"Yes, they are. They're your blood. You'd do anything for family." He paused. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. You hid your tracks very well. But I turned on the TV one day, and there you were. Only it wasn't you; it was your sister. I shouldn't have been surprised it was her. She was always better than you, wasn't she?"

"Yes, she was," Rachel said. "And you shot her."

"She was uncooperative, and I had to do something to get your attention. I knew you'd come for her. Just like she came for you twenty years ago in New Orleans," Max said. "If it hadn't been for her, this would have been over a long time ago."

"What happened in New Orleans?" I asked.

"Brynn, stop," Dani implored. "You don't need to know any of this."

"Yes, I do. Look where we are. I have a right to know what happened in New Orleans."

"Tell her," Max said. "Tell her how you and your sister killed a man."

"It was self-defense," Rachel said tersely. "It was him or us. I'm just sorry we didn't kill you, Max."

I sucked in a breath as her words fanned the fire in his eyes.

"No, but you did your best to destroy me and my business," he said. "That's over now. I want what's mine. Where are the stones?"

"I told you—they're gone," Rachel said.

He lifted the gun and fired it in our direction. Dani screamed, and I ducked as the bullet hit the wall between us. My breath came hard and fast as I saw the intent in his eyes.

"Next one goes in her head," he told Rachel, pointing the gun toward Dani.

I scrambled toward Dani, wanting to protect her. Rachel did the same, moving in front of both of us.

"You can't kill either one of them," Rachel said fiercely.

"I can, and I will, unless you give me what's mine."

"It's not yours. It was never yours."

"And never yours," he retorted.

"Well, you can kill me, but you can't go after them. Because…" She drew in a deep breath.

As I waited for her to finish that sentence, I felt a nervous tingle shoot down my spine. There was something else coming. Something bad. Something shocking.

"Because why?" Max demanded. "I'm curious what you think you have over me."

"You're their father."

Rachel's words sent me reeling. I backed into the wall again as I tried to stay on my feet.

Max's gaze narrowed as it moved past Rachel to me and to Dani. "No way."

"It's true," Rachel said. "You're their father."

"I can't be. You're lying."

I wanted her to be lying. I didn't want this horrible man to be my father. I looked back at Dani. She was shaking with fear, her gaze unfocused. I wasn't even sure she'd heard what Rachel had said.