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My eyes snap up to meet my brother’s, and I know he can see the disbelief.

“I don’t blame you for not believing that and I’ll admit that when I first went away, I had a lot of bitterness. But… prison changes a man. Sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better.”

“And let me guess,” Penn cuts in so sardonically, I wince at the bite in his words. “You changed for the better. Well, I don’t fucking believe it.”

Penn bristles with anger and now I touch him in comfort, resting a hand on his forearm.

I look back to Peter, whose eyes are pinned to where I’m touching Penn.

I can’t imagine what he’s thinking… likely wondering what that touch means, but I don’t care about that. “How about you tell me what you know?”

That seems easy enough.

Peter nods, pausing before he responds. “Jace wrote to me after he got out. Said we had unfinished business. Kept going on about ‘justice.’ At first, I thought he was just angry. But then it got darker. He started talking about you and Penn. About hurting you both and he assumed I’d want the same.”

My stomach twists, my fingers clawing into Penn, but he doesn’t flinch.

“I played along,” Peter continues. “I told him I agreed. Wrote back, let him believe I was on his side. I needed to understand what he was planning.”

“You just played along?” Penn growls. “Or were you actually in on it and now that Jameson is involved, you’re just saving your own skin? Because it seems to me if you were really concerned about your sister, you could have reached out to her while in prison to let her know.”

“I was playing along,” Peter says with a hard edge to his voice, eyes lasered onto Penn.

“I didn’t take it seriously. I honestly thought he was just venting.

Angry now that he was out and realizing that his life was shit.

But Malik told me all the things he’s been doing, and I knew the situation was dire. ”

“Did he offer specifics?” I ask.

Peter shakes his head. “No. But when I realized he wasn’t just blowing off steam, I told him to drop it. Told him I wasn’t part of this. He ghosted me after that.”

Penn’s voice is like ice. “And you expect us to believe you’ve changed?”

“I don’t expect anything,” Peter says, meeting Penn’s glare. Then he turns to me. “But I want to help.”

“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” Penn retorts. “Isn’t killing someone enough?”

Peter goes paler than he already is and his eyes fill with sadness.

“That’s a mistake I have to live with every day for the rest of my life.

But maybe I can make things up to Mila by helping.

If Jace still trusts me, maybe I can draw him out.

Get him talking again. Help set up something that ends this. ”

I glance at Kynan, and I can tell by his expression he’s on board with this plan. I look back to Peter, studying him carefully. His words. His face. I try to see the brother I used to idolize—the one I lost the day I told the truth.

“I know I don’t deserve anything from you,” Peter adds. “I let you become the pariah. I stayed quiet. I didn’t defend you when Mom and Dad turned their backs. I was a coward, and I thought silence would make it all go away. But it didn’t.”

He falters. “I’m sorry, Mila. For everything. For Nathan. For our family. For not being your brother when you needed me most. I am so very fucking sorry for everything, and I know I don’t deserve it, but I’m hoping one day you can forgive me.”

His emotion breaks something in me. Cracks my heart in half and intense pain hits right in the center of my chest. But something else fills up inside, and if I had to guess, it feels a little like empathy.

I stand slowly from my chair. Penn takes my hand, tugs on it to get my attention. I can see how concerned he is, but I squeeze back. “It’s fine.”

He nods, releases his hold on me. I walk toward Peter who watches me warily, but I can see the hope swelling within eyes the same blue as mine.

He stands when I reach him and then… I simply hug my brother. He’s stiff at first, as if personal contact is foreign to him, and I suppose it is. He’s been in prison. “I forgive you,” I murmur.

Peter exhales roughly and clutches me tight. “I’m proud of you,” he whispers into my hair. “I hope I can be part of your life again.”

I step back, my eyes stinging. “Maybe. But let’s bring Jace down first.”

“Absolutely,” he says.

When I return to my seat beside Penn, his jaw is clenched so tightly I’m afraid he might crack something.

“I don’t trust him,” he mutters, and not quiet enough that Peter can’t hear it.

“I know,” I reply softly. “But if he’s being truthful, this is the fastest way to stop Jace.”

Kynan speaks again. “We won’t move forward without your approval. But using Peter is absolutely the best way to get to Jace.”

I look at Penn, then at Peter, who’s sitting with his shoulders hunched, remorse thick in every line of his face.

Penn leans back in his chair, arms crossed. Skepticism pours off him, but he goes into planning mode. “Okay… what’s the next step?”

“We use Peter to lure Jace to Pittsburgh,” Kynan says, and I can tell they talked about this before we arrived. They already have a plan.

“And do what once he gets here?” Penn asks.

“Peter gets him to confess on a mic that he’s the one behind the threats and that he wants to harm me,” I say, excited about the prospect of a quick resolution.

Kynan shakes his head. “Should be that simple, but that’s not a serious enough crime to take him out of circulation. A slap on the wrist probably.”

Penn barks out a mirthless laugh, his tone laced with sarcasm. “Maybe we should just let Mila be the bait and then you can swoop in and catch him right before he kills her.”

No one says a word. Malik and Kynan stare pointedly back at Penn.

“Oh, fuck no,” Penn snarls, slapping his hands on the glass. “She is not bait.”

I’m glad Penn said that because I, for one, don’t want that either.

“It’s an option,” Kynan says.

“No, it’s not,” Penn retorts. “End of story.”

“Let’s table that for now. We need to make contact with Jace and see where his head is at. He might not even be serious, but it starts with Peter talking to him.”

“When would he do that?” I ask.

“Right now,” Peter says, and I can tell by his confidence that this was also part of a plan that Kynan, Malik and Peter already hatched. “Anyone got a phone I can borrow?”

Penn and I watch quietly as Malik hands Peter a cell phone. He then pulls out his wallet, extracts a piece of paper with presumably Jace’s phone number and dials. He sets the phone on the table and taps the speakerphone button. I hold my breath, afraid to make a sound.

On the third ring, a man answers and I can tell it’s Jace. He sounds older, but it’s him. “Hello.”

“Jace… it’s Peter.”

There’s a long moment of silence, then he says, “You out?”

“Last week.”

Jace is silent a moment, then asks, “What have you been up to?”

“Went home to visit the parents but my mom’s already suffocating me. Took a trip to Pittsburgh.”

“What’s in Pittsburgh?” Jace asks, sounding bored.

“Mila.”

More silence, this time extended so long I think he’s hung up. But when he speaks again, I can feel his hatred. “Oh yeah… what’s your bitch sister doing in Pittsburgh?”

Peter glances at me. “Visiting Penn apparently. You see that interview he gave? I think that was Mila’s doing.”

“Yeah, that fucker’s blowing a lot of hot air is what he’s doing. Have you seen your sister?”

Peter laughs cruelly. “Yeah… approached her with a phony apology. Told her I wanted to make amends. She fell for it.”

Penn and I exchange a glance. Peter is playing this perfect and no matter how complicated my feelings are, in this moment I’m grateful for what he’s doing.

“Why are you telling me this?” Jace asks, sounding suspicious. I cast a worried look back at Peter.

Malik mimes something to my brother but he holds out his palm, a plea to let him handle it. “Because I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said. I thought getting out of prison would make things easier, but all it’s done is make me realize how much I’ve lost because of Mila’s big fucking mouth.”

I wince. He sounds so authentic that I might believe Peter wants to harm me as well. I take Penn’s hand and hold tight.

“Now you’re finally understanding where I’m coming from,” Jace says with a bitter laugh. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking you ought to come to Pittsburgh and let’s have a sit-down with my little sister.”

“I want more than a sit-down,” Jace snarls like a rabid dog. “I want her to suffer. Tell me you want that to.”

“I want that too, brother.” Peter’s eyes find mine again, and they’re filled with apology. “Let’s make it happen.”

“Then we’ll deal with that fucker Navarro,” Jace replies with glee. “I can be there by tomorrow.”

Peter gives Jace information to his hotel and then hangs up. I sigh heavily, my heart beating a hundred miles a minute.

“I want extra security on Mila,” Penn demands, and then looks at me. “And you stay put in the house until this is over.”

I don’t argue with him. No way am I going to agree to be held prisoner, but I can tell Penn is all up in his feelings right now and I’ll have to reason with him.

But at least for today, we have a plan in motion that will hopefully bring Jace down so we can live a normal life.