plan.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ronan

After a long dayof planning and research and a snowball fight on Saturday, I fell into bed exhausted, convinced I’d be asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.

I was wrong.

Instead, I tossed and turned, sleeping fitfully in short, dream-laden bursts before finally giving up in the quiet hour before dawn. After two nights of poor sleep, I’m surprised my brain can even function, but in fact, it’s churning at a million miles. I lie cocooned in my bed and stare up at the dark ceiling. Despite the many plans we made yesterday and the busy day—days, weeks, months—that lies ahead, all I can really think of is one thing.

One person.

Zac.

I’m not sure when he became more than just my liaison and guide. More than just someone I wanted to befriend. When I think about it, the immediate answer is “always,” but if that’s the case, why wasn’t it obvious to me from the beginning? Some deep-down sense of self-preservation, maybe. The instinctive need to maintain whatever distance possible from a man who could tear apart my control.

Because there’s no disputing that it’s gone.

Any last vestige of the years—millennia—of training and instruction and brainwashing thathedrilled into me has finally been ripped away. It’s been fading for a long time, bit by bit, in tiny pieces, but… part of me didn’t want to let it go. There’s comfort and safety in the familiar, even when it hurts. Even when it’s not good for you. Even when the whole point of it is to make you someone different.

And while the love and support my dragon family has given has helped me, I’ve never felt confident or secure enough to fully leave the past that imprisoned me behind.

Not until I saw Zac submitting to his own prison. Beautiful, strong, kind Zac, who gives of his time and self with no qualms. Whose love for his family and people is unquestioning. Who looked me in the eye and admitted he was wrong and apologized without excuse. Zac, who I’ve been drawn to from the first moment he flashed his bearded smile.

Zac, who I could never dream of being with unless we both smashed the chains binding us.

What I did Friday night and yesterday was selfish. The others might think different, but it was. Yes, the ski resort is a good idea and will be good for the village. Yes, I want Zac to be happy—to repay some of his kindness. But I want to be happy too. I want to be happy with Zac. And so I smashed their family to pieces.

Do I think it will be better for them all, healthier, in the long run? Yes. I honestly believe that. Bringing this out into the open will be good for the Baileys.

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