I'm in a blinding rush when I get to ma's place, practically tearing the door off its hinge. “Daddy's here, peewee!”

No response. “Lizzie?” Where the fuck is my daughter?

I see her aunt step into the hall a second later, a sleeping little girl in her arms. Rushing up, I snatch her away, cradle her to my chest. Relief and fear cross swords in my heart, two competing masters bent on seeing their war through to the end.

“She's okay, brother. We got to her just in time, like I told you on the phone. Nothing even happened.” Jamie gives me a look like I'm overreacting.

Bullshit. I could've lost her. Knowing it makes me clench her tight, giving my sister a look like ice, and ask the second most important question of the evening. “Where's Kendra?”

“Hiding, probably. Can't say I blame her. You look like you want to interrogate her.”

Of course I fucking do.

I need to know everything. Need to be sure there's no sign Victor intends to resurface tonight, and thieve away my precious girl. I start moving, heading down the hall, hoping I'll find her in the big chair by the fireplace.

“Hold up, Thor. You do realize she's the one who stepped up and kept our peanut safe, right?” Jamie paces after me, but I'm not slowing down.

I find Kendra out on the patio next to the dining room, a hurried look in her eye when she sees me, bolts up, and tenses. I take the seat next to her, gently rubbing my little girl's head. She stirs softly in her sleep.

“What did he say to you?” I growl, blood running to lava when I think about the Heartless Fuck's arms on my baby.

“That he'd be back. That he thinks we'll slip up. That we'll –“ she catches herself. “Jesus, Knox, I don't know. It was terrifying.”

Her eyes stare through me. They're on Jamie, standing behind me, arms folded tight as her face looks while we're having our pow-wow. “Idiot, I'm so glad I heard you add 'thank you.'”

I turn around, pissed off, but careful not to wake my snoozing kid. “Don't you have margaritas to shake or something? Give us some damn privacy.”

“Not so fast. I didn't hear a word out of creepo's mouth, but Kendra told me everything.” My little sis looks at her friend, who's blushing and looking away, telling me she omitted the important parts. “What I can't understand is why he's so persistent, why he came after her, why he even knows who she is.”

“You think a fucking billionaire can't hire a whole team to do the grunt work when it comes to finding out who's tied to me? Victor probably knows the name of the last scorpion I stepped on.”

Jamie pouts, pursing her lips, quiet in thought. “I don't like this, guys. Not one bit. It's like there's something else going on here, something beyond wanting to screw Knox over, and have his revenge –“

“What don't you understand? Maniacs have no logic.” I cut her off mid-sentence before she says Sam. “By the way, I put in for a leave of absence today.”

Both my sister and my fake fiancée do a double take. Nodding, I continue. “It's for everybody's good. Tensions are so thick around Black Rhino it's dynamite. Teams can't work, can't plan, can't even fucking think when the two men at the top are at each other's throats.”

“Jesus,” Jamie whispers, letting her arms fall to the sides. “I'm just surprised. If dad were around to see this, he'd –“

“He'd get it. I'm not doing this because I need a giant dick waving contest with a bitter old man who thinks I killed his daughter. This is for our family. I'll settle Black Rhino's business as soon as I'm through with Wright.”

I mean it in the worst way. If there were a way to put him behind bars or deep underground without any consequences, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

“I'm sorry, Knox,” Kendra whispers.

I take a long, hard look at the woman who's done so much for me. Rattles my bones knowing she was the only thing between that snake and my daughter. If he'd decided to go through her...

Fuck. No, I can't think that way. It'll lead me dark places I've only begun to put behind me. Don't need a list of all the reasons I strangled her crush on me years ago, and intentionally made myself toxic.

I can't hurt you again, I think to myself, pain coming rough in my throat the longer I look at her.

“Knox, I'm telling ma.” Jamie blinks as soon as I whip around, giving her a death glare. “We've kept her in the dark long enough. She deserves to know what's happening, even if we're short on details. She's isn't stupid. I'm not lying to her face anymore, pretending this will all just go away. That man proved it won't when he tried to take our peanut away.”

Kendra stands, crouches near me, gently runs her fingers down my arm. Fireworks hit my brain in sexy, bedazzling, furious lights. It's hard keeping my don't you fucking dare look aimed Jamie's way.

I get it. She's trying to soothe the animal clawing out of me. In the process, she's wicked close to blowing our cover, and I wonder if she's fucking trying to.

Not now, damn it. Don't you go losing your mind too, Sunflower.

“Tell me, Jamie, what do you think ma will wind up thinking about if she has to dwell on Victor Wright again?”

My sister chews her lips, her eyes softening once the realization set in. “She's a tough woman. She'll handle it, Knox. Obviously, the last thing I want to do is drag her through that again –“

“Wrong. From where I'm standing, it's the first thing you're willing to do, all so you can do – what, exactly? Remind her she's powerless? That she can't do anything to the feral weasel our old man shacked up with for business? He's holding the best hand until we call his fucking bluff.”

Until I have my way, I mean. Sooner or later, with God as my witness, I will.

“Take her, Sunflower.” I pass my baby girl to the woman next to me, caught between our thinly veiled attraction and this charade we're forced to play. “Ease off before you make a big goddamn mistake, Jamie. Let me handle this. Plans are in motion. I'll deal with Victor once I've laid my trap. Don't bring ma into this, and force her to re-live everything with dad again.”

For a few short seconds, I'm teleported back in time to the thick of our family hell. The weeks after he died, trying to pretend I'd never found those damning letters. The heart attack killed his body. But my father's honor died when his dirty little secrets turned up, and I had to lie to my mom and sister about his family man legacy.

I remember Jamie and me sitting on the chaise, both of us on each side of our bawling mother. It was the same routine for weeks after the funeral. His end gutted her.

I swore I'd never let his double life finish the job.

Then his estate, the arguments with lawyers, Victor obeyed by the corporate trust, gave her 'just enough' to make our family comfortable per the legalese and Black Rhino's operating agreement. Dad left the door open for me to earn more. Used to believe I could do it honestly, if it weren't for that thing with Sam.

But Sam or no Sam, I was never dealing with an honest man. The illusions broke down years ago, revealing the python I'm dealing with, and now there's no choice but to put him under before he chokes the life out of me and everyone I care about.

“Kendra, let's go,” I say, pulling gently at her blouse. She stands a second later, careful not to wake Lizzie. It's another reminder this little angel is the lynchpin holding our lives together in all its myriad parts: good, bad, beautiful, and ugly.

“Wait!” Jamie stamps her foot when we walk past. I stop and turn around. Her blue eyes have a familiar shimmer I've only seen in the mirror. “Okay, fine. I won't say anything. I'll wait. But Knox, I swear to God, if there are any more surprises, or this thing with Victor Wright gets worse, I'm not breaking the news to her. You are. And I'll kick you straight in the balls if you don't.”

“Deal.” I mean it, and it's the last word I say while we're in this house.

This needs to go down my way, even if I'm risking the family jewels.

* * *

We're home, and I'm staring at Kendra again, holding a snoozing Lizzie in my arms. “You fed her?”

“Yeah. Mini-burgers and a salad after we got home. It was a really hot day and she saw all the animals.”

“Arma...dillo...” Lizzie muses in her sleep, smacking her little lips, somewhere between planet earth and the zoo in her dreams. I smile, wondering for the thousandth time where the hell that sweetness goes when we grow up. I kiss her on the forehead, taking several steps toward the stairs.

“You coming up?” I give Kendra a look over my shoulder, wondering why she looks so damn surprised. “You saved her today. If you want to come up and help tuck her in, you're entitled.”

She smiles, trailing after me. It's the least I can offer after she saved Lizzie's life, plus my sanity.

The nightly ritual puts me at peace. I pull my daughter's sheets over her, making sure they're snug, and place a sippy cup of water on the nightstand in case she wakes up thirsty.

I'm able to forget today while I'm going through the motions. The poison drains every second I'm watching my own lost innocence distilled into this little girl.

The thoughts I have when my eyes flick to Sunflower are anything but innocent. She sits next to me at the end of Lizzie's bed for several minutes. Then I take her hand, and I'm hard as canyon rock the second I hear her gasp.

“Knox?”

“Quiet.” I lean in, lifting her up with me when I stand, leading us out of my little girl's room. I stop to shut off the light and close the door. “Couldn't keep your hands off me in front of my sister, could you?”

Her cheeks burn red, twin suns begging for my lips. “I should've, Knox. I'm sorry. It was just the moment, trying to calm you down, hoping we'd throw Jamie off before she got too close to –“

“Not our biggest worry anymore,” I say, seizing her by the wrist and bringing that ivory hand to my mouth. Just having her skin on my lips tastes like perfection. It's the stars we had our lost night on Camelback. “I'm caring less by the day if she finds out. Wright's the real problem.”

“You will,” she says, coming closer, flatting her hands on my chest. “Give it time. You'll find your way, and he'll be a distant memory.”

Something flashes outside the window next to us, catching my attention. The skyline over Phoenix and Tempe lights up in a quick blue burst.

“Heat lightning,” I say, wrapping an arm around her waist. I pull her tight until I hear the satisfying hitch in her lungs. “Truth be told, I'm done with memories, Sunflower. You've got no clue how bad I want to live in the present, without these fucked up worries.”

Lightning flashes again, bathing us in its intense blue glow, covering the red balm on her cheeks. She leans in, her voice a husky whisper, shaking when she pops the question. “So, why don't you? I'm right here in front of you.”

If my eyes were beads trained on her before, they're two hungry dogs now, tracking every soft curve of her body. My hand slides lower, stopping at her hip, grasping the edge of her blouse in a sudden rough handful. “Christ, you're a tease. Reminds me some things never change.”

“Me?” Kendra's pupils swell. So big, so needy, so fuckable I want to lose myself there forever. “Like you didn't string me along. Hell, you're still doing it, aren't you?”

Finally, the night's million dollar question. My cock stirs in my pants, angry and throbbing, ready to deal with a hundred consequences in the morning.

“I'm doing what you want,” I say, stopping just short of a kiss, laying my forehead hard against hers. “Everything we've needed since the minute I let you back in my life, and shoved the ring on your hand that should be there constantly.”

I lace my fingers through hers, feeling the bareness. She hasn't had the time or need to replace my ring since leaving my sister's place.

Damn if it doesn't bother me at some screwed up level I barely understand.

“What, and wear it in front of Jamie? Your mom? I thought we agreed –“

“Deals change all the time, darling. That's part of life on this rock. You said it yourself. I'm not worried about us anymore. Just Victor.” Lightning flashes in the distance again, illuminating the mountains. I bring both my hands to her face and cup it, giving her head a gentle turn to the window. “You see that out there?”

She nods, breath quickening. Those palm-sized tits under her top press harder against me. I know if I take them in my hands right now, her nipples will be pebbles, aching to be sucked soft the instant I rip her shirt open. Or maybe they want to be pressed against my cock instead, while I show her a new way to torture me with that sharp little mouth.

“It's calling us, Kendra. Pure energy. Makes me want to lay you down and do reckless, scary shit you've never had with any man.” I pause, grinding my hips against hers, loving how she tilts into me when my knee goes between her legs. “There, Sunflower. There. That's where I've always belonged. Everywhere I've been begging to be, even when I lied myself into thinking I wanted to be somewhere else. Real regret is not taking you years ago. We should've had it first, should've had it long ago, after Sam and Africa, before I shut you out and ran like a fucking coward –“

“It's not too late, Knox,” It comes out of her in a hurried hiss. She clams up the second the words leave her mouth. “You can be the first.”

My fingers tighten on her face, and my thumb digs into her cheek. “What did you just say? Look at me,” I growl, refusing to say another word until I see her eyes.

When she turns, lightning splashes us again, painting her eyes blue like mine for a split second. It's a surreal, beautiful catalyst for the want rising up inside me, beginning to scream in this strange, stormy night.

“I'm still a virgin,” she says in a hushed whisper, ridden with angst. “I was too busy. I never got over you, not even after that night –“

“Don't fucking say it,” I growl, silencing her with a kiss. She takes my mouth hard, muscles twitching in her cheeks. They juggle fear, regret, disbelief.

Everything I can't stand. My tongue brushes hers, tasting everything, needing more. “Leave the past behind us. Tonight, just be. Be in the here and now when you're calling out under me.”

“Knox!” She whimpers my name, her breath turning shallow. Cradling her head in both hands, I kiss her again, this time harder.

I need to take what's mine, and it isn't going to wait.

My hands move instinctively, throwing her over my shoulder, carrying her to my room. By time we reach the door, knowing I'm about to take Sunflower's cherry makes me feel like a clueless virgin all over again. My cock can only take so much before it explodes, ideally deep inside her.