Page 15 of Then We Shatter

Tiernan wastes no time tipping to the side and pulling Lorcan with him. Ronan follows and the pair pin their brother to ground. Lorcan doesn’t object, his adrenaline-fueled energy source has been shut-off.

I crawl over to him. “Are you back with us?”

“Yeah,” he croaks. He manages a weak smile. “Unfortunately.”

I nod to the twins and they carefully release their grip and pull away. As I drag Lorcan up to sitting, Ronan and Tiernan get to their feet. Ronan has a slight cut to his cheek where the knife hit him, but it could have been so much worse.

“You’ve still got work to do,” I tell them.

“We have that,” Ronan says, dusting himself off. “Will we see you back at the truck?”

“You will.” I hold his gaze. “You did good. Both of you.”

The pair are about to leave when Lorcan holds out a shaking hand to stop them. “I’m…”

“It was nothing,” Ronan says with a shrug, stopping Lorcan before he can voice the apology. “But if you’re going to belt someone, can it be Tiernan next time?”

A good-natured spat erupts between the twins as they wander off. Katarina retreats too, leaving me alone with Lorcan.

“You need anything?” I ask.

“Just give me a second.”

There’s no more to be said. There’ll be no postmortem. This has happened enough times to know that what he needs right now is space not smothering. We might need another chat about going back to see his shrink at some point, and I’ll definitely be having words with Malachy. He should have handled this better. I’m not going to be around every time this happens.

I shove a protein bar into Lorcan’s shaking hand, leaving him to get his bearings while I prowl over to Katarina. The compound backs onto a mountain and she’s staring up at its jagged ridges silhouetted against a deep blue, star-filled sky.

“We need to move soon if you’re going to hitch a ride back to Chicago with the Griffins,” I say. “I’ll be heading back to Las Vegas with my brothers. Unless… We could…”

Sneaking off somewhere together is such a stupid idea that I can’t bring myself to voice the suggestion. Katarina laughs anyway.

“I’ll be in my uncle’s bad books already for slipping my security detail today,” she says. “Assuming Vlad and Alexei have come around yet after popping one too many sleeping pills.”

“If you’re going to face reprisals, you shouldn’t go back.”

“And where would I go, Killian? Not with you, that’s for sure,” she says. “Your father won’t want me anywhere near him or his family. I was born a Barkov and there’s nothing you or I can ever do to change that.” When she pauses, my silence tells her everything. I can’t offer her refuge and we both know it. “I’ll spin a story about sneaking off to see Duke Moncrief. And if we announce our engagement soon, Vasili will calm down long enough for the Griffins to organize my permanent disappearance.”

“I will see you again.”

Katarina releases a long sigh as she returns her gaze to the immovable mountain. “That’s not such a good idea.”

“Maybe not, but tonight was the start of something. No fucking way is it ending here.” I say it as a statement because that’s what it is. And for once, Katarina doesn’t argue. “Thanks for helping. With Lorcan.”

There are so many questions I want to ask, like how she recognized what was happening to my brother and knew how to help. I expect Katarina has her own questions too, but there’s plenty of time for that. I won’t consider there not being.

Lorcan clears his throat as he approaches from behind. He nods once to Katarina, a small but not insignificant acknowledgement of what she did for him. “Ready?” he asks me.

I step forward to greet him and grip the back of his neck. “We did good tonight.”

He gives me a lopsided smile. “It could have gone better.”

I recall the touch of Katarina’s hand around my cock just before we were interrupted. Yeah, things could have gone better. I drop my forehead to his. “It was good enough.”

Lorcan sniffs, begrudgingly accepting my verdict. I feel his brow furrowing as he sniffs again, deeper this time. “Why does your face smell of pussy?”

I don’t try to deny it. I won’t deny her so I squeeze Lorcan’s neck and pull away. “None of your fucking business.” The laughter in my throat dies when I see Malachy glaring at me. He heard.

Chapter 6