Hearing a third thud, I turned toward whomever or whatever it was and snuck from the bedroom. The intruder was trying to be quiet. A feminine curse sounded next.

I was forcing myself to keep calm. Kian had an entire team of lawyers and publicists. It could be any of them, and a voice in the back of my mind told me to wake him up, let him deal with this person. My feet weren’t listening. They kept moving across the plush carpet, barefoot and padding silently down the hallway. I approached until I was against the wall that separated myself from the kitchen, where the person was.

I held back for a second.

“Shit. Mother of—” She hushed herself, groaning out loud. “Seriously, the least he could do is have a good rose or even a merlot.”

My eyebrows pinched together. She was looking for alcohol?

“Fuck it.” She kept grumbling, “I’m ordering. Thank you, little brother, for your American Express.”

My eyes got big. I sucked in my breath. This was Felicia Maston.

Memories from her during the trial flashed through my mind. She was gorgeous. I remembered that from Fosston. Two years older than Kian, she looked similar with sleek dark hair. Her eyes were blue, and she had modeled briefly. She suddenly stopped modeling one day, but after hearing Kian’s explanation about Justin, I wondered if my ex had been the reason for her career’s demise. Had he broken her?

Realizing that I was about to come face-to-face with Kian’s sister, a whole slew of nerves broke out. I almost felt like throwing up, but it was what it was. If Kian and I were going to be together, I shouldn’t be scared of talking to his family member.

She was ordering mimosas to be delivered to her bedroom, which wasn’t in Kian’s suite. It was a few doors down. She sounded so chipper until she hung up the phone. Another curt curse left her lips before she swung around the counter, and there I was. My hand was flattened against the wall. It was obvious that I had been eavesdropping with my head folded down. My teeth sank into my lip.

“Oh!” She reared back, her hand flattening against her chest. “Shit. I didn’t expect a chick to be here. My brother doesn’t usually let them sleep over…” Her voice faded, and she tilted her head to the side, getting a better look at me. “Wait a minute.”

I geared myself. It was coming…

Her eyes lit up in recognition, and her head lifted backward. “Holy shit. You’re…” Her mouth fell open. “He’s actually boning you now? I can’t—” She shook her head before laughter peeled from her. “Oh my God.” Her shoulders started to shake with more laughter.

Apparently, I was funny, just from being here. “How did you get in here?”

She kept laughing. “I’m a Maston, honey. I can go anywhere I want just because of whose blood is in me. It’s the same with Kian. He can go anywhere, do anything…do anyone.”

The nerves were leaving me. Irritation was taking their place.

She held up a hand and wiped at the corner of her eye with the other one. “I can’t get over this. I mean, it’s you.” Her hand gestured to me, up and down. “I…just…whoa.” The amusement was lessening, but she wiped at her eye once more. “My parents are going to flip.”

My teeth ground against each other. Kian’s sister was a bitch. I forced myself to be nice. I had to try. “It’s nice to formally meet you.” I didn’t hold my hand out.

Her eyes flicked down, but she didn’t hold hers out either. “Yeah. You, too. I guess.”

“Guess?” A hard edge slipped out from me.

Her eyes shot to mine now. Oh, yes. She heard that from me.

She swallowed and nodded. “Let’s just cut the bullshit between us. I’m not trying to be hurtful here, but you’re a joke.”

Forced laughter spewed from me this time. “Really?”

“I’m not saying that to be a bitch, even though I know I can be.” Her eyes rolled upward, searching. “Like, eighty percent of the time, I’m an ungrateful and self-righteous pain in the ass. I’m spoiled. My parents pay for everything for me. I’m having an affair with a married guy, and I’m a closet alcoholic.”

“Closet?”

She lifted a shoulder, her head bobbing up and down. “I’ll give that to you. I’m pretty in-your-face about being an alcoholic, but I’m not any of those things right now. I’m being a good person when I say that you’re a joke.”

A hard boil began deep inside me.

Her hand flattened against her chest. “I’m to blame for most of this. Did Kian tell you about Justin?”

My neck was stiff, but my head clipped forward a little bit.

“Kian felt horrible about what happened to me. He wanted to rip Justin’s head off his shoulders. I wanted that, too. Our dad forbade it. It would’ve messed up a multimillion-dollar deal, and I hadn’t helped the matter at all. I cried to Kian every night for so long. I pleaded with him to go and kill Justin. I wasn’t thinking about Kian or about our dad. I was being selfish. I hurt, so I wanted everyone to hurt.”

My eyes glanced back to the floor. I murmured, “That is understandable. Justin raped you.”

“Yeah.” Her tone was wry. “Our family didn’t see it that way. I’m telling you this to help you understand Kian’s head. He saved you that day from Justin, but it was really me he was saving. All the aggression he had toward Justin came out on your foster father. I’m to blame for most of this shit. Me.” She mused to herself, “I almost wonder if it would’ve happened to any girl, and if you were just the lucky one?”

I lifted my head, feeling dislike and loathing for this person standing in front of me.

“You don’t use people. You don’t have hidden agendas. You don’t misuse your friendships.” I heard Kian’s voice again.

His sister was hateful. That was what was going on here. She was angry. She wanted to hurt him by hurting me. I wasn’t just some girl.

“That’s all I saw while growing up—until you. What you say, you mean. There is nothing hidden with you.”

I murmured, “You’re wrong.”

She stopped. “Oh, honey.” A genuine laugh barked from her.

That word again. It was condescending.

She added, “I’ll admit that I came here to be a pain in my brother’s ass. I saw your interview, and I had to come and congratulate him. Me being nice to him is how I piss him off. If he’s talked about me, I’m sure he’s told you that the two of us don’t get along, at all actually. He kicked me out of the hotel a couple of weeks ago. Well…” She paused, grinning to herself. “He kicked me out of the city, but he did the impossible, or I thought it was the impossible. I had to come and give him his dues.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The interview, how you went on TV and proclaimed to everyone how much of a hero he was. A job well done for Kian. He got you to do the interview, right?”

I shook my head. “I spoke the truth. That’s all I did.”

“Oh…” She was so damn sympathetic.

It was making me want to rip the hair out of her head.

Her entire demeanor changed. Her eyes were haughty. “He’s not said anything about the family business to you?” Her voice dropped to a quiet murmur, like she regretted to break the news to me. “The business, the same business that my father wouldn’t risk endangering when Justin raped me, is the same for Kian. My dad was furious when Kian killed that guy. My mom and I knew why he did it, but our dad didn’t. He kicked Kian out of the family—‘unofficially.’” She lifted her fingers to make air quotes.

“It’s been that way since Kian went to prison. Dad had such high hopes for him, and my brother flushed those hopes down the toilet, but time’s passed. Kian’s realized what a mistake he made, and since he got out of prison, he’s been trying to find a way back in. He’s still out of the family, though.”

Her eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Unofficially. What a joke, huh?” She winced. “Sorry about that word. I suppose that’s harsh. You’re not the joke. My brother is the joke. My brother was told that he had to change the investors’ minds about him. If he didn’t, no billion-dollar job for him.”