Ben spoke the usual Latin words and then called me forward. This was it. The part where Ben was probably enjoying the hell out of himself. To make the request, you had to kneel and subjugate yourself, and none of us were a fan of kneeling. Obviously.

  I stepped forward, glowering at the stone step in front of where Ben stood. I forced my knees to bend. All the while I kept glancing up at him. I knew the defiance was in my eyes. I could feel it in the tilt of my chin. Ben smirked down at me, and I could tell he was only barely restraining himself from making a lewd gesture with his hips. Oh, he was having too much fun.

  “What is your request, Mr. Edgerton?“

  “I have a request for a burn on Ivon Drosdin.” I expected a hush. Instead, there was murmuring. Ben banged the gavel that he never really had use for and scowled down at everyone. “Order. What is your reasoning?”

  “Of all the requests I could make, I only make this one. He and men from his company kidnapped my sister and my wife at the behest of someone. This is my one and only burn request.”

  More mumbling. Drew and East had eyes on the elder Middleton. I had to force myself not to look around for his reaction. No doubt his son had cameras at the warehouse where Darcy and Emma had been taken. No doubt he'd watched us march onto the premises and annihilate his team. And no doubt, he knew it was us. Although up until just now, he wouldn’t have been able to say for sure. He wouldn’t have been able to point to us and say, ‘it was them.’ Now he could. And it was just what I was waiting for.

  If this didn’t poke the bear, I didn’t know what would. Ben glanced around. “Is there any brother here who has an objection?” There was no muttering, no mumbling. No one said a word. They were going to let this go through. Then suddenly, I heard my father’s voice. Why was it always him?

  “Who’s to say for certain that he is responsible?”

  Before I could open my mouth to answer, Ben sent him a smile. With one-half of his face showing, you could still see that it wasn’t actually a smile but more a baring of teeth. His voice took on the full blast of ice in his veins. “Must I remind you, Lord Edgerton, a burn doesn’t need any reason.” I could fight my own battles, but he was making it very clear we were taking no bullshit today.

  My father scowled at him. “Yes, of course. But who’s to say Mr. Edgerton won’t come back with another burn at another time?”

  What the hell was he doing? You got one burn. That was it. We all knew the rules.

  Ben’s voice boomed. “If you have a question about our bylaws, you can feel free to seek out the council. But that is the rule. One burn uncontested for every brother here. Must I remind everyone, we do not take the burns lightly. It is when something so vicious, something so vile in the world has occurred, that there is no other recourse than full annihilation of the perpetrator. That is what we have the burns for. I will remind you Mr. Edgerton, as it is spoken by a senior elder, we get one in a lifetime. So you must lock-in your request if this in fact is the one you would like to use.”

  I turned and leveled a stare at my father. “Yes. This is my locked-in burn.”

  With my angry glower, I tried to communicate to my father if we were allowed to burn brothers, he would have been on my list. But of course, I knew that we weren’t allowed to burn brothers.

  Both of us knowing the other had seen our cards, it was a matter of who was going to pull first. And since we were playing this game, one where our lives were at stake, one where I had lost too much, it wasn’t going to be me.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Emma

  I heard the yelling all the way upstairs.

  I came jogging down the stairs in my zip-up onesie lounger from Savage Fenty. I loved that thing, it was so comfortable. I’d expected the three of us to spend the Saturday together before we took Darcy back to school.

  I found Bridge at the bottom of the stairs. “What is all the ruckus? What’s going on?”

  “My sister doesn't want to go back to bloody school.”

  I sighed. He’d been eager to get her out of the fray for the last week. “We talked about this, Bridge. What she went through would shake anyone. Do you blame her for not wanting to go back to school?”

  He ran both hands through his hair. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? I’m not set up for a kid.”

  I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets. “Darcy’s hardly a kid. She’s almost thirteen. But it is a responsibility. We’re only a couple of months away from summer break. Maybe we can work it out so that she can transfer or something.”

  He shook his head. “No. And with everything we’re dealing with right now, you really think it’s a good idea to have her stay? I’ve paid a fortune for a state-of-the-art security system for the whole school. Fair enough, East did that. But I’ve hired security for the grounds, arranged for a panic room in her room, and she will have a rotating personal guard. She’s safer at school.”

  “No, that’s not overboard at all.” How did he not get it? How did he not see? I sashayed down to the third step up, and that put me eye-level with him. “I love you.”

  His gaze immediately softened and searched mine. “I love you too.”

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as I leaned forward and placed a soft peck on his lips. “But you’re an idiot.”

  His brows shot up. “What?”

  “Yeah, you’re an idiot.”

  He laughed as he pushed my hips away from his. His dick was already trying to make an appearance. “What the fuck, Emma?”

  “She doesn’t feel safe there, Bridge. That’s what she’s trying to tell you without telling you that.”

  His brow furrowed. “The kidnapping thing only happened once. And I’m going to send her back with a guard.”

  I sighed. “Also, she wants to be with her brother. This is the first time she’s met your friends. Been around you and your wife, spent an extended amount of time with your mum. She probably feels isolated and unwanted. And now you’re fighting with her and telling her you’re definitely sending her back.” I dragged in a deep breath. “How do you think that makes her feel?”

  His brow furrowed. “What do you mean? Of course I love her. She knows I love her. I tell her all the time.”

  I rolled my eyes. "God, so pretty but so daft." I shoved by him, wondering how the hell I was going to find Darcy in this house.

  But that was easy enough. Through the window, I saw she had already made her way out to the gazebo. I marched through the side door, the sunshine not fooling me for a moment. I knew that at any time the clouds could roll in with our classic English rain. I crossed the bridge over the Koi pond and approached her. “Hey, Darcy.” She grunted in my direction, and I put my hands up. "I come in peace."

  “He wants to send me away.”

  I sighed. She wasn’t entirely wrong, but probably wasn’t best to tell her that. “I know. But you recognize he’s doing that for your safety, right? It’s not that he wants to send you away or that he doesn’t love you. He’s just terrified and wants to keep you safe.”

  “No, he wants to send me away.”

  “Oh my God, the two of you. It’s so obvious you’re related. You’re so stubborn.”

  She lifted a brow at me. “Takes one to know one.”

  My jaw dropped. “Wow, aren’t you a pill?”

  She sniffed and crossed her arms, turning to face the pool. This was not okay. I needed to try a different tactic. “Darcy, look. I’m not sure how much longer it’s going to take to put these people away, okay? And Bridge doesn’t know either. And he is afraid.”

  His voice was deep behind me. “I’m not afraid.”

  I turned to look over my shoulder and scowled at him as I shook my head. “Now is not the time.”

  “It sure fucking feels like the time.”

  I sighed. “For fuck’s sake. Look, we both love you very much, Darcy.”

  She glowered at me as if trying to ascertain whether I actually loved her. I just lifted my brow and gave her a knowing look. “I wouldn’t come to get you if I didn’t care about you.”

  She sniffed, huffed, and crossed her arms.

  Okay she didn’t have to look at me, but I knew she heard me. “Your brother and I both just want you somewhere safe.”

  “Well, can’t I just be here and safe?”

  I glanced at him.

  He already had his lips set in a firm line. “Darcy, I can’t control everything here.”

  “You can’t control everything at school. They got me there.”

  “Look, Darcy, I’ve already talked to the nuns, and you’ll have security with you at all times.”

  She turned and threw her arms out. Her voice was so pitchy and loud. “They’re not my family.”

  Bridge’s eyes went wide. He blinked rapidly, looking so lost and unsure of what to do. I stepped between them. “Darcy, what would you like to happen?”

  “I want to stay,” she sniffed.

  “I know you want to stay. But how does that look to you? Explain.”

  Her brow furrowed. “I don’t know, I stay with you and Emma and see mum at the weekend. I don’t know. I just stay here. I don’t have to go back to boring boarding school.”

  I nodded. “Right, you’re twelve, so you still have lots to learn, and we cannot homeschool you. Where do you go to school?”

  Her brow furrowed. “You can find me a school here.”

  She had a point. Bridge seemed to think so too. “All right, it’s May, so a few more weeks until the end of term. If we pretended we could get you into another school, how does that work? You’d get driven in every day? You have to meet new friends, settle in all over again. Leave all your friends behind. And if we can’t find you a suitable school, that means you’re going to be homeschooled. And not by us because we have to work. That means you’d be stuck in this house all day with tutors.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Well, I can see my friends. They’ll visit. I can get on a plane and see them.”

  “You’re going to expect to take the private plane and just go pop off with the girls?”

  She stomped her foot. “You’re twisting my words.”

  I shook my head. “He's not twisting your words. He’s asking you what you want, asking you to visualize the most ideal outcome for you." Bridge opened his mouth to talk, and I shushed him with my hand on his chest. “No, Bridge. This is for Darcy to think through.”

  She dragged in a deep breath. “Okay, um, I go to school. But not in Austria. I go to day school, and I get to have dinner with you guys every night and you know, be a family.”

  I sighed. “Okay, what I’m getting from this is that you’re missing your family and don’t like being far away. You feel isolated. Is that accurate?”

  She nodded brusquely.

  “And Bridge, what am I hearing from you?”

  “That she’s young and impetuous, doesn’t follow the rules, and it’s easier for her to get into more shit over here. I control less of the environment. There are more openings for failure.”

  Darcy interjected. “Well, if you weren’t so strict, I wouldn’t have to act out.”

  I frowned at her. “You had your turn, Darcy. It’s Bridge’s turn to talk right now.”

  She huffed but said nothing, allowing him to speak. “My number one concern is your safety. That’s it. Do I want you home? Absolutely, and we should have you home more often. The last year has been a little too crazy with us trying to take down the Elite. I didn’t want you caught in the middle of it.”

  “He didn’t want anyone to know about me,” Darcy interjected.

  I turned to her. “Darcy.” She grumbled but shut up.

  “That’s such bullshit. I love you, Darce. I am so incredibly proud of you all the time. I can’t even explain the feeling. It’s like I’m going to burst with warmth. I’m excited and so proud of everything you’ve accomplished. I feel like your brother, but also I feel like your dad. Even though your accomplishments have literally nothing to do with me, I can’t help but be so excited about them because I know how good you are. That’s it. I don’t want you far away either, but it’s too dangerous here.”

  “You’re not even listening. I just don’t want to be there.”

  Bridge sighed. “Darcy, you can see how I worry with you sneaking out, right?”

  I watch her shoulders slowly hunch. “I wouldn’t sneak out here. I promise.”

  “ You've promised before.”

  “But this time I mean it. I just want to be home.”

  I watched him. He did not want to budge on this. He wasn’t wavering at all. He was going to send her back, and as far as she was concerned, it might as well be to Siberia and not Austria.

  I sighed. “Okay, if I can find her a school and it fits your criteria, could she stay?” He opened his mouth to argue and I stopped him. "Basic criteria. We can add more later but, yes?"

  He frowned. “Fine.”

  I turned to Darcy with her wide eyes and lifted brows and excitement etched all over her beautiful skin. “Before you get excited, it will be a boarding school.”

  Her jaw unhinged. “Then I might as well be in—“

  I shook my head. “You’ll be home every weekend.” I knew that was as far as I was going to budge him. "You want to be closer to home, closer to family, and I get that. Boarding is a safer, better option. It’ll also be easier to find you a placement. Bridge will worry less because we won’t be able to be around every evening. But Friday night, you are ours. We’re going to do family shit.”

  She smiled at that. “Family shit. You’re serious?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. We’re serious. No more Vienna if you don’t want to go. But that’s the deal. It has to be boarding. You can’t leave. If you do, even once off-campus for so much as a cheeseburger, you’re going back to Vienna.”

  Her brow furrowed. “But I’m almost a teenager. I’m going to make a mistake.”

  “If you want to be treated like an adult, you have to act like one. So what’s it gonna be?”

  She frowned. “Okay, no more sneaking out.”

  I glanced at Bridge, brows lifted in expectation. “What’ll it be?”

  “Fine. But it has to be boarding. She has to have security. No arguments. Comes home every Friday.”

  Darcy was nodding happily.

  “Fine. You get to be in London. Happy now?”

  She nodded, and Bridge maneuvered around me. “Darce, I don’t want you far away. I want as much family time as possible. It’s just been a little hard to trust you.”

  She shrugged then. "That’s fair.”

  “We’ll find a way to work this out. I promise.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I believe you. Especially since you have Emma. She’s going to hold you to the promises that you make. I’m kind of really excited about that.”

  I smiled. “You’re gonna make me cry. I’m not wearing the right mascara, okay, so no tears. Just give me a hug.”

  Darcy threw herself at me. I was taller than she was, but she was gaining quickly and was surprisingly strong. I squeezed her gently, holding her to me. And that feeling that came over me, the warmth and the peace and the happiness. Oh God, that shit was addictive. It felt like home. I was in deep. This kid, this man, this family, I wasn’t ever going to be able to let any part of them go.

  Chapter Twenty

  Bridge

  For the last week, we'd been going full steam ahead with our plan, but things had come to a head. We needed the full team running on all cylinders, so we couldn’t ignore the Drew issue any longer.

  When all was said and done, the three of us had decided to do this at the mansion. After all, it was where all of us began, wasn’t it?

  East, Ben, and I arrived together. East was visibly nervous. He was in full fidget mode as he marched into the kitchen and hunted through the pantry for something to eat. He kept running his hands through his hair, fidgeting with the hem of his jumper. All I could do was cross my arms and lean against the marble counter and watch him.

  Ben was watching me. “Mate, you all right?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I’m gutted that we didn’t do this earlier. And I’m ticked off that my shit is what has put this on delay. We should have talked to him months ago.”

  East had found some crisps to get into and chomped away. “I mean, we’ve all had conversations with him. We know something’s wrong. Obviously, things are complicated with his father. Maybe it’s worse on him than we thought.”

  East made another loud, chomping sound, and I rolled my eyes. “We should’ve fixed this. Can we talk to Angela? Get him on the thirty-day program or something?”

  Ben frowned. “I agree that that’s what he needs. But Angela isn’t going to be any help. I’m pretty sure she is fully ensconced in her own world, and she won’t support anything that’s going to make it publicly appear that they are anything but perfect. It’s the Elite way. I might suggest a month-long family vacation.”

  Somewhere quiet. Maybe the Winston Isles. Send him with a sober coach, the whole family. He’d still get to see them, but he’d have to stay separately. And he could get clean and dry out.

  I scrubbed a hand over my face, frowning at just how much stubble was on my jaw. Things had been so wild that I hadn’t really been doing the full upkeep. Emma hadn’t seemed to mind though. Maybe there was a reason for that.

  “He’s not going to like this.” Ben muttered.

  East shook his head. “Are you joking? He’s going to bloody run. I can see it now. And he might be running straight to our enemies.”

  Ben and I turned to stare at East. “What?” I asked.

  East shrugged. “If we do this wrong and he doesn’t see it as us giving a fuck about him, we might push him in the opposite direction. Which will be bad for everyone.”

  Ben ran his hands through his hair as he started to pace, essentially strutting around my kitchen.

  Not your kitchen. Technically his kitchen.