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The entire drive back to Arkadia, Madison sat with her arms crossed over her chest, fuming.

Connor didn’t know what he feared worse, the ass chewing he was about to get from his Ma, or the ass chewing his mate was probably planning in her tactical mind right now.

He wondered if he could sleep at Emmett’s tonight.

“Try it and I’ll skin you alive,” Madison said coldly.

Shit. He had said that out loud. He parked the truck at the diner one hour and twenty minutes later. He stared at the neon red “Open” sign.

“Go take your lumps like a man. That’s what you get for keeping secrets,” Madison said, opening the truck door before climbing out and slamming it shut.

He got out and joined her on the sidewalk.

“Why couldn’t Gabriel just walk outside to take the call?” He shook his head, holding the door open for his mate.

“Probably because he didn’t know you were a fucking Sentinel and thought you were in danger,” she said loudly.

Connor froze and looked into the diner from the doorway. Every head had turned to stare at him. He looked down and realized he had forgotten to change back into his diner clothes. Right now, he really did look every inch a Sentinel.

“Thanks, Madison,” he said with clenched teeth.

“Any time,” she said, smiling up at him sweetly, before waltzing by and taking a chair next to her brother.

Connor walked in and went over to where his ma waited for him in front of the counter, standing next to Pa who was sitting on one of the barstools.

“Hey, Ma,” he mumbled. His ma walked over who pulled him into a bone-crushing embrace.

“Don’t you ever scare us like that again!

Now. What in the world is going on with you, Connor?

You haven’t been sleeping, you’ve lost weight.

You’re distracted and distant. Are the Sentinels bothering you?

What did Madison mean when she said you were a Sentinel?

She is mistaken, right?” Ma fired off question after question.

He took a deep breath, held both of her hands in his, and led her to the table to sit next to Aleks and Rebecca. He nodded at Pa and sat next to his mate.

“Madison is right, Ma. I am a Sentinel. I was recruited out of college to work a serial killer case at the suggestion of my college advisor. He was also a shifter, and he knew that I applied what I learned about psychology and took into consideration the animal aspect of things. It’s why he suggested me.

The serial killer was suspected of being a shifter by Sentinel,” Connor explained.

“The trip you took to help battered women in Virginia?” Ma asked.

He nodded.

“We were tracking the killer. He was a wolf-shifter. He would shift to his animal and lure small boys out of their homes at night. He would abduct them, rape them, and hide the bodies in the foundations of houses that were being built that summer in a shiny new housing development.” Connor looked around the table.

Everyone looked horrified. Ma had her hand to her mouth.

“Once I figured out how he was getting the boys, we set up a wide net. I was the one who nearly caught him in the backyard of the house we were watching. The little boy was reaching out to pet him. He saw me and ran. When he realized we were closing in on him, he left a trail of boy’s bodies leading back here to Arkadia.

He was going after the one that got away,” Connor said and looked at Gavin.

All the blood drained from his brother’s face.

“That’s why you stayed by my side when you came back from school that summer. You were working a case?” Gavin demanded.

“Did you find him?” Rebecca asked in a small voice.

“Yes. I shot him between the eyes at the edge of the perimeter next to a broken block of cement,” Connor said quietly, hanging his head.

“Harvey Miller,” Bran whispered.

“We had to demolish every house in that development. You see, he had been working construction on those houses since they broke ground. In the end we found forty-two bodies. None of it made the news, of course. Sentinel and the council kept that quiet. But, that was the case where Sentinel decided it needed a shifter profiler. So, I took the job. It was my way of atoning for not taking care of Harvey Miller when I had the chance. If I had, those boys wouldn’t have died. ” Connor stared at his clasped hands.

“The trip to Vegas that summer?” Aleks asked, in a tight voice.

“I was recovering from the case. I had a bit of a breakdown. Depression, insomnia, nightmares. When I do this work I get inside the mind of the killer. While working the case, I’m haunted by the images of the dead, after the case I have nightmares where they blame me for not doing more.

Then as more time goes by, it gets better.

After a while, I couldn’t do the work anymore, so I came home.

They only contact me when it’s bad, and they have no other leads,” he explained.

He felt hands grab the front of his suit jacket. He was easily lifted out of his chair, before a large fist connected with his jaw. Stumbling backward, he was caught by Mojo, who helped him to stand. When he looked up he saw Aleks breathing heavily, rubbing his fist.

“How could you keep this a secret? I’m your brother, I could have helped you!” Aleks yelled.

Connor took three steps and got in his eldest brother’s face.

“What about you? You think I don’t know what happened in Raleigh? You never said a word either, so don’t give me shit,” Connor said, bumping chests with Aleks.

“That was different. That was one case. How many have you had, that have pushed you to the brink of hell and spat you back out?” Aleks demanded.

“I couldn’t say anything, Aleks. You of all people know that. I couldn’t bring this to our home, our doorstep. That’s not even taking into consideration most of these cases are classified,” Connor said, stepping back.

Aleks took a deep breath and pulled Connor into a hug.

“This is your one get-out-of-jail-free card. You try to pull this Lone Ranger shit again and so help me,” Aleks threatened.

Someone blew their nose loudly and Connor turned to see Rian wiping his eyes on a wad of napkins.

“Ri, it’s okay, buddy,” he said.

Rian twisted the napkins in his hands as Damian rubbed his shoulder. “It’s not okay. If you couldn’t go to your family, you could have come to me. I could have baked you a cake or given you a blow job or something.”

Connor buried his face in his hands.

“I have that covered now, thanks, Rian,” Madison said, smiling up at Connor.

He stopped and looked down at his mate. For the first time since they had met, she was looking at him with none of her normal defenses in place. He could see love and pride in her eyes.

“But, he was all alone.” Rian sniffled, breaking the moment as he dabbed his eyes.

“With all those awful images,” Rebecca said, her eyes spilling over.

“Carrying that heavy burden.” Ashby hiccuped as he cried.

“All those years,” Sebastian whispered, burying his face in Liam’s chest.

Connor looked around and was at a loss as to who he was going to calm down first. Rian had set off that damn Inner Court, emotional, pregnant wavelength. As if on cue, Kate and Nicholas came into the diner together, Caleb and Bran right behind them.

“Why are we crying? I was making a decaf vanilla frappe for Kate when the next thing I know we’re both crying,” Nic demanded. He and Kate sat next to Rebecca and Ashby, asking what happened.

“Shoot me now,” Connor groaned.

“Everyone just found out how amazing my man is. Tonight I’m going to do my best to start alleviating some of that stress he has accumulated over the years.

” Madison winked and looked down at his jacket pocket.

He patted his jacket and felt a distinct lump there. He looked down at the hem of her dress.

“You get him, gurrrlll!” Rian cheered, wiping his eyes.

“Sex him up!” Felix cheered.

Madison looked over to Felix and winked.

“Of course. Gingers are sex gods.”

Felix’s mouth dropped and his head whipped around to Claybourne’s.

“See! See! I told you.” Felix pumped both of his arms in the air.

Connor took advantage of the distraction and sauntered over to where Madison sat. He dropped his voice an octave.

“Ma’am, you’re under suspicion of contemplating public indecency. I’m going to have to strip search you.” He put his hands on his hips, displaying his Sentinel badge and gun. He heard his mate’s breath catch.

“Lord have mercy. That just went into the spank bank.” Rian sighed.

Connor looked over to Rian and, with a straight face, eyed the man up and down.

“Now don’t you cause any trouble, I know men who would love to do a full cavity search on a pretty boy like you.” Connor gave him his best cop face.

Rian’s mouth dropped and he swayed in his chair. Damian began to fan him with some napkins.

Connor turned his attention back to Madison, who was biting her lower lip and laughing. He grinned at her.

“Wow, Connor, like wow,” Kate said dreamily.

He winked at his friend and both Bran and Caleb growled.

“I can’t believe you have been hiding this all these years. Do you have a Sentinel windbreaker? They are hot!” Damian asked. And just like that his good mood evaporated. Madison stood and took his hand in hers.

“What? What did I say?” Damian asked, concern on his face.

“Nothing, sweetie, it’s just he learned of a friend’s death tonight and it involved the agent’s windbreaker, that’s all. Come on, Robocop. It’s time for good little fry cooks to go to bed,” Madison said, kissing the back of his hand.

“Call us, Connor, if it gets too bad. We’ll come over with comfort food any time day or night!” Rebecca vowed.

“We know you can’t tell us everything, but sometimes not being alone helps,” Felix offered.

“Even with all the shit you’ve dealt with over the years you were always there for us. You always made time to listen,” Bran said, admiration in his eyes.

“I can handle y’all’s problems. They are a relief after some of the stuff I have seen,” Connor admitted.