Page 87 of Settling the Score

Or maybe he’d just been so determined to keep running from her, to close down the door of possibility to any kind of future with her, that he’d refused to listen.

But Blake knew him in a wholly different way to Sienna. And now, the past was wrapping around him like a patchwork blanket, memories of nights he’d spent with Blake, planning how they could fix everything, how they could make it better for their mom, how they could get away. They’d never once thought of turning to violence to hurt their dad. Even when all hell had broken loose and Blake had lashed out, it had been to defend Cynthia, not premeditated. They had seen the wreckage of their family and sought to do something good, not make everything worse.

They weren’t him.

They had looked at him and known they wanted to get away from him. They’d chosen a different path.

And they’d walked it all these years.

His gut rolled.

Regret was a sinking pit of despair he skirted the edges of.

‘It doesn’t matter, anyway.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because she’d never take me back. Not in a million years.’

Blake considered that. ‘Have you told her about me?’

Aiden shot him a look. ‘The fact we’re brothers? I think she’s aware.’

‘About the charges. About that night. About what would have happened to me if you hadn’t gotten us out.’

Aiden took a sip of his beer. ‘That’s not why I left her.’

‘Youhadto leave.’

‘No, I didn’t. I could have kept seeing her. We loved each other, man. The kind of love that would have survived a few years apart. I wanted to end it – that was nothing to do with you. It was… all the other shit. How I felt about her… the fact Ifeltanything at all…’

‘Right, got it.’ Blake nodded slowly. ‘Like I said, you were scared.’

‘Can we think of a different word? Like… avoiding commitment?’

‘You were scared,’ Blake replied, but grinned, in that brotherly teasing way.

‘Fine. I was scared. I was terrified. I loved her so freaking much, the idea of ever being like him…’

‘But you’re not. We’ve dealt with that.’

‘Yeah, and it’s more than ten years later and she’s still pissed.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Yeah?’

‘I mean, I guess so.’

Aiden stared at his brother, long and hard, wheels turning. ‘Hold up. Do youknowsomething?’

Blake groaned. ‘Nope.’

‘Don’t lie to me.’

‘Don’t ask me to spill Astrid’s secrets.’

‘Astrid’s secrets?’ Aiden stood up then, turning to face his brother, palm flat against his hip. ‘Astrid’s secrets, or Sienna’s secrets?’