Meghan stepped out of a bedroom and into the hall, pulling the door closed behind her. She waved us into the living room without a word, and she didn’t even seem to notice that her brother wasn’t wearing pants.

We followed her down the hall, through the living room, and into the small eat-in kitchen, where Meghan sank into a chair at the table and scrubbed her face with both hands. Long brown hair tumbled over her shoulders, and Aaron paused to set one hand on her head—a wordless, comforting gesture—on his way to the coffeepot.

“How is he?” I asked, and I regretted being the one to break the silence before the words had even fallen from my tongue.

“No better. A little worse, maybe,” Meghan said, and for the first time in more than two weeks, the exhaustion in her voice outweighed the accusation. She couldn’t do this for much longer. Not on her own. But it would be over soon, one way or another. If I couldn’t kill Kenley Daniels and break the binding, he wouldn’t last much longer anyway.

But no one wanted things to end like that, least of all me.

“Can I see him?”

“I don’t want to wake him up. He doesn’t sleep much anymore.” Meghan sighed, and the weight of the world slipped a little on her shoulders. “What happened?” she said, as Aaron filled the pot and poured water into the reservoir. And the accusation that was absent from her voice found its way to her eyes, where it simmered quietly, waiting for the moment to flare into true flames and roast me alive.

I sank onto the chair opposite her and rubbed one hand over my head, trying to decide where to start. A minute later, the scent of coffee drew my thoughts into some semblance of focus. “Remember my brilliant plan to get Kenley Daniels assigned as my tour guide-slash-recruiter for the duration of my visit?”

“I take it that plan’s proven less than brilliant in hindsight?” Aaron took a mug down from the cabinet and leaned against the countertop as the machine spit the first drops of coffee into the carafe.

“I stand by the simple brilliance of the plan. The flaw is in the execution. Kenley has an older sister who fits the same general physical description.” Though the more I got to know Kori, the less she looked like her sister, at least to me.

Aaron turned with the pot in hand. “Korinne Daniels is Kenley’s sister?”

“Who’s Korinne Daniels?” Meghan said, glancing from her brother to me, then back.

“Tower’s guard dog bitch. But she’s dead.” Aaron glanced at me with both brows raised. “Didn’t we already determine that? Every source we spoke to said the same thing.”

I shrugged. “She’s a little less dead than the rumors indicated.”

“You got the wrong sister?” Meghan demanded, and I nodded.

“The same thing happened to Jacob in the Old Testament,” Aaron said. “He worked seven years to earn Rachel’s hand in marriage and got her sister Leah instead. That poor fool then worked another seven years just to earn Rachel as his second wife. If you think about it like that, you got a bargain.”

“This isn’t the Old Testament, Aaron,” Meghan snapped.

Aaron poked the pause button on the coffeepot and filled his mug without turning. “All that means is that Ian’s not gonna get to bed both sisters.”

Her fist clenched around the edge of the table. “This isn’t funny!”

“Maybe not ‘ha, ha’ funny, but we’re in some pretty deep shit here, sis, and if we lose our sense of humor, what do we have left?” Aaron said as he poured dried creamer into his cup.

“Nothing.” Meghan folded her hands on the tabletop, but she couldn’t keep them from twisting, as if her fingers were trying to tear each other apart. “I’ll have nothing left, without Steven.”

Aaron frowned over the implication that he meant nothing to his sister, but we both knew that wasn’t what she’d intended. She was too tired to think clearly.

A moan echoed from behind the bedroom door Meghan had closed, and I stood, but her hand landed on my arm. Her fingers were cold, her skin was pale, and her eyes were damp, but she never hesitated. “Let me.”

I started to argue, but Aaron shook his head at me over her shoulder, and I sank back into my chair as she crossed the living room toward the hall again. “She needs to do this,” he whispered, once his sister was out of sight.

“If Steven wakes up to find her dead of exhaustion, he’ll kill us both,” I said, and Aaron gave a bitter laugh, no doubt picturing Steven just as I was. Healthy, happy, in good humor, and willing to slay any dragon for Meghan.

“It’s your job to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Aaron said, sinking into his sister’s chair with one dog-slippered foot crossed over the opposite knee, the hotel robe gaping over his thin chest. “So what’s this Leah like? Is she going to be a problem?”

“Her name is Kori. She’s smart, but she doesn’t know it. She’s funny, but I don’t think she knows that, either.” I shrugged, trying not to see her in my mind, a little frightened to realize I could picture her with almost perfect recall, down to the freckle on her left cheek, about an inch in front of her ear. “She’s a little thin, but she makes one hell of a temptation. Which is exactly what Tower’s paying her to be.” The carrot dangled in front of the ass, guiding him toward the farmer ready to put him to work.

Naturally I was the ass.

“Well, that’s more than I asked for.” Aaron’s brows rose, like he’d heard more than what I’d actually said. “Can you use her?”