Rage made me she red. “Don’t fuckin’ remind, Sia. It took all I had not to rip those sluts apart. They pinned her to the bed and fuckin’ touched her, beat her. I ain’t ever hit a woman in my life, but I almost did tonight. I can’t bear that she got attacked because of me.”

“And the sluts?”

“They’ll be dead by now. They fucked with the wrong bitch.”

Sia nodded slowly, knowing the rules of club life, then dropped back against the wooden countertop. “I can’t… I can’t believe it.”

Joining her against the countertop, I said, “Yeah, I know. Pretty fuckin’ farfetched, huh? I mean, a fuckin’ cult! My bitch being attacked by jealous club pussy!”

Sia huffed a laugh in response. “Well, yeah, it is crazy, but that’s not what’s unbelievable, big brother.”

Furrowing my brows, I asked, “What?”

She nudged me with her elbow. “I can’t believe the high and mighty Kyler Willis, at age twenty-seven, has fallen in love!”

Every part of me froze and my mouth dropped. “Fuck off, Sia,” I managed to rasp out. But my heart was thundering in my chest and my palms were sweating.

Fuck, did I have a fever or some shit?

Sia began to laugh at me. I checked my head with my hand. She pulled down my arm and rolled her eyes. “Ky,” she said, “you ain’t sick.”

“No? Then why do I feel like I’m about to drop dead?”

Sia laughed again, which was really starting to piss me off, and she said, “Because you never wanted an old lady. Our pop wasn’t exactly kind to Momma. You saw that shit and vowed never to have a woman… Then you saw what happened to me.” Sia’s voice hitched at that.

A pain daggered through my heart at what my baby sister had been through.

“Si—”

Sia held up her hand, not wanting me to bring up the past and instead added, “But destiny obviously disagreed.” Sia walked in front of me and put her hand on my bearded cheek. “You have spent years fucking anything that moves, but I’ve never seen you care for a woman. I’ve never seen you look at a woman like you just looked at her. And I don’t blame you, by the way. That girl in there is fucking beautiful, Ky, like drop-dead gorgeous.”

“I know. She’s incredible,” I said, my eyes staring at the wall like I could see Lilah through the paneling, curled up on the seat next to the fire. “But, Sia, she’s fucked up. Her past, I have no idea how to get her away from it. She’s practically married to Jesus, and she isn’t gonna want a sinner like me.”

“She came here with you, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

Sia bent her head round the doorframe, and I followed her gaze. “That girl sitting there in an Amish dress, bruised to fuck from being attacked, who didn’t know what a handshake even was, came with you to a ranch in the boonies, let you put your arm around her, and is sitting in that room, waiting for you to come back out with a drink she didn’t know existed, but she’s trying it because you told her she should.”

“What you saying?”

Sia walked over to the fridge, took out a carton of two-percent milk, poured it into a saucepan, and set it to boil. “I’m saying even though I don’t know Lilah, I’m a woman. The last time I trusted a man like that, I was madly in love with him.”

“Yeah, sugar, and look how that ended,” I said shortly, hating any reminder of that sadistic cunt.

“But that guy’s not you. You won’t hurt her.”

I went to argue, but Sia was right. Lilah was the only bitch, bar Sia, that I even gave a shit about.

That shit spoke volumes.

Sia smiled at my lack of response and began pouring out the drinks. Handing me two mugs, she said, “And you brought her here to meet me. That’s how I know you love her, trust her implicitly. No one knows about me because of the men who still want me dead. But she was hurt and you didn’t hesitate to bring her here. That tells me everything about how you feel for her, even if you never confess it.”

Sia walked off into the family room and left me behind. I watched as Sia sat beside Lilah and start talking, all smiles. Lilah blushed in nerves, small grateful smiles ghosting her lips in return.

Feeling like I took a punch to the solar plexus, I lost my damn breath.

Damn, Sia… just damn…

*****

“You ready to hit the hay?” I asked Lilah as she yawned for the fourth time in the last five minutes. Sia had been shooting the shit with her all night. Lilah didn’t say much in return, but I knew she felt comfortable with my sister after the first few hours. They weren’t too dissimilar, both young and both with fucking awful pasts.

Both were blonde, beautiful and fucked up by men.

Lilah blinked up at me and nodded her head. Turning to my sister, she said, “Thank you for the hospitality, Elysia. It has been lovely to meet you.”

Sia jumped up and threw her arms around Lilah’s neck. Lilah stiffened, her panicked blue eyes seeking out mine, but after a second, she relaxed and awkwardly hugged Sia in return. “Great to meet you too, girl. We’ll hang out some more tomorrow.”

Lilah moved beside me and I leaned over to kiss Sia’s cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered into her ear, and she pulled back, giving me a meaningful look.

Taking Lilah’s hand, I led her up the stairs and into the second bedroom. I shut the door and watched Lilah drink in the room—wooden walls, a huge skylight in the ceiling, hardwood flooring, and a large bathroom to the side. And in the middle, a huge California king, every inch covered in Sia’s favorite red plaid.