Page 89 of Knuckles & Knives

He ends the call and stares at the phone for a long moment, his platinum hair falling across his forehead as his composure finally cracks.

“Kieran?” I ask quietly.

“They know.” His voice is barely above a whisper. “About last night, about my involvement with you, about everything. Someone talked.”

“Richard Sterling,” Marcus says immediately, his analytical mind connecting the dots. “He must have contacted family members before we took him.”

“Doesn’t matter how they found out,” Kieran replies, straightening to his full height with rigid control. “What matters is that I’ve been summoned to explain my betrayal to the family council.”

The word ‘betrayal’ hangs in the air like a physical presence. Kieran hasn’t just chosen me over his blood relatives. He’s actively working against the empire that raised him, trained him, and groomed him to inherit.

“What are you going to tell them?” I ask.

“The truth.” His ice-blue eyes meet mine across the room, and my chest tighten as I recognize grief. “That I chose you. That I choose you over everything they represent.”

“Kieran,” Dom rumbles, his protective instincts extending even to his romantic rival. “They’ll disown you. Cut you off completely.”

“Worse than that,” Kieran corrects with bitter accuracy. “The Sterling family doesn’t just disown traitors. They eliminate them.”

“Then don’t go,” Axel says bluntly, his wild energy focused on the practical solution. “Stay here. Let them rage and threaten. What can they actually do if you’re protected?”

“You don’t understand,” Kieran replies, moving to the window and staring out at the industrial landscape beyond. “The Sterling family isn’t just a criminal organization. It’s a dynasty built on absolute loyalty. If I run, if I hide, they’ll hunt me for the rest of my life. More importantly, they’ll go after everyone I care about.” His gaze shifts to me, and the raw emotion in his eyes almost breaks my composure. “They’ll go after you. All of you. And they have resources that make Richard’s operation look like amateur hour.”

“So what’s the alternative?” I ask.

“I face them. I tell them exactly where my loyalties lie now, and I accept the consequences.”

“Which are?”

Kieran’s smile is sharp and bitter. “Complete excommunication from the family, forfeiture of all Sterling assets and protections, and likely a kill order that will follow me for the rest of my life.”

The magnitude of what he’s offering to sacrifice for me… He’s choosing to burn down everything he’s ever known, everything he was raised to value, everything that made him who he is.

“There has to be another way,” I insist, my strategic mind racing through possibilities. “Some kind of negotiation, some middle ground?—”

“There isn’t.” His voice carries absolute certainty. “I’ve crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed. The moment I chose to work with Vincent Blackwood’s daughter instead of killing her, I became a traitor to everything the Sterling name represents.” Heturns from the window to face me fully, his ice-blue eyes burning with something that looks like liberation mixed with devastating loss. “Do you know what the Sterling family motto is?” he asks.

I shake my head.

“‘Blood above all else.’“ His laugh is hollow. “Blood loyalty, blood bonds, blood sacrifice. Everything we do is supposed to serve the family bloodline above personal desires or individual conscience.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m choosing something else entirely. I’m choosing love over blood. I’m choosing you over everything I was raised to believe was sacred.”

The declaration should feel like victory, but instead it settles in my chest like lead. This decision, though, is costing him the fundamental destruction of his identity.

“Kieran,” I say carefully, “if you do this, there’s no going back. Ever.”

“I know.”

“Your family will never forgive you. They’ll never accept you back.”

“I know.”

“You’ll lose everything—your name, your inheritance, your protection, your identity as a Sterling.”

“I know.” His voice breaks slightly on the repetition. “But the alternative is losing you, and that’s not a choice I can live with.” He sighs. “I need to go,” he says, checking his watch with mechanical precision. “The family council doesn’t wait, and showing up late would be seen as additional disrespect.”