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“Stop speaking about her like that.” My patience is running thin. Kelsey has been through enough without being antagonized by a woman who is nothing in comparison.

She rolls her gaze at me. “Don’t forget you worship the ground I walk on. I can talk about your slut ex any way I want. Honestly, I don’t know what you see in her... Is it because she wants to be fucked by all four of you at the same time? Or is it the criminal element that makes her attractive?”

“Subtle, Sonatina.” I tried to convince myself I hated Kelsey, but really, I was hurting because I’d lost her. This... what I feel for Sonatina... now this is hate. Everything I care about is in this spoiled bitch’s hands and there’s nothing I can do yet to stop her. Except fall in line with her demands. But I’m going to work it out... how to get her out of our lives once and for all. “I get it.”

“Good.” She finally steps off.

I get to breathe again without her tainting all the oxygen while she busies herself with settling in.

Seeing Kelsey in the state Marco left her in. The bruises on her fair skin. Her poor swollen face. How am I ever going to make up for not being there?

I collapse onto the chair by the desk. Rub my hand down my face.

I thought I could enlighten Kelsey to why I’m doing what I’m doing, and she would understand. But she wouldn’t even let me explain. Marco physically injured her, but I let her down. I hurt her. Again. It makes sense that she doesn’t want to hear what I have to say. That she slept with Kodiak.

My head fills with images of the two of them together. Her riding him, her palms pressed into his chest, her head thrown back, her face slack with bliss.

Him on top of her; one arm at her side, the other holding her wrists above her head the way she likes as he fucks her into an orgasm that has her crying out for him.

Or perhaps it was gentler than that considering how bruised she is. Like I would be with her right now while she recovers. Was she in pain and he treated her like she was precious, taking his time to make her come? Did he tell her how much he likes her and how sexy she is?

It eats me up that she slept with him, but my emotions are muddied by my own stupidity. I’m not fucked up because they had sex. With the way things were going there’s a good chance something would have happened anyway. We were navigating this new kink she’d found in herself together. Maybe we were pretending that it wasn’t something we weren’t sharing, but for the most part it was.

I had her... she was mine... and I ruined that. That’s what is killing me. I could have spent the last two years loving her if I had just put Sonatina in her place.

I could have used the last few weeks earning her back instead of hating her. Trying to fix what I broke in us.

I’m not angry that she slept with Kodiak. I’m fucking shattered that she’s ready to let us go.

Every word I said to her I meant. It hurts, and it should. If this is what she needs to do, then I can take it. But we’re not done. I’m not giving up on us. I’ll do whatever it takes for her to let me back in.

My phone rings as Sonatina goes back to ordering Lennon around. Rebel’s name comes up on the screen. It was always only a matter of time before the brother who raised me would have something to say about my present predicament.

I answer the call as I walk out of the room. “Bro.”

“You’re engaged?” are the first words out of his mouth. In the background the triplets are making a lot of playful noise. I miss them a lot. Feels like I haven’t been back in ages. “You didn’t think that was worth a fucking phone call? We had to find out on social media.”

Sonatina straightens, her makeup bag in hand. She pauses like one of those predators in a nature documentary sniffing the air. Or in Sonatina’s case eavesdropping.

How did she know Kelsey had slept with Kodiak last night? How did she even know Kelsey was with us? Or that the guys all made sure she was very well taken care of while I was too busy being stupid, arrogant, and butthurt.

Was she listening in somehow?

She’d asked about Kelsey at the party, and I figured someone had let it slip on social media. But knowing that level of detail—that each of us had shared an intimate moment with Kelsey... Could she have bugged the hotel rooms? Or... our gear? Something else?

“Hang on.” I walk through the suite. It’s decidedly quiet. Kelsey’s bedroom door is open, the room empty. So are the guys’ rooms. My bandmates probably took Kelsey out to distract her from this mess with Sonatina. And so she wouldn’t have to see us together.

I wish I was there too.

“Don’t tell me to hang on. One minute you’re coming home and bringing Kelsey with you. Which, by the way... big fucking surprise. As far as we knew you two hadn’t spoken since Kansas. The next you’re engaged to Sonatina Savant? She wasn’t good for you the first time.”

“Just wait.” I stride through the suite looking for Rook, but he too is gone. Instead, I find Jasper. Crooking a finger, I call him over. When he joins me, I gesture at my room. “Don’t let her out of your sight. Do you get me? I want to know everything she does while I’m not here.”

Jasper nods.

I pick up my bag and put the strap over my shoulder as I exit the suite.

“How long do you plan on keeping me waiting, little brother?” Rebel’s curt question is followed by babbling from my niece. She’s such a daddy’s girl. And he is so whipped by his tiny princess. I’d joke around with him about it, like I usually do. Except now it just makes me want to break down and fucking cry.