Malone's Fate (Haven, Texas Book 14)

Chapter 39

Why couldn’t she catch her breath?

It was trapped in her lungs. Strangling her.

“It . . . it’s not that s-simple. You don’t know who he is.”

“Then you will just have to tell us.”

It was Alec who spoke, but when she turned her head to see him, he was staring down at Ryleigh with a frown on his face.

Right. Because he’d just learned that he had a younger sister. That his father was dead. All of that had to be messing with him. With Tanner.

Ryleigh stared up at her worriedly, then over to Alec.

“I think everyone should stay here. With me,” Linc said.

She attempted to wriggle down from Tanner’s hold, but he tightened his hold on her.

“Tanner, let me down.”

“No.”

No?

“They’re not staying here,” Alec replied. “They need protection.”

“I’m a cop,” Linc said.

“And you barely have any security,” Alec said. “Your guns are probably locked up and inaccessible to anyone else on the property. Plus, you have to operate within the law.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Linc muttered. “Of course, they’re locked up when I don’t have them on me. And we all have to operate within the law.”

Alec and Tanner just stared at him.

She understood where they were coming from. She didn’t plan to follow the law when she killed Stefan.

“Ryleigh is my sister,” Alec said. “Kye is my nephew. Lilac is my brother’s woman, and he is her guardian. That leaves Opal. You want to come with us, Opal? We’ll take care of you.”

“Not really sure that a ranch is my scene, but I go where my girls go.”

“Fine, then. It’s settled. All of you start packing except Lilac. She needs to rest.”

Wow. He’d done a complete one-eighty, huh?

“I’m their guardian, Alec,” Linc said.

“Not anymore. And if you stand in the way of me protecting my sister and nephew, then we are going to have trouble,” Alec said in a low voice.

“You . . . you really believe me?” Ryleigh asked.

She was staring up at Alec in wonder, tears dripping down her face. Alec watched, his face softening.

Walking toward her, he crouched in front of her. He didn’t touch her. He just sat there as Ryleigh wiped her cheeks.

“I do. I don’t know why our father kept you from us. Why he never said anything. Maybe it was because of your mom. It sounds like he was a much better father to you than us, but I do believe you. Kye looks like Tanner when he was a baby. And you have Jaret’s eyes. Maybe Beau’s chin. There are bits of us in you.”

“You . . . you don’t have to take us in, though,” Ryleigh said. “I know we don’t know each other. We can stay here and maybe . . . maybe get to know each other.”

God. Please don’t reject her.

There was such hope in Ryleigh’s voice that it hurt Lilac. If Alec pushed her away . . . she didn’t know what it would do to her best friend.

She didn’t need to worry though.

“All of my life, I hoped that one day my father might bring me home a little sister. Someone to take care of and protect and cherish.”

Holy. Shit.

How had he known exactly what to say to her?

“Instead, he kept breeding these rough, troublemaking, ungrateful boys. And then he left me to take care of them. Can you imagine how hard that’s been? Imagine if they’d all had a little sister to look after?”

“I’m guessing she might have been smothered to death,” Opal said dryly.

“Most likely,” Alec said. “She’d also have been loved. And now, it seems, I’ve been given that thing I always wanted. I’m just hoping it’s not too late to show her how much the Malones will cherish a little sister.”

Ryleigh let out a sob and threw her arms around Alec.

“For all his fucking faults, at least our old man did this for us,” Tanner muttered. “At least he told her about us, so she knew to come to us.”

She sucked in a breath. “Thomas sold her to Stefan.”

Tanner stiffened. “What the fuck?”

She knew Ryleigh and Alec couldn’t hear them, but Linc had turned their way, his face filled with horror.

“I never wanted to tell her. But I was there when they . . . when they made the negotiations. It was sickening. She has no idea that her father basically gave her to Stefan to wipe his debts. I like to think that maybe there was a part of him trying to look out for her. That he’d known that when he died all the people he owed money to would come looking for their payment. I don’t know, though.”

“It’s entirely likely that prick just wanted the money he got for selling her,” Tanner told her bitterly. “Fucking asshole.”

“It was practically a point of pride that she was a virgin. Thankfully, in Stefan’s twisted mind that was something to be celebrated. He decided to wait until their wedding night. I think he got a kick out of the fact that she thought he was a good guy. That he loved her. I just couldn’t tell her about what her dad did.”

“It’s all right, baby,” Tanner soothed. “The old man is gone now. There’s no point in her knowing.”

“When she found out about Stefan . . . I knew that I had to get her away from him. Before he hurt her.”

He hated the dead tone of her voice. He was determined to bring back life into her voice. All he wanted was her happiness and safety.

Like hell would he ever let her go back to Stefan and put herself at risk again.

Tanner couldn’t believe she thought that was an actual possibility. Obviously, she still didn’t know him at all.

“Right, let’s get moving,” Alec said. “I’ll feel better once you’re all under lock and key at the Ranch. We can keep you safe there. Unlike here.”

“I’ve been keeping them safe,” Linc said between clenched teeth. He was still holding onto Kye as he stood. “Why would Ryleigh want to go with you when she hardly knows you?”

“Because we’re her brothers,” Alec said. “And Malones look after their own.”

“No one fucks with the Malones,” Tanner added.

Linc held his hand over the baby’s ears. “Don’t swear in front of the baby.”

The funny thing was that Alec had said it at the same time.

Both men glared at each other.

Tanner glanced down at Ryleigh, who was starting to look increasingly worried as she gazed from one to the other.

“I mean, maybe we could spend time at both,” Ryleigh offered.

Both men frowned.

“They’re being jerks,” Lilac whispered to Tanner.

“The main thing is that I’m not being a jerk,” he replied.

“You can be,” she informed him.

“Ouch.”

“You know what,” Linc said with a strange look on his face. “You’re right.”

“I am?” Alec asked.

“You shouldn’t stay here, Ryleigh.”

“Oh?” she said.

“No, I should come stay with you,” Linc said. “I’m moving out to the Ranch.”

“Oh, fuck no!” Tanner said.

“Stop swearing in front of the baby,” everyone but Opal told him.

Tanner rolled his eyes. “He is not coming with us, Alec.”

Alec was quiet.

“He’s a cop!” Tanner said.

“With a gun,” Alec said. “Trouble is coming.”

“Yeah, and he’ll make us stick to the rules.”

“If I need to, I’ll look the other way,” Linc said with obvious reluctance. “Only in this instance and only to protect the girls and Kye.”

Alec nodded. “Fine, you can come too. But you’re not staying in the house with my sister. And if I catch you looking at her, touching her, or making fucking eyes at her, you’re out!” Turning, he walked out.

Silence filled the room.

“Huh,” Opal said. “I’m glad I don’t have any long-lost brothers coming out of the woodwork, it seems like they’d be a real downer on my love life.”