“Guess why the little sign says ‘Do Not Disturb!’” I yelled at the door Hayden had been pounding on for, like, ten minutes. “I’ll give you one shot at it.”

“I’d prefer not to talk about this in the hallway. If you don’t open the door in the next thirty seconds, I have to assume you’ve drowned in the hot tub and get the hotel’s manager to open it up.”

“He’s already been warned to stay away.” And paid. We were moving onto Day I’m-Not-Sure of not answering the door or the phone, so you’d think people would get the hint. My friends had all gone home days ago. They had things and people to go back for.

“Carson! Stop being such a baby and open the goddamn door. Things are getting serious, and you need to do something about it.”

About what? I climbed out of bed to find out what the fuck had happened while I’d been in isolation. That’s when I noticed the legal-sized envelopes that had been slipped under my door, despite all the money I’d paid the staff to keep people away from me. So the paperwork, plus Hayden taking time out of his workday to fly to Vegas, meant... Hell if I knew.

I flicked the deadbolt and cracked the door open on my way down to grab them, scooting back just in time to avoid getting smacked in the head as Hayden burst in.

“You have no idea what’s going on, do you?” He didn’t give me a chance to answer, probably understanding from my expression how clueless I was. Or maybe it was because I looked like someone who hadn’t gotten out of bed in the last…

“What day is it?” I asked, scratching my unshaven jaw.

“You’re in deep shit, little brother.” He pushed me backwards and shut the door behind him.

“What’d I do?”

“Well, if I believe Laney’s ex-boyfriend, i.e. the person most likely to have answered my phone calls, you attacked him for no reason.”

Shit. That shook me out of the fog. “That’s what the bastard said happened?” I regretted that day more than any other, but not because of what I did to Kevin. “He deserved everything he got. He should be happy he could still walk away.”

“And that kind of comment won’t help your case. He’s threatening to go to the police and tell them that he almost didn’t walk away.”

“So? Lane already talked to them.”

“She didn’t go to the police.”

“What?” I straightened. “Why the fuck not?”

“Because if she had, they would’ve questioned Kevin, and he would’ve told the police what he told everyone who wasn’t holed up in a hotel room drinking their meals. Kevin O’Leary is doing his medical residency at UCSF. He was the physician who worked on the man from the bar fight.”

“That guy signed a nondisclosure agreement.”

Hayden nodded. “That didn’t cover everything he’d already told the physician who worked on him before he signed it. When said physician got his ass handed to him by the same goddamn idiot his ex-patient did, he knew exactly where to hit to cause the most damage.”

My lungs stayed on ‘empty.’ “Lane?”

“No.” Hayden pantomimed smacking me on the back of the head. “Your pockets. Our name.” Hayden gave as much a shit about our family’s honor as I did, so I knew he was talking about the foundation. Exactly the same reason I’d agreed to pay the other guy off—so my screw-up wouldn’t hurt other people. Shit. Not one but two victims of my anger issues would flush donations down the toilet. Probably get me arrested, too.

“The guy in the bar, yeah, that was on me. But Kevin…” I slumped onto the couch. “He was hurting her, Hay. I couldn’t let him hurt her.”

He sat down next to me and blew out a breath. “He wants money. Lots of money. But unless you’ve given it all to Renee or spent it all on cards, booze, and expensive hookers, you can afford it. He also wants an apology with all the sincerity you can fake. You give him what he wants, he signs some paperwork, and we all move on.”

“I write a check, so I don’t have to deal with it anymore.” Just like I did with Renee and Anna. What I’d done with Lane. So I could pretend I was doing the right thing. Then I’d apologize to someone who deserved as much punishment as I did.

Fuck that. I stood. “No.”

“Carson, think about it. Even if O’Leary doesn’t go to the police, he’ll still tell the media, skew what happened into something that works in his favor. And he has just enough facts to make it look true. No one roots for the rich kid, little brother. If he talks, things will only get worse for everyone—Laney included.”

“I don’t care about the money. If he doesn’t talk, he can have however much he wants.” Because his lies would hurt good families who were hurting too much as it was.

“I have to do something about my shit, Hayden. I can’t keep telling myself it’s not affecting anyone.” How long had I been pretending the first eighteen years of my life didn’t exist? “I’ll need some help with the board, though.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got it. What about the apology?”

“Yeah, the bastard will get a fucking apology I don’t mean and he doesn’t deserve. But on one condition.” I thought about it. “Make that two conditions: You wake Anna up to tell her about an emergency meeting of the board.”

“Really, Carson? You know what I do for a living and approximately how much money I get for doing it. And you want me to make a wake-up call?”

“You never lived with her, so you’ve never had to deal with her in the morning. Trust me, it’ll be one of the most unpleasant things you’ve ever had to do. And I’m not even going to ask you to break it to her that she’s finally getting a real job. Because I love you too much to put you through that.”

I didn’t trust my wicked stepsister to be responsible for anything hugely important. But she was beautiful, smart, and manipulative—all things appreciated by wealthy men from every nation on earth. She might as well start using her powers for good.

“Oh, and make sure she understands that she doesn’t have to be there in person, so she shouldn’t worry too much about her hair.” Expecting her to show up would be stupid, even if I wanted to ever see her again. Plus, not all the board members were local, so we’d have to set up the teleconference anyway.

“Is the second condition as terrifying?” Hayden grumbled.

“No. The second condition is simple: Kevin signs an agreement that says he’ll stay the fuck away from Lane for the rest of his life.” Just like I had to.