I stared at the carefully sealed note in a daze. I was going to leave, but I wasn’t running away.

Not this time.

Looking up, I met Kat’s curious eyes and said, “I have to leave—”

“Lise, you don’t have to leave,” Kat protested.

I shook my head.

“I’m not running this time. I’m going home.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket and flipped it open. The encrypted device wasn’t flashy, but it was secure. A gift from the Sinclairs.

Aiden answered on the second ring, worry heavy in his voice. “Lise, what is it?”

“There’s been another delivery,” I said, flatly. Afraid to hope, afraid to hear myself speak the words aloud, I said, “I want to come home.”

Aiden said, simply, “I’ll send the plane.”

There were benefits to being a Winters.

I packed my meager belongings and headed back to the café. Kat had offered to let me leave my Jeep in the alley behind the building. We were silent as she drove me to the private airstrip west of downtown.

Uniformed attendants appeared as we pulled up beside the sleek private jet. I pointed them in the direction of my luggage and gave up on avoiding Kat’s curious gaze. She watched as the attendants emptied the car and loaded the plane, taking in the size of the jet before she looked back at me.

“There’s a lot you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

I shrugged one shoulder and smiled. “Nothing that really matters.”

“Having a private jet at your disposal doesn’t really matter?” Kat asked, laughter in her voice.

No longer joking, I shook my head. “No, a private jet doesn’t really matter. Friends matter.” The tears that flooded my eyes took me by surprise. With a little hitch in my voice, I said, “I’m sorry I’m leaving you short a barista with no notice.”

Kat pulled me into a surprisingly tight hug and said, “We’ll manage. You need to do this. Go home, Lise, and stay safe.”

I’d never been in this plane before, but it felt oddly familiar. When you get down to it, one private plane is a lot like another. Custom wood-work, butter-soft leather upholstery, hovering staff.

I’d been living a different kind of life for the past decade, but it wouldn’t be hard to get used to the perks of being a Winters.

I hefted my backpack over one shoulder and looked around, taking in the polished table, tobacco-colored leather chairs and matching couch long enough for a Winters male’s long frame.

I could imagine Aiden or Gage stretched out on that couch, reviewing paperwork or talking on the phone, barking orders at an assistant as they traveled the country running the family business.

With that picture in my head, I set my backpack on the couch and prepared to lay down. A flight attendant entered the cabin, looked at me regretfully and said, “Miss Winters, you’ll have to buckle in for takeoff, but as soon as we’re clear I’ll let you know.”

“Do you make Aiden buckle in for takeoff?” I couldn’t help asking.

The flight attendant’s sheepish expression answered my question for me. Her lips curved into a gentle smile as she said, “Mr. Winters requested that you arrive home safely. Please take a seat, and we’ll get you up in the air as soon as possible. Would you like a drink or something to eat?”

“No, thank you,” I said, leaving the comfort of the couch for a seat near the window. I fastened my seatbelt and pulled out the bag Kat had handed me before we got out of the car.

A small thermos of coffee and a sandwich, plus two cookies and a muffin. She was a good friend. I’d had a lot of good friends in my life. I wondered how many would be left when this was all over.

The flight from Austin to Atlanta was only two hours. Just long enough to eat my dinner, open my laptop, and start scanning through the photographs I’d taken on my last day off. I’d only gotten through the first set before the polite flight attendant returned to evict me from the couch and send me back to the seatbelt.

My stomach rolled with nerves as the plane descended. Coming home felt like the right thing to do. Finally.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t scared to death.

The door to the plane opened, and Aiden was there. Before I could get my bearings, he pulled me into a tight hug. “We’re going to fix this, sweetheart. I promise.”

Aiden looked like his father. And mine. Tall, well-built, with dark hair. He had Uncle Hugh’s deep brown eyes, while my side of the family shared my father’s vibrant blue. My older brother Gage looked enough like Aiden to be his twin, eye color aside, as did my youngest brother, Tate.

Vance and I looked more like our mother. Leanly built, with long golden blonde hair streaked platinum from the sun and identical sky-blue eyes, though I was taller than she’d been and my hair was darker, my features bolder.

At my age, Anna Winters had been a physician, a mother of four, and a wife. I was an accomplished waitress, I could sling a mean cup of coffee, and I was barely more than an amateur photographer.

My mother had died at thirty-four, so it was probably a good thing she’d packed so much life into what she’d been given.

The flight attendants loaded Aiden’s luxury sedan with my things as I let Aiden help me into the car. He waited to speak until we were pulling out of the airport. The sun was setting, casting a dreamy glow over the trees and sky. Fatigue pulled at me.

I’d been running on adrenaline and determination since the moment I decided to stop running. Now that I was home, I was ready to crawl into bed and fall asleep.

“I called Cooper,” Aiden said, referring to Cooper Sinclair, the eldest Sinclair brother and the one nominally in charge of Sinclair Security. “I met with him, Evers, and Knox this afternoon. We have a plan, and we’d like you to hear us out.”

I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or annoyed. I shouldn’t have been surprised the boys would try to take over. It was what they did. Always had been. And Aiden couldn’t resist meddling. He didn’t even try.

With a sigh, I asked, “What is it?”

He shot me a sidelong glance and said, “It's aggressive. You’ve given up enough of your life to this creep. Now that you’ve decided to come home, we took that to mean you’re ready to go on the offensive.”

“I am,” I said. My voice was firm, decisive, but the hollow feeling in my chest wouldn’t go away.

I had to face this down. I knew it. I was still terrified.

“We’re meeting with them first thing in the morning. I don’t want you leaving the house until we work out the details.”

“Fine with me,” I said. Being home would be overwhelming enough. “Is the security still on high?”

The last time I’d been home, for the weddings over the holidays, there’d been a break-in at Winters House, and Aiden had the security cranked tight.

“Not like it was,” he admitted. “We’ve still been using the motion sensors at night, and we’re watching the hidden access in the basement in case the intruder uses it again, but we don’t have as many guards on the property. We can reevaluate at the meeting tomorrow, but you don’t need to worry about your safety tonight.”

“I wasn’t worried, Aiden. I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”

He reached across the space between us and took my hand in his. What he didn’t understand, what none of them understood, was that I wasn’t scared about what might happen to me.

I’d never forgotten the agony of watching Riley almost die in front of me. Aiden would do anything to keep me safe, even give his life for mine. Any of them would. That was the one thing I couldn’t live with.

We paused at the first gate, then pulled into the long drive up to Winters House, lined by oak trees and lit by the last fading streams of sunset. I’d been away for so many years, visiting only here and there, but I’d missed this place.

I’d missed home. As we drove up to the inner gate, Aiden stopped and looked at me. “There was a fight about who could meet you at the airport. I won, but they’re all inside, and planning an impromptu birthday celebration for you and Vance. We were going to have a dinner party this weekend—still are—but everyone wanted to see you right away. I know you’re tired but—”

“I want to see them too,” I said. “All of them?”

“Pretty much,” Aiden said with a grin.

He pretended we drove him nuts, but I knew he was secretly happy to have everyone under the same roof. Now that we were pairing off, the accumulated Winters made for a big crowd.

We watched the inner gates swing open and drove into the courtyard of Winters House. Built in a Mediterranean-style, with creamy walls and a red tile roof, the house was designed in a square around a center courtyard. When I was a child, the gate to that courtyard was never closed. Since our parents had died, we’d felt safer with bars between us and the rest of the world.

The tall wooden front door swung open, and light spilled into the courtyard. My twin brother Vance, his blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail and a roguish grin on his face, jumped down the steps and swung me into his arms. “Happy birthday, little sister.”

“Happy birthday, annoying brother,” I said back, the way we had since we could talk. “Did you bring Maggie and Rosie?”

He slung his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me close, saying, “Of course I did. I don’t go anywhere without my girls.”

Then Gage was there, pulling me away from Vance and into another tight hug. “You’re supposed to get presents on your birthday, not give them.”

At my look of confusion, he said, “Are you really home to stay?” I nodded. “Then that’s the best gift I could imagine.”

He kissed my forehead, letting me have a second to hide my tears. Gage had only recently come home himself. A few days after Uncle Hugh and Aunt Olivia died he’d joined the Army and never looked back.

Gage knew all about running.

Unlike me, he also knew how to come home.

“You’re just saving yourself a trip, anyway,” he said, stepping back to pull his girlfriend, Sophie, to his side. Sophie was our great-aunt Amelia’s nurse. Gage had come home, taken one look at Sophie, and fallen head over heels.

Tugging Sophie closer, he lifted her hand and raised it in front of my face. I’d have to be blind to miss the sparkle of the rock on her finger. I recognized the ring immediately. It had been my mother’s, and now Gage had given it to Sophie.

This time I didn’t even try to hide my tears. I grabbed Sophie and hugged her tight. I’d met her for the first time when I’d come home for the weddings over the holidays, but I’d instantly adored her. She was patient and funny, took wonderful care of our great-aunt, and loved Gage to distraction.

Sophie returned my hug with a fierce squeeze of her own and whispered, “You don’t mind that he gave me her ring?”

I hugged her tighter and shook my head against her shoulder. Straightening, I kissed her cheek and said, “I can’t think of anything more perfect. It looks beautiful. Have you set a date?”

My cousin Charlie cut in, “Following our recent tradition they’ve given everyone a whopping three weeks’ notice.”

“But at least it’s here, and it’s small,” Gage shot back.

“My wedding was here,” Charlie protested.

“But it wasn’t small,” Gage said.

Charlie shrugged and grinned. “It was small-ish. Anyway, next to what Jacob and Abigail are planning, any wedding is small.”

I heard Abigail’s perfectly modulated, elegant voice cut in, “It's not going to be that big.”

I looked to my cousin Jacob, standing beside her, and from the amused light in his eyes, I had a feeling their wedding would be huge. The last time I’d been home, they still hadn’t set a date.

Jacob’s cool silver eyes landed on me and warmed. I was in his arms a second later. He gave me a quick, hard squeeze and murmured, “We’re going to do it right this time, Lise, I promise. No more running.”

I was turning into a watering pot from all these hugs. I hadn’t expected such a heartfelt welcome. It was reassuring, but it also made me feel a little guilty.

When Gage had come home a few months before I knew he hadn’t had the same reception. It had taken him months to win over Aiden and make a new place for himself in our family.

My warm welcome wasn’t fair, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t grateful. Seeing my family all together, their girlfriends, spouses, even baby Rosalie, I remembered again how much love I had behind me.

And how much I had left to lose.