Lilah stared at Sia’s outstretched hand and timidly raised her hand, placing it in Sia’s, obviously unaware of what to do.

Sia smiled and shook it lightly, risking a confused glance to me.

I shook my head, telling her not to go there right now.

“Nice to meet you too,” Lilah said quietly, taking back her hand and staring at her palm like Sia had burned it.

“Why don’t we all go inside?” Sia said and headed for the door.

“You go with Sia. I gotta get the bags,” I ordered and, nervously, Lilah joined Sia to walk into the cabin.

I hadn’t told Sia about Lilah, had no idea how to tell her anyway.

I got the bags and walked through the door, seeing Lilah sitting by the open fire, fiddling with her hands. She smiled in relief when I walked in. I drank in the sight of her and sighed. The bruises on her face were really starting to show.

Placing the bags down, I walked to Lilah and squatted to inspect her face, my finger running down her cheek. “How you doing?”

“I am tired, but I am okay,” Lilah said, nuzzling into my hand. My fucking lungs constricted as she did.

Lifting my other hand, I ran my thumb down her cheek, her big blues fixed on mine, her lips parting slightly with my touch.

A cough sounded beside me, and Lilah jumped back, breaking the touch. Sia was watching us with an uncertain expression on her face. She asked, “Would you like a hot cocoa, Lilah?”

Lilah frowned and looked to me. “I do not know what that is. Ky, shall I try?”

“How about you stay here by the fire and my big brother can help me fix the drinks?” Sia suggested, enthusiastically.

Lilah nodded and settled back on the loveseat, her gaze going straight to the fire.

Sia grabbed my arm and pulled me into the kitchen, whipping around to face me. “What the fuck’s going on, Ky?” she whispered angrily. “‘Cause I suddenly get word you’re coming for a few days, and you turn up with some chick looking like she belongs in a horse and buggy in Pennsylvania, asking permission to drink and not knowing what motherfuckin’ cocoa is!”

Her brown eyes widened and her hand went to her mouth, the blood draining from her face. “Oh no, she’s not being trafficked or something of that sort, is she? Is that why she’s here?”

I groaned. “Why the fuck does everyone keep asking me that!”

Wrapping my fingers around Sia’s wrist, I moved her hand from her mouth and said, “It’s club business, Sia. You know the code. But she ain’t no trafficking bitch.” I checked behind me to make sure Lilah wasn’t close and leaned in to say, “We rescued her from some end of days sex cult ‘bout two months ago and she’s not been real good at adjusting to life outside.”

Sia’s eyes went abnormally wide. “Shit! And the bruises on her face?”

Fighting back a wave of anger at Tiff and Jules, I said, “Attacked at the club. Pair of bitches I’d been fucking got jealous and fuckin’ assaulted her. Treated her like motherfuckin’ free pussy.”

“She isn’t?” Sia asked, watching me closely.

“No, she fuckin’ ain’t,” I said, my voice, even to me, sounding deadly. “You’ve seen her, she’s fuckin’ beautiful, perfect, she ain’t like those sluts. Nowhere fuckin’ near.”

“So your man slut ways finally bit you in the ass? And that poor bitch had to suffer for it?”

Rage made me she red. “Don’t fuckin’ remind, Sia. It took all I had not to rip those sluts apart. They pinned her to the bed and fuckin’ touched her, beat her. I ain’t ever hit a woman in my life, but I almost did tonight. I can’t bear that she got attacked because of me.”

“And the sluts?”

“They’ll be dead by now. They fucked with the wrong bitch.”

Sia nodded slowly, knowing the rules of club life, then dropped back against the wooden countertop. “I can’t… I can’t believe it.”

Joining her against the countertop, I said, “Yeah, I know. Pretty fuckin’ farfetched, huh? I mean, a fuckin’ cult! My bitch being attacked by jealous club pussy!”

Sia huffed a laugh in response. “Well, yeah, it is crazy, but that’s not what’s unbelievable, big brother.”

Furrowing my brows, I asked, “What?”

She nudged me with her elbow. “I can’t believe the high and mighty Kyler Willis, at age twenty-seven, has fallen in love!”

Every part of me froze and my mouth dropped. “Fuck off, Sia,” I managed to rasp out. But my heart was thundering in my chest and my palms were sweating.

Fuck, did I have a fever or some shit?

Sia began to laugh at me. I checked my head with my hand. She pulled down my arm and rolled her eyes. “Ky,” she said, “you ain’t sick.”

“No? Then why do I feel like I’m about to drop dead?”

Sia laughed again, which was really starting to piss me off, and she said, “Because you never wanted an old lady. Our pop wasn’t exactly kind to Momma. You saw that shit and vowed never to have a woman… Then you saw what happened to me.” Sia’s voice hitched at that.

A pain daggered through my heart at what my baby sister had been through.

“Si—”

Sia held up her hand, not wanting me to bring up the past and instead added, “But destiny obviously disagreed.” Sia walked in front of me and put her hand on my bearded cheek. “You have spent years fucking anything that moves, but I’ve never seen you care for a woman. I’ve never seen you look at a woman like you just looked at her. And I don’t blame you, by the way. That girl in there is fucking beautiful, Ky, like drop-dead gorgeous.”

“I know. She’s incredible,” I said, my eyes staring at the wall like I could see Lilah through the paneling, curled up on the seat next to the fire. “But, Sia, she’s fucked up. Her past, I have no idea how to get her away from it. She’s practically married to Jesus, and she isn’t gonna want a sinner like me.”

“She came here with you, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

Sia bent her head round the doorframe, and I followed her gaze. “That girl sitting there in an Amish dress, bruised to fuck from being attacked, who didn’t know what a handshake even was, came with you to a ranch in the boonies, let you put your arm around her, and is sitting in that room, waiting for you to come back out with a drink she didn’t know existed, but she’s trying it because you told her she should.”