She went absolutely still as she heard the one voice she’d been dreading most. Her heart choking her, she slowly looked over her shoulder.

Time froze in that heartbeat as her gaze fell to Fain. Much older than the teen who’d once rocked her to sleep, he was still huge. Even bigger than Dancer.

Dressed in a Tavali battlesuit, he had his face painted similarly to the way Dancer had done hers. His Tavali mask hung loose around his neck and his braids were pulled back from his handsome face by a black band. His black gloves were tucked into his holster. Her gaze fell to his hand where he wore Omira’s wedding band on his pinkie. Just like Dancer had said.

The pain on his face was searing. He stared at her as if she were a ghost whose sole purpose was to haunt him. As if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Darling looked back and forth between them. “You two know each other?”

Sumi licked her suddenly dry lips as she tried to think of how best to answer Darling’s question.

“I was married to her older sister.” Well, Fain took that ball out of play. He blinked as if finally getting a handle on the fact that she wasn’t Omira and that she meant him no harm.

Funny, she’d been so angry at him for so long. Had hated his guts with such passion and blamed him for what Omira had done – when honestly, her sister had destroyed them all.

Sumi had stupidly thought that if she ever saw him again, she’d want to murder him on sight.

Now… that hatred was gone. Melted by a wave of feeling lost, abandoned, and heartbroken. She felt as if she was seven years old and, like Thia with her father, she just wanted to run into his arms and have him hold her the way he’d done when she was a girl. To tell her once more that everything would be okay and that he’d never let anyone hurt her.

Jayne smacked her hand against her own forehead. “That’s why she looks so familiar. I knew I recognized her from somewhere. Stupid me. I was thinking bounty sheets, not Fain’s wife.”

Fain’s gaze dropped to Dancer’s head in Sumi’s lap.

In that moment, Dancer blinked his eyes open as if he felt his brother’s presence. Guilt and anguish marked his features as he realized how this must look to Fain.

Moving forward, Fain dropped to his knees next to Dancer. “Hey, drey. You still with me?”

Hauk couldn’t breathe as he saw the raw agony in Fain’s eyes that his being with Sumi had caused his brother. And he felt like total shit over it. Fain was the one being he would never have hurt for anything. “I’m sorry.”

Fain scowled at him. “For what?”