Page 40 of Auctioned to her Stepbrothers

I’m strong enough to fight for them this time.

I’m big enough to stand up to Dick and for the truth.

When the bell rings inside the house, I take a step back, needing to put a little distance between myself and whoever opens the door. A flash of my mom’s panicked face as she looked down at me in this very spot on the night we left, spears me in the gut.

I hear someone on the other side of the door before it’s yanked open. Kylian stands framed by the huge doorway, dressed in the pants he was wearing when he left Club Scarlet, and an open shirt.

“Honor.”

His name on my lips doesn’t sound anything like it did when he whispered it earlier. It doesn’t sound the way it did when he was spitting his anger and falling back into the web of lies from the past.

It sounds dead, and it makes my throat burn.

“I need to talk to you.”

“There’s nothing left to say.” His hand rests on the edge of the door and he brings it forward by a few inches as though he’s going to close it in my face.

“Who is it?” Dick’s voice says from inside.

“You need to go now,” Kylian warns, his eyes widening just enough to reveal he’s worried about me being in the same vicinity as his father. He thinks he’s going to have to step between us again. I know he would do anything to protect me, and that everything he said was in part an attempt to avoid me being sucked into this horrible situation again.

He’d shield us all if he could, but not tonight.

Tonight, it’s my time to turn the tables.

Stepping forward, I rest my palm against the heat of his bare chest with as much pressure as I can exert. Ever immovable, Kylian, so determined to have his way. If he won’t let me in, I’ll go around him.

Ducking past, I inhale a lungful of the smell of a house that is nothing but ghosts to me.

“Honor.” Kylian’s hand on my upper arm is firm, but his touch feels considerate. There are no bruising fingers now.

“I need to show you something. I need you to understand.”

“There’s nothing to understand. Just walk away. Get in your car and never come back. You can drive off into the sunset with the money. You can walk away and never look back.” He inhales what looks like a shuddering breath, and as an afterthought, he adds, “You earned every dollar, every fucking cent.”

“I’m not leaving, Kylian. Not without you three. Not this time.”

18

LYLE

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

I’m in the kitchen getting a beer when I hear Honor. At first, I assume I must be imagining things, but then there's Dad’s voice, louder than usual. Ky and Nate, too, but by the time I reach the foyer, I find a strange sort of standoff happening, the four of them each at a distance from one another, no one saying a word.

Finally, Dick breaks the silence. “Who invited you here?” he demands of Honor, who’s such a vision of fair-haired goodness that she doesn’t make sense within these dark walls.

I step into the middle of the group. “She doesn’t need an invitation.” Turning to Honor, I ask, “Why are you here? Are you okay?”

Her bright blue eyes dart around to all of the other men before returning to mine. “I… I have things to show you.” After taking a deep breath, she adds, “All of you.”

Whatever she’s doing in this house, it obviously requires a lot of courage. Even if she doesn’t want to be here, she needs to be here.

“Let’s go sit down.” With a light touch on her shoulder, I steer her into the sitting room. As she takes a seat on a chair, she clutches a folder tightly in both hands.

I settle onto the side of the couch closest to her, and Nate sits next to me. Ky and Dad remain standing, Dad barely inside the doorway.

Again, Honor inhales deeply and looks down at her lap before raising her head and straightening her spine. “You have a lot of ideas about my mom,” she says, looking mostly at Ky, but also glancing at Nate and me. “Ideas that aren’t true. I brought documents to show you the truth.”

---