“Nothing,” she replied, stabbing her enchilada with a fork.

East dropped his plate onto the counter with a clatter. North startled.

He rested his palms on the marble, leaned in and glared at her. “We’re your brothers. Tell us what he fucking did.”

A flush crept up North’s cheeks, but she stayed silent.

East tossed up his hands in frustration. “Fuck, North. Do I look like I can’t handle Macon?” He glanced at South and West. “That they can’t either?”

“You have no idea,” she whispered.

“Then tell us!” he shouted.

She jumped. Her hand shook and she set her fork down.

I grabbed her, pulled her into my arms, her back to my front. Since she was barefoot, I was able to set my chin on the top of her head. It was the closest I could come to wrapping her up, holding her as close to me as I could.

I wanted to tell East to lay off, but it was clear he had no clue what had been going on. He’d earned his anger because I felt the same fury at Macon Wainright, and I wasn’t even Macon’s kid. I hadn’t grown up in this house.

But North needed comfort, to know she was safe as her brothers raged. That whatever happened hadn’t been her fault. Tipping my head down, I murmured in her ear. “Tell them, princess. What you did for them.”

I wasn’t sure of my words, but I said them anyway. A bluff. To get her to think I knew, that it wasn’t a secret any longer. She was safe with me. With her brothers.

No one talked. No one moved. The guys waited. I held my breath, hoped she finally, finally unburden.

“I let you go to college,” she said, her voice soft, as if it was hard to get out.

“What do you mean let you?” South asked. His plate was untouched on the counter.

She looked up, met her brothers’ gazes across the kitchen island. “Macon wasn’t going to let you go. Any of you.”

“Why?” East asked, frowning.

“Because he was an asshole,” she said. She was shaking and I held her even closer.

“You went,” East stated.

She nodded. “Yeah, to the school he wanted. The major he wanted.”

“It was South’s turn the next year. What did you do?” East added.

“I made a deal. Deals.”

She exhaled. I felt the secret literally deflate her.

I’d been right and I’d been angry in my thoughts. But she validated them, and it made it all so much worse.

“You made a deal with Macon so I could go to college?” South asked. “I was eighteen. I could have just left. Walked away from it all.”