Abatement
Dante
The dinner conversation shifted to more mundane things—work specifically. After dinner, we were led to a sitting room. Colin excused himself with a phone call, leaving the seven of us alone. This estate is huge, and part of me can’t wait to get back up to the room to finish what we started earlier.
I don’t care what Tom hears. He can live with it. He should get used to it, because we aren’t going anywhere.
I sit on a sofa and pull Sara down beside me. Wyatt sits on her other side.
“We need to make sure we’re all on the same page here.” I’m not playing around with Sara’s safety anymore. “Especially if we’ll be living together for the foreseeable future.”
Tom lifts his gaze to mine. He looks resigned. Good.
“How long do you think it will take for the Feds to get everyone?” Sara asks.
“They won’t.” Drew leans back in his chair and pushes a hand through his hair. “Some people will turn witness. Others will glide by like they’re coated in butter.”
Sara’s brow wrinkles. “Then how long do we all have to live together? This isn’t permanent, right?”
Tom rubs his neck. “No, it won’t be permanent. At least not for us.”
“You’re not running again.” Wyatt doesn’t raise his voice or even demand it. He just states it like it’s a fact. We’re done with this game of hide-and-seek that Tom’s been playing for years. It’s time he deals with reality.
“I’m not running.” Tom meets Wyatt’s gaze.
“Good.” Finn leans forward and looks at everyone. His gaze stops on Sara. “When the immediate threat of Alexander Petrov is gone, we should be free to figure out our own situations.”
Tom clasps his hands. “How is this even going to work?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, because I want him to be as specific as possible.
“We’re moving into a townhouse? All of us? You guys with my sister?” Tom’s face reddens. He still doesn’t like the idea of all of us with his sister, but fuck him.
“Yes.” I narrow my eyes on Tom’s and he presses his lips together.
“The house is large enough that we won’t run into each other often.
” Drew pulls up something on a phone and passes it to Natasha.
She flicks through pictures. “You two can have my apartment on the bottom floor. It has a kitchenette, living room, table, and its own entrance to the outside. You’ll have access to the main floor as well if you need to wander. ”
Tom looks over Natasha’s shoulder to see the apartment. When she offers him the phone, he shakes his head. Natasha returns Drew’s phone to him.
“And Sara?” Tom asks.
“You care about what happens to me now?” Sara jerks to her feet and paces between us and Tom.
“You didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened to me while you were on your love cruise.
I was stalked. They broke into my place when Peabody and I were out.
They kidnapped me off the street and threatened my dog.
And you’re worried about where I’ll sleep at night?
Whose bed I’ll be in? What do you really want to know, Tom? Do you want all the details?”
“No.” He runs his hand through his hair. “Fuck, Sara. I honestly didn’t think Peter would do anything to you. But I tried to warn you. I tried to get you to go live with the guys.”
She stops and stands in front of him. “Why? So I could watch the women crawling out of their beds every morning? So I could humiliate myself by longing for something I didn’t think I could have? What was the real reason?”
“Sara—”
“No, Tom. You do not get to Sara me and make this all go away. You played us. You made Wyatt afraid I’d turn away from him like a child if I knew the truth about our father.” She clutches her hand over her heart.
I rise to stand behind her and draw her against me. She leans into me, giving me her weight, and takes my hand.
“You let Verity Baron think she won. That in the end, she got to go on a date with the man I truly wanted. You didn’t set her up with Finn or Dante.
That would have hurt too. But no, you set her up with Wyatt.
” Sara swipes angrily at the tears flowing down her face.
“You knew how that would make me feel. You knew it would destroy me. I would have found out. Because Verity would have made sure I knew. She destroyed me, and you rewarded her so you could get laid.”
Tom doesn’t say anything as he meets Sara’s eyes.
She chuckles bitterly through the tears.
“Finn, Dante, and Wyatt would have kept their distance if you hadn’t been an ass.
You have to know they were always your friends first. But you knew how I felt about them and you tried to destroy that.
So fuck you. You don’t deserve to be part of my life.
If you can’t handle this, then go fuck yourself. ”
Sara turns into me and I wrap my arms around her waist, holding her tight. Feeling her tears bleed into my shirt. The fury I feel at him making her cry is almost enough for me to punch him again.
There’s a small spot on his jaw that isn’t already discolored.
Tom buries his head in his hands and Natasha strokes her hand down his back, comforting him. He doesn’t deserve any comfort.
“Thank you, Drew,” she says softly. “We should be comfortable there until we can make other arrangements.”
Tom lifts his head and looks like he’s going to try to explain.
I narrow my eyes. “Don’t.”
The single word from me makes his gaze jump from Sara to me.
She draws in a ragged breath, but I don’t release her.
“You fucked this all up.” The anger isn’t in my voice anymore.
Just a sadness. “We’ll eventually forgive you for your part in this.
It’s just the way of things, but we’ll never trust you again.
Not with Sara. You could have chosen a million different ways to do this that wouldn’t have put Sara in danger. ”
“You could have come to us.” Wyatt stands next to me, looking down at Tom. “We could have worked out a solution. Maybe we still would have had you guys run and hide, but at least we would have known what we were dealing with.”
“There are always more options.” Finn stands on my other side and takes Sara’s hand.
“We could have done any number of things to get to the same result without traumatizing your sister. Because that’s what you did.
Her whole world got shaken. The place she called home was destroyed because they were coming for you. Her safety has been at risk for weeks.”
“Like Sara said, there isn’t going to be an easy fix to this.
” I sigh. “But the one thing you need to get through your head is, Sara is ours. I don’t give a fuck if it burns in your gut or you can’t stomach the thought of us having her.
We love her. We’ve always loved her. You tried to keep us from each other, but we’re so much greater together than apart. ”
“Sara is ours. She’ll stay with us. If she wants to go home to your parents, that’s her decision.
” Wyatt brushes his hand over her red hair.
“But she gets to make the choice. She gets to determine where she sleeps at night and who she sleeps with. Not you. You don’t have any right to tell her what she can and can’t do. ”
“She’s not a child.” Drew leans forward.
His words are for Tom but his eyes are on Sara.
“Maybe you still see her as such, but she’s a full-grown woman who knows her own mind.
She didn’t just decide to do this impulsively and neither did we.
We’re all in. That means as long as she’ll have us, we’re hers. ”
“I didn’t mean...” Tom blows out a breath and lets out a soft fuck. “I’m sorry, Sara. I’m sorry for everything. I’m not trying to be an asshole here, though I know I’ve been one. You’re my little sister. I’m supposed to protect you and I fucked that up.”
“So don’t fuck this up.” Sara turns to look at Tom and Natasha. “Don’t fuck up that child’s life because you need to be free.”
“It’s never been about being free.” Tom’s brow wrinkles. “It’s about the weight. The secrets we carried and knowing I could have prevented it all. Our father would have lived if I hadn’t said anything.”
“Go to therapy.” Sara sighs. “Fuck, Tom. That’s survivor’s guilt or something, but that’s what therapy is for. You can’t just run from your problems. They’ll find you. Or you’ll end up hurting someone you love.”
He nods.
“We do need to discuss logistics here.” Drew meets my eyes. “Can we do that?”
I give him a sharp nod. Finn and Wyatt both settle back into their seats. I draw Sara with me back to the couch and pull her down to sit on my lap. Tom looks away, but like Sara said, he can go fuck himself.
I’m not going anywhere. I’m not hiding what she means to me. Sara is mine.
She settles with her legs across Wyatt’s lap and her head against my chest.
“We need to figure out where Sara will work now that you’re back.” Finn rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t really want her over in the pool. Greg and a few of the other guys seem keen on her.”
“Sara can work in my office,” Wyatt and I say at the same time.
I meet his smug eyes and he smirks.
“Maybe she can split time between our offices,” I offer.
Wyatt nods.
Finn just shakes his head.
“I mean, she could use my office, but it might be a bit of a commute.” Drew smiles at Sara.
She laughs lightly, happy to let us work out this detail. As long as we have our eyes on her, I’m happy.
“We need to figure out how Beth fits into all this.” I glance at Tom. “She seems to have a thing for you, but after her cruise and being sick, she’s been working in the office.”
“Beth Brown? The one that brought the accounts to me?” Tom looks confused. “I fired her.”
I stiffen. “There was no record of her being fired.”
“Fuck.” Tom runs a hand through his hair again and stands. “Fuck. She has access?”
“To what she needs. We locked her out of most things.” Finn looks concerned and starts working on his phone.
“Take away her access now. Fuck. I should have told you.” Tom shakes his head as he paces and thinks.
“We knew she brought you those accounts.”
Tom stops and looks at me. “We can’t go back into the office until she’s gone.”
“Why not?” I tighten my hold on Sara.
“Because she’s the daughter of a Petrov.”