As Mary sat at her desk at Safe Place, she accomplished absolutely nothing.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She succeeded, quite admirably if she did say so herself, in moving a pile of paperwork from the right corner to the left—and, in the process, managed to review every page in said pile of case notes, intake forms, and schedules for grammatical errors, typos, and coffee stains.

Real high-level stuff.

Yup. She’d located several its-versus-it’s problems, a there instead of a their, and, the pièce de résistance, an orientated versus the American English oriented.

Go. Her.

Sitting back in her squeaky chair, she swiped the mouse pad and checked the time on her computer screen. Holy crap. It was three a.m.

She hadn’t heard from Rhage—and guessed that quick meeting about the attack on those trainees from the night before hadn’t been all that quick.

Taking a deep breath, she smelled chocolate chip cookie dough cooking in the ovens downstairs, and a wave of sadness hit her. She could remember trying to get Bitty to participate in the community baking right after her mother had died. The little girl had preferred to sit upstairs in the attic room she had shared with her mahmen, those battered suitcases all packed with her meager possessions, her stuffed tiger and that doll head beside her on the bed.

They hadn’t even known her real age at that point.

God, that seemed like a million years ago—

Her phone went off, and as she checked the text, she hoped it was Rhage. She needed an excuse to leave—

It was not from him.

As her hands began to shake, she got to her feet, tucked her blouse into her slacks, and carefully pulled on her coat. Then she picked up her purse and her phone.

Instead of telling everyone down below that she was going, she just sent a message to the group that she was leaving.

Now was not the time to stand in front of anybody and speak about anything—especially not the compassionate females who worked here and would read her like a book.

Outside, the night was terribly cold and that seemed appropriate. After she got into the Volvo and started the engine, she went miles before any appreciable heat came out of the vents, but it was okay. She was too numb to feel either hot or cold.

The King’s Audience House was some distance away and yet her destination arrived too quickly. Then again, her intention had been to use the drive to collect herself—and really, she could have gone to California and back and not felt any different.

Just as she was getting out by the garage, Rhage was materializing.

As she saw him, there was a temptation to rush into his arms and wail again, but she was over that. She didn’t have the energy, even if the emotions in her chest remained that big and hard to manage.

“Come on,” he said in a dull voice. “Let’s get this over with.”

They entered through the back door, using the code, and then walked through the kitchen, heading for that library.

When they entered the formal room, Bitty was sitting on the sofa in front of the fire. Next to her uncle.

Damn, the family resemblance was so clear.

Do not cry, Mary said to herself as she forced a smile. Do not make Bitty feel one ounce of guilt over this.

You’re the adult. She’s the victim of domestic abuse, an orphan, and a child.

Do not make this worse.

Of course, all that self-talk didn’t really change the way she felt. But at least the stern lecturing distracted her from melting down.

Marissa was seated beside the pair of blood relations and she got to her feet with enviable grace. “Thank you for coming.”

As if they were outside third parties attending a meeting in a lawyer’s office. For, like, a fence dispute.

Except they were third parties, Mary reminded herself.

Somehow, she and Rhage managed to sit down on the sofa across from Bitty and Ruhn. Things were said. Who knew what. And Rhage was as quiet as she was.

God, she couldn’t meet Bitty in the eye for more than a second or two, and she needed to work on that—

“So, Ruhn? Or Bitty?” Marissa said. “Would you like to speak now?”

There was a long silence, and Mary was the one who broke it. Looking right into Bitty’s eyes, she said in a voice that mostly didn’t crack, “It’s okay, Bitty. It’s all right, it’s all going to be—”

“So you’ll let him move here?” the little girl said. “And live with us?”

Mary blinked. “I’m sorry—what?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry?”

Bitty looked at her uncle. “I want him to come live with the three of us. And he said he would. He doesn’t need to be adopted like you guys are doing with me. But he has no family, and we have a big family, and Father always says the more the merrier? And we live in a big house. There is room. Ruhn can help, you know. That’s his job.”

Mary shook her head again. Opened and closed her mouth. “Wh-what?”

Rhage leaned forward. “I’m sorry, what are you saying?”

Ruhn cleared his throat. “I don’t have anything to keep me in South Carolina. Bitty’s my only family and I could use a fresh start—I don’t have to live with you all—”

“Yes, you do.” Bitty looked at him and spoke firmly. “We have a big house. And we have a cat and a dog. You like cats and dogs. You will come and live with us, and my parents will make sure you have work—Mom? What’s wrong?”

Mary couldn’t answer. Not with the tears streaming down her face and her breath catching in her throat and her whole body feeling like it was going to explode.

Putting her head in her hands, she was so overcome, all she could do was sit there and cry.

Bitty’s voice was close to her when the little girl spoke next. “You’ll like him, Mom. I promise.”

All Mary could do was reach out … and pull her daughter in tight. There were no words, no words, no words at all.

Wait. No, there were: “I know I’m going to just love him.”

Rhage’s first thought was that this was the dream. He was finally in a dream, and of course, his subconscious was kicking out a fantasy world where everything worked out okay. Yup. Any second, the alarm was going to go off and they’d be back in hell.

Except … no electronic dinging.

Rhage put a hand out, aware that Bitty and Mary were hugging and talking and Mary was crying.

The fighter side of him, the part that had been honed by countless cluster-fucks in countless engagements in the war, was no more willing to believe this than he would Santa Claus coming down a chimney.

Rhage got to his feet and nodded at Ruhn. “I want to talk to you. Alone.”

The uncle didn’t hesitate to rise to his full height. “Anywhere you want.”

Naturally, nobody was going to let him be alone with the guy: Vishous, who Rhage hadn’t even been aware of being in the room, came with them as they stepped out into the rear part of the foyer and closed the doors of the library.

But Rhage wasn’t about to, well, rage.

He kept his voice down and his eyes leveled on the guy. “I thought you came here to take her away.”

The male nodded. “That’s right.”

“So what’s changed? And think this over carefully. Because my shellan is bleeding to death in there. Again. And I’m getting really fucking bored with what’s making her cry.”

Ruhn stepped off, but didn’t back away. Instead, he paced around, his big body clearly unable to contain his emotions.

“Yes, I wanted to take her back to South Carolina with me. I did. And I won’t apologize to you or anyone else for wanting to do right by my bloodline. But then I got here … and I was only told she was in foster care. I didn’t know that you all had started an adoption process until later. I really liked the both of you, and it was clear Bitty was well cared for. But last night … when you came through that door and you’d been shot at?” He pointed to the front entrance of the mansion. “You were frantic to get here and help them. And when Bitty saw you, she was terrified and relieved. Then the three of you were together. Right there.”

The male went over and stood in the spot. “I was looking at all of you, and I thought … that is a family. Right there. That is … what I wished for my sister but knew she wasn’t going to get with that male of hers. It was what I’d hoped to bring to Bitty’s life—but she already has it, see. With you guys. She told me about how you took her in. What you’ve been teaching her about movies and cars and life. How good Mary is with her. How Mary took care of my sister at that place for the battered females. How you two stayed with her during her procedure for her bones—and about your beast. And by the way, wow, is all I can say about that.” Ruhn shook his head. “She talked non-stop about the two of you. She loves you like you’re her blood. And my stuff with my sister? That’s not enough to justify breaking up a family. It just isn’t.”

Rhage just stood where he was and blinked like an idiot. “So …”

“I’ll sign whatever you want. You know, to make it legal.” The male put his palms up. “And honest, I don’t have to move in or anything. I don’t want to impose. That’s her idea—but I would like … I don’t know, if you could see your way clear, to letting me see her maybe once every couple of years—”

Rhage was not aware of moving. But the next thing he knew, he was throwing a bone-crusher around the guy, holding that fucking uncle so tight, the muscles in his shoulders and arms popped hard.

“You will come and you will live at the mansion.” He shoved the guy back and then had to catch Ruhn as he tottered on his work boots. “And we’ll find a job for you. And you will stay with us. And that is the way it is going to be.”

Ruhn seemed nonplussed. “Ah …”

Vishous spoke up. “Wrath has to approve this. The security check’s done, but the King is going to need to weigh in on it.”

“It’ll be fine.” Rhage jacked up his leathers. “It’s gonna be great—”

Ruhn rubbed his forehead like it hurt. “Wait, I’m grateful and all. But why would you do this? I’m nothing to you. I’m a nobody.”

“Bullshit,” Rhage said. “You’re family.”