It took all my inner strength not to jump out of the truck when we stopped for gas in Santa Barbara. Pretending to like Grant as Ksenya had been easy. I was in love with Grant; I’d just been pretending to be another woman. But pretending to have amorous feelings for my brother was completely different—I had to pretend he was another man.

“Where’s Julián? How do you know where he is? You’ve been in jail.”

“He’s safe. That’s all you need to know. I always told them to go to a certain place if Grant came knocking around.”

Damn it. I’d hoped that in an effort to seduce me, Joaquín would be more open with me. But he was controlling every aspect of our road trip.

“Okay. Where are we going?”

“To unwind, relax. I’ve been locked up for seven months. I want to be alone with you.”

Fuck. I would not sleep with him; I would kill him first. But luckily, he’d promised to give me time. But . . . my son. Where was he? This was my only hope to find him.

Joaquín leaned over the truck as he pumped gas, and I noticed the outline of a gun in his pants. Of course he was armed. It would be more shocking if he wasn’t carrying. His lawyer must’ve hooked him up.

But I was armed, too. The gun was in my purse. But who was I kidding? Despite my training, I was no match for Joaquín. Grant and Mitch could take him, but not me.

Mitch was supposed to be following us, but Joaquín being released early had fucked up Grant’s entire plan. Joaquín had destroyed my phone and brought me in a vehicle they weren’t tracking.

Mitch won’t have a clue where I was, until Grant is released. Grant had given me this ring, and when he’s free, the ring will lead him to me.

Joaquín climbed back into the seat, and we headed up the coast. I’d imagined this reunion so many times, but it had never ever been like this. I didn’t know what to say; anything that came to my mind seemed wrong. So, I kept my mouth shut and stared at the ocean.

After a few hours of listening to music, Joaquín exited toward Carmel-by-the-Sea, and my stomach twisted a bit. Mama and Papa would always bring us here in the summers, and Joaquín and I would spend our days rolling in the sand dunes and our nights gazing at the stars. We’d raced our remote-control cars up and down the sidewalks and had spent hours at the Monterey Aquarium. It had been one of our happy places.

How would he ruin this memory?

When Joaquín turned toward a cottage on the beach, my heart raced. “Where are we staying?”

“Daniel has a place he’s letting me borrow. I need to clear my mind. The only good thing about being in jail is that I wasn’t force-fed all that media bullshit. I spent so much time alone, wrestling with my feelings and figuring shit out. It gave me time to realize what would make me happy. It’s not being a SEAL or having money or getting high. It’s you. You’re all I need, Mia. I’m gonna show you how much I fucking love you.”

I had to separate who I thought he once was from who he actually was. He’d been different for years, but I had been blinded to his dark side. My soul ached. How could I feel compassion for this monster? He’d raped me, kidnapped my son, and murdered a woman. And possibly my parents. There was something wrong with him. He needed to get help. I just wished he had received the therapy he had needed before his life spun out of control.

I couldn’t say these things. My son’s life depended on my compliance.

Instead, I took his hand in mine. “Let’s get dinner at the Mexican restaurant that Mama and Papa loved. And then we can get ice cream and stop by my favorite gallery. Just like old times.”

He pulled in front of the house and grasped my face, kissing me again. “I fucking love you. You’re so incredible. I’ll love you until the day I die, until I take my last breath. Listen, Grant will love another woman. But I won’t, Mia. You’re the only woman for me.”

His words were choked with emotion, and for the third time today, I burst into tears. What had happened to him? It couldn’t have just been my parents’ lies that drove him to this madness—there had to have been something else that had triggered him. He’d been such a great brother to me, he’d been such a happy boy, when did he crack?

Lies. Lies destroyed everything. For the first time I saw that. My lies destroyed Grant, Joaquín’s lies destroyed me and my son, and my parents’ deception destroyed Joaquín.

A crushing feeling enveloped my chest. I knew in my soul that this would be the last time I would ever be with my brother. This would not end well. One or both of us would end up dead once he realized that I had no feelings of romantic love for him.

But for this moment, for tonight, I would hold on to him and our childhood dreams as I bid my long goodbye to my brother.