“What did you do to get Macon to change his mind about East’s school?” he wondered, and I caught him eyeing my ass.

I popped upright at his surprise question, the room spun. Jed took my arm. I was barefoot now, and our height difference was much more noticeable. I only came up to his shoulder.

There was no way I was going to tell him about the Texas oilman.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Eddie pushed through the dog door, went to his beloved bed in the corner, circled three times, then flopped down.

“Yeah, you do. In your office earlier, you thought I’d made a deal with your daddy, your pussy sweetening the deal. No one makes up shit like that.” He hadn’t let go of his hold, his thumb stroking over my bare skin. “Your brothers got out of here. You didn’t. Why’s that?”

“Someone had to take over the business,” I snapped. He was pissing me off. Getting too close to the truth.

He slowly shook his head.

“Try again.”

Not happening. Instead, I said, “Look, this isn’t going to work.”

“What isn’t?” he asked.

I heard the boom of the shotgun, meaning my brothers were far away and occupied. Still, I didn’t want any of them to be a part of this.

I stormed out of the room, cut into the salon where the bar cart was beside the grand piano my grandfather had bought my grandmother and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. The household staff not only kept the house immaculate, but fully stocked of anything Macon or I could ever want.

Right now, I wanted to get completely drunk. Forget my brothers were here. While I loved them dearly, seeing them reminded me that they would leave after dinner and go back to their lives. Real lives. Happy ones, full of dreams fulfilled. Rainbows and unicorns and all that. Forget that Jed had offered something that seemed full of promise but was just another deal.

Which only prompted me to my life. The shit show that it was.

I could take my life back now that Macon was dead, but the weight of the past was hard to lose. I felt… scarred.

“Our deal. I’ve made enough of them just like this. The only one who gets fucked is me.”

“Literally or figuratively?”

I cut through the house, aimed for the back steps off the kitchen, then realized the last place I wanted to be with Jed was my bedroom, so I slipped into where I knew was going to be somewhat soundproofed for our argument.

“What the fuck is this?” Jed asked, following me, looking around.