Page 85 of The Rebel Billionaire

Gage Winters was most likely already dead, and it was possible his family would never know what had happenedtohim.

Tears soaked through my shirt as Charlie cried softly into my chest. I knew she hated the way Aiden tried to coddle her. At that moment, I'd never been more in sympathywithhim.

I didn't want her to know about Gage. I never wanted her to hear another piece of bad news for the rest ofherlife.

How much more was she supposed to take? She'd lost her aunt and uncle, then her parents. She was being stalked. Now, her cousin was missing,probablydead.

Yeah, I got Aiden's urge to wrap her up and keep her safe for the rest ofherlife.

Her strawberry shortcake abandoned, Charlie looked ready to call it a night. I stood, taking her with me, and said to the room, "We're going to head home. I assume we'll see you alltomorrow?"

"Take care with her," Aiden said. I knew Charlie felt like shit when she didn't respond to the overprotective big brothercomment.

I didn't need thewarning.

Lately, taking care of Charlie was the only thing that made sense. The only thing I wantedtodo.

And that scared the shit outofme.

CHAPTERTWENTY

CHARLIE

Icouldn't seemto absorb Aiden's news. Gage was missing. I didn't know a lot about what Gage did, but he'd been a Ranger before he'd drifted into doing things for the Army he couldn't talk about, and I knew there were few people on the planet better trained thanhewas.

If he was missing, he wasprobablydead.

My heart and mind refused toacceptthat.

NotGage.

Growing up, Vance had teased me, tormented me, and played with me. Jacob had pretended not to have time for me, but secretly, he doted on me, tucking me into bed when my mom was distracted with the other kids and braiding my hair in the mornings beforeschool.

Before our parents died, Aiden had been too busy to bother with me. He'd been an adult to my child, and both he and Gage had treated me with absentaffection.

I knew they loved me, they just weren't around much to show it. In my child's mind, they'd both been larger-than-life, tall and strong andsmart.

Invincible.

The idea that something could happen to either of them . . . I couldn't force it to makesense.

You'd think after losing so much of my family, I would see death around every corner. I never felt that way, though. What happened to my parents, aunt and uncle had been so shocking, so outside the norm, that it had never felt as if those deaths could bleed into the rest ofmylife.

Since my mom and dad died, Aiden had stepped up, doing his best to take their place, his natural authority shielding me, buffering me frommoreloss.

Tonight, when he'd told us about Gage, I'd finallyseenhim.

Reallyseenhim.

The deep line between his eyebrows. The shadows under his eyes. His cheeks looked gaunt, as if he'd lost weight. I'd never understood the cost of watching over us all, never seen how it weighedonhim.

Pulling out my phone as Lucas drove us back to the Highlands, I pulled up Aiden's number in the messaging app andtappedout,

Iloveyou

That was all I hadtosay.

I loved him and I was sorry he'd had to tell us about Gage. Sorry he had to carry so much on hisshoulders.