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I walk toward the man I haven’t seen in years, my heart hammering in my chest. My brother, Monty Bouvier.

God, he’s gotten big . Which is a silly thought because he’s a grown-ass man now, and the last time I saw him in person, he was only seventeen.

He stares at me with confusion on his face, and I see the moment he recognizes me. We simultaneously break into a run, our arms entwining around each other when our bodies crash together. He’s so strong now, lifting me from my feet with ease as my legs wrap around his waist.

Tears. Nothing exists except for the tears of sorrow and regret that stream down my face and soak his shirt. I can feel his own grief dripping down my neck.

We say nothing for the longest time, aside from murmuring each other’s names. His comes out as a question each time, as if to assure himself that it’s really me.

“Evie?”

“Monty.”

“Evie?”

We go back and forth like that until he finally pulls his head from my neck and searches my face. His blue eyes mirror my own, blue and extremely wet.

“It’s you.” His tone is awestruck and raspy as he touches my face and swipes at my tears. “It’s really you.” My brother’s voice is so damn deep now, but there are cracks between each word that I know match the cracks in his heart.

Because of me.

“It’s really me,” I promise him.

Monty shakes his head back and forth, his expression a jumble of wonder and confusion as he sets me down.

“Where have you been all this time? What the hell happened to you, Evie?”

Well, here the fuck we go.

I heave out a long breath and spit it out. “I was kidnapped.”

My brother’s expression transforms into one of rage, of the protective big brother, even though he’s a year younger than me. “By whom?” he grits out.

I glance over my shoulder at the man standing nervously near a tree about twenty yards away, his face a mask of apprehension as our eyes meet.

Dear god, Monty is going to kill him.

But I can’t let that happen. Because while Dane is the man who took me away from my family, the man who was my captor…

He is also the man I love.