Slade might be the only one of us who could bring Kellan home. Knowing that was one thing. Convincing my parents it was true was another.

My mother sat down at the table with us, two mugs of coffee in her hands. She handed one to my stepfather and said, “Kellan’s life is enough of a mess as it is, Iris. Adding yet another unstable element to the mix… I just can’t see how that would make things any better.”

“Exactly,” Dad said, kissing my mother’s cheek before taking a sip of his coffee. “Kellan needs roots. He needs someone who can set a good example.” His eyes darkened and his brow creased. A shadow of a memory flitted over his face. “Not someone who forces himself on his own family.”

“He didn’t force me,” I mumbled, and not for the first time. This was a regular argument, once upon a time, but over the past few years it became obvious he was never going to change his mind. I saw my stepfather start to open his mouth and quickly added, “And anyway, that’s not the point. The point is Kellan doesn’t know about that. All he knows is that the big brother he looked up to more than anyone else in the world just disappeared from his life one day, and that you wouldn’t even let him ask why. He’s not going to come home if either of you go after him. It’s obvious who he needs.”

My stepfather leaned close to me over the table, lowering his voice and squeezing my mother’s hand so tight I saw his knuckles whiten. “If you think I’m inviting that… person into my home, after what he did to us, to you…”

I furrowed my brow in disbelief. “He’s your son,” I reminded him. “And he’s a doctor. You don’t know what kind of trouble Kellan’s into. Mom found pills in his room just the other week. Who knows how long that’s been going on? He needs treatment, Dad.”

My stepfather sat back and his face fell. He eyed my mother through his periphery. “Is that true?” he asked her. “About the pills?”

I looked at my mom. She averted her gaze. Shit. I didn’t know she hadn’t told him.

When she failed to answer, my stepfather let out a long sigh through his nose. He looked out the window again at the empty drive, at the absence of my brother’s car, at the clouds moving in over the horizon. A storm was coming. Maybe in more ways than one.

As much as my mother and stepfather didn’t want Slade here, I didn’t want him around even more. It wasn’t because he’d “forced” himself on me—I was a willing and eager, albeit naïve, participant in what happened between us. But being played for a fool, having my heart torn open, being used just to settle some kind of score Slade had with our parents? I never wanted to see his smug, arrogant face ever again. No matter how handsome it was.

Slade was the walking, talking embodiment of everything I’d tried to forget for almost a decade now. I’d done a lot in the past seven years. I’d graduated from college, started my own business as an interior designer—no, screw that, I had a thriving business, and that was even more impressive than just starting one. I was a smart, beautiful, self-possessed young woman who didn’t take shit from anybody, and Slade Jarvis was everything I wanted to leave behind.

But he was exactly what I needed—what our family needed—right now. And I’d do anything for Kellan if it meant keeping him safe. Surely, my parents felt the same way?

“Slade stays out of this,” my stepfather said, and my shoulders slumped. “He’s done enough damage. And if Kellan needs saving, he’ll get it. Just not from my degenerate son.”

I looked to my mother, pleading with my eyes, but she only shook her head. My stepfather’s word was law, one of the many reasons I’d moved out right after high school, and probably one of the many reasons Kellan dropped out. There was no arguing with him once he’d made a decision of this magnitude. It was his way, or the highway.

And we all knew what Kellan thought of that.

I leaned back in my chair, glancing out the window at the coming storm. Great. Once again, it was up to me to make the sacrifices and be the adult. Once again, I would have to put myself on the line, and knowing Slade, I’d be the one who would have to live with the consequences too.

I had to find my stepbrother, the last person on earth I wanted to see. I’d have to do it without our parents knowing, because if they found out, there would be hell to pay. And when I did manage to find Slade, I’d have to hope that he was different. Selfless. Grown up. And hopefully not so hot anymore, either.

Because that part of me that wanted answers, the part of me I’d spent seven years trying to hold at bay? Yeah, that part of me would wake right up with just one quirk of Slade’s full, soft lips. Lips I knew way too well.

Lips that, if I was being honest with myself, I still dreamed about.

Here’s hoping this doesn’t turn into a nightmare, I thought as I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. One thing was certain: I was going to need a plane ticket, and balls of fucking steel.

Slade available now on Amazon

Now here’s a taste of Trust

TRUST

CHAPTER ONE

"If I win, I get the girl."

It was said so matter-of-factly that it didn't register with me until I heard it a second time, after Harrison asked him to repeat it.

"You're in over your head, kid, that much is obvious," the other man continues, eying the small stack of chips left in front of my boyfriend meaningfully.  He had just shoved a large stack of his own chips into the pot that more than eclipsed what Harrison had in front of him.  "Instead of risking what you have left, which isn't much, I'm suggesting we change the stakes.  You win, you get everything in the pot."

With the chips he had just added, that would more than cover the heavy losses Harrison had accumulated in the last couple of days.  "But if I win, the girl comes home with me."

This time I knew I heard what he said and it sounded just as ludicrous as it did originally.  Obviously he was joking, or crazy, if he thought Harrison would agree to something like that.

The man lifts the dark sunglasses he's wearing up and off his face as he shifts his gaze up to me.  His eyes are a cobalt blue, sitting beneath short blond hair and above a finely chiseled, unshaven jaw.  Under normal circumstances he'd be drop dead gorgeous, but the fact that he is calmly trying to negotiate a price for my ass makes him decidedly less so.

I glance down at Harrison who is also looking up at me.  I expect to see a familiar grin on his lips, the one that tells me we are both sharing the same joke.  But what I see is something else entirely.  One of his eyebrows is raised, and his green eyes are staring at me intently, as if he is either considering this ludicrous proposal or asking for my permission.

I shake my head slightly with a frown, annoyed that I even need to give my opinion on the matter.

Harrison looks back at the poker player across from him.  "Deal," he finally says.

It's just a single word, but it's the only one needed to crash my whole world.

So many things seem to happen at once in the moments that follow, my senses seem to jumble with time itself and I don't even know in what order everything occurs.

There's a collective gasp that comes from onlookers, both those sitting at the table and others who are just standing around watching.  For some reason, a lot of people are drawn to this game, despite the fact that until this particular bet, the stakes haven't been abnormally high.

Cards are flipped, but I'm no longer paying attention to what they are.  Despite Harrison's love of the game, and gambling in general, I've never taken any big interest in poker.  The important point is, once the hand is over, the reaction from everyone around us tells me all I need to know.