Joe cleared his throat. “As I was saying, I can’t believe I let that lunatic Wendy Madigan identify your body. It was my job as the oldest.”

I saw where this was going. Joe was a master at harboring guilt. “Don’t do that to yourself,” I said. “We were all adults. It was all our responsibility.”

“Still, I should have—”

Marjorie stood. “Stop it! Stop this right now. We all should have looked at the body. We all should have stopped this long ago.”

“Marj,” Talon said. “You didn’t even know anything about it until the guys and I told you.”

“Well, stop protecting me. I’m not some fragile glass ornament that needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap. I’m as strong as the rest of you.”

Our father smiled from across his desk. “Yes, baby girl. You are.”

Marj’s eyes began to soften. When he’d tried to keep her away from ranch work, she’d had none of it. She learned to run the ranch right alongside the rest of us, all the while remaining Daddy’s girl.

She was our father’s Achilles’ heel. Maybe that could come in handy. Though Marj was nobody’s fool. She wouldn’t appreciate being used. Plus…she’d held on to him for dear life when she saw him. She wouldn’t harden easily.

“Start talking, Dad,” Joe said icily. “And don’t leave out one single solitary detail.”

Brad Steel coughed into his fist. “What you all need to understand is that everything I’ve done was for your protection.”

“What about the future lawmakers?” Joe demanded. “Why did you fund them? How couldn’t you tell they were bad people? You can’t say you did that for our protection. We weren’t born yet.”

“I’ve made many mistakes, and I have many regrets.”

Joe scoffed. “Sell it to someone who gives a damn.”

“I did the best I could by you.”

“By keeping our mother from us? By keeping us from our father as well?” Joe stood, grabbed an empty chair, and hurled it at the wall. It crashed against a framed photograph of Aspen trees, and the wooden legs splintered from the seat.

Marjorie screamed. Talon sat, rigid, while my body went tight, as if I were a balloon and the air was being squeezed out of me.

Our father had no reaction to Joe’s outburst except for a slightly raised brow. “You will understand after you know everything.”

Joe snarled like an animal. “Don’t bet on—”

“Help!”

Fuck! That was Ruby’s voice. Coming from her room. I stood and bolted.

Ruby was administering CPR to one of the little boys, who lay, naked and wet, on the floor of her bedroom. She pumped at his heart ferociously. “Come on, damn it. Breathe, Donny, breathe!”

Then she tilted his head, pinched his nose, opened his mouth, clamped her lips over it, and delivered two rescue breaths.

After she lifted her head, she began chest compressions again. “Call 9-1-1, damn it!”

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed, and then it occurred to me that there probably wasn’t any 9-1-1. My father and siblings had congregated in the room. I grabbed my father’s shirt collar. “Who do we call in an emergency? Damn it, who?”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said and returned to his office.

Talon knelt down beside Ruby, his hands shaking. “What the hell happened?”

“Come on, damn it!” Ruby punched on his chest again.

And the little boy coughed and sputtered up water.

Ruby sat back, weeping. I went to her and held her. “It’s okay, baby. He’s okay. He’s breathing.”

Talon touched the little boy’s forehead. “Can you sit up?”

Donny, still coughing, choked out, “No. I was supposed to die!”

“You’re alive,” Talon said. “And we’re all glad you’re alive. Your brother will be glad.”

He coughed again. “No, he won’t. We made a pact. If either of us had the chance to end our own life, we’d do it.”

Talon shook his head. “Why?”

“So the bad men wouldn’t hurt us anymore.”

Talon held the boy to his chest. “The bad men won’t hurt you anymore. I promise. They won’t. You’re going to have a long life. I promise that too.” His eyes glossed over.

Talon seemed to have the boy under control, so I tended to Ruby as she sobbed against my shoulder. “Shh, baby. It’s okay.”

She rubbed her nose on my shirt and sniffed, facing me. “It’s my fault.”

“How is this your fault? Ruby, you saved him. He’s alive because of you.”

“No.” She shook her head, sobbing. “I put him in the tub. He said”—she glanced at Talon—“he said his bum hurt. I thought sitting in a tub would help. He said he could do it himself. But I kept watch. The door was cracked. It was only a few inches of water. I didn’t leave him!”

“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But then I heard something from the office.”

Joe’s tantrum. Damn it. “I’m so sorry. That was—”

“It doesn’t matter what it was. I shouldn’t have stopped watching for a second.”

“He’s old enough to take a bath by himself.”

“He’s only seven. What was I thinking?”

“Ruby, how old were you when you started taking a bath by yourself?”

“I don’t know. Five, I think.”

“So was I. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“He was doing so well. He was talking. He was eating. Playing with the puppies.” She pressed her head back to my shoulder. “I never imagined…”

“You couldn’t have known what he’d try. Please. You didn’t do anything wrong, baby.”

Talon was rocking Donny in his arms. “You’re safe now. There’s no need for your pact anymore.”

“But Dale said—”

“Shh. When was the last time you talked about the pact?”

“In the room. Before you came.”

“Well, things are different now, aren’t they? You’re here, and no one here will hurt you.”

“But Dale won’t talk. Not even to me.”

“Dale is just…” Talon paused. Then, “Dale’s going through some stuff. But it’s over now. He’ll come around. I’ll make sure he’s okay.”

Donny nodded and sank his head against Talon’s chest. My brother would make a good father when the time came. A damned good one. Ruby still sobbed softly against my shoulder.

Suddenly the door slammed open, and Dale ran in, Marabel at his heels.

“Donny!” he yelled. “Are you all right?”

Donny lifted his head from Talon’s chest. “I’m sorry, Dale. I tried.”

“No!” He grabbed his little brother into a bear hug. “No, God. I’m so sorry. I never meant… I’m so glad you’re okay. That you’re alive.”

“But we made a pact.”

“It was a stupid pact. We were starving and hurting. But now we’re not. I want to live, Donny, and I want you to live too.”

It was a stupid pact, but to a seven-year-old little boy, it was a blood promise between brothers. Little boys couldn’t see past tomorrow, and I knew exactly why Donny had tried to drown himself. Because his brother had told him to. I would have done anything Talon told me to do when I was seven. I would have fought with him and gone to the bad place. But he’d told me to run.

And I had.

Donny was me. Only he hadn’t gotten away.

I looked into Ruby’s eyes, and she curved her lips upward ever so slightly. For a moment, I thought she had read my mind, but then I noticed her gaze wander to Dale. He was talking.

“Hey,” I said to her. “Tal has this under control, and my father is calling…well, whoever they call around here for an emergency so we can make sure Donny is truly all right. Let me take care of you.”

I stood, bringing her with me. She needed some TLC. I knew just how to take care of her and just where to do it.

* * *

Back in the guesthouse decorated all in white, I searched the kitchen for something to help Ruby relax. All I could find was some regular black tea bags. It was better than nothing. I quickly put some water to boil on the stove.

She sat at the table, her head in her hands. When I brought her a cup of tea, I kissed the top of her head. “He’s fine. And we’ll keep extra eyes on both of them now.”

“His bum hurts. That’s what he told me. And we all know why it hurts. This is all so horrid!” She rubbed at her temples. “He’s seven, Ryan, and his brother is ten. The same ages you and Talon were when…”

My heart jolted and broke at the same time. Her thought was something that had already occurred to me. This little brother hadn’t gotten away.

I sat down in the chair next to Ruby. No words came to me. All I could think about was little Donny’s fate—a fate I’d been spared.

Then Ruby looked at me with fire in her blue eyes.

“Take me to bed, Ryan. Now. Please.”

As much as I always wanted her, I wasn’t sure sex was what she needed. “Ruby—”

“Don’t argue with me. Just fuck me. Fuck me until I can’t stand. Show me that something wonderful still exists in this horrible place.”

She stood and pulled me out of my chair. She quickly undid my belt and zipper and tugged my jeans and boxers over my hips.

I couldn’t help myself. In spite of the horror we’d both just witnessed, my cock sprang out, ready, as always, for her sweet lips, her sweet cunt. I expected her to kneel down and take me into her hot mouth, but instead she shed her slippers and yoga pants and sat down on the kitchen table, legs spread.

“Please, Ryan. I need you. Now.”