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“A—Are you alright?”

No, I wasn’t alright. I was pretty fucking far from alright. My parents were gone, my brother was dead, and now everything I owned was a pile of smoldering ashes. I could see it now; the flashing lights, the sirens, the EMTs and firefighters and police… all standing around, scratching their heads. Trying to figure out whether I’d been in there or not.

Shit, I may as well have been.

“We’re here,” the driver said, his voice reaching my ears for the first time. He turned to glance back at me, all rugged and masculine… but the look on his face was gentle and kind.

“I’ll put on some coffee.”

Four

MADDOX

She sat in the center of our kitchen, but not like some frightened puppy or helpless kitten. No, Dallas Winters dominated her space. The same way her brother would’ve, had he been here.

“You call this coffee?”

She spat back into the mug we’d given her and pushed it away. The black liquid sat at the edge of the table, sloshing back and forth with the momentum.

“It’s fresh,” Austin protested.

“It’s freeze dried,” she practically sneered. “It’s a bunch of crap you dissolve in boiling water.”

“So?”

She laughed, but I could tell it was one of those laughs to keep from displaying something else. A cover up. A plug, keeping the rest of her emotions in check.

“Never mind,” she said, more to herself than us. “Three grown men. Military men. And not a coffee maker in sight.”

I sat across from her, taking it all in. Dallas Winters. In the flesh. In our kitchen. Holy shit.

On the other side of the room, Kane leaned against the counter, arms folded. His gaze was fixated on her. Staring at her just as intently as he had a thousand times before, only never in person. Never this close…

“So out with it,” said Dallas. “How’d you know?”

“Know what?” asked Austin.

“Know when those guys were gonna break into my house at two in the fucking morning.”

We looked at each other, one by one. No one said anything. We hadn’t prepared for this moment.

“You knew, obviously,” said Dallas. “That they were coming?”

More silence.

“You didn’t just happen to be rolling down the street, all three of you? Pointing at houses?” she asked smugly. “Wondering if maybe that house needed help from armed intruders who could see in the dark? Men dressed in black, wearing… what did you call it? ‘Tactical nightgear’?”

“Okay, okay,” I said. “So we knew.”

“Yes, but how’d you know?”

“Because we were watching you.”

The words came from Kane. He said them slowly, evenly. Without the hint of apology.

“Watching me?”

“Yes,” replied Austin. “And it’s a damned good thing we were, because—”