14. Thomas

CHAPTER 14

Thomas

Now that I've given Clara a choice between her future happiness and her family's lives and deceived my most trusted general about the extent of my plans, I decide a stern conversation with Raleigh can't make this day any worse. At the very least, I can't keep her confined to her room like a misbehaving child. We need to come to some kind of understanding about Clara, or this antagonism between us will boil over.

And I really do not have time for that.

Raleigh doesn't answer my knock. I listen carefully, but there's no sound from inside. Call it sibling intuition, but I get the distinct feeling that I'm being ignored.

"I'm coming in," I warn, and open the door.

I find Raleigh lounging carelessly in bed with her laptop in front of her. She leaps up when she sees me, slamming it closed like I caught her watching porn.

"What the hell, Tommy!"

"You didn't think I'd just ignore the fact that you helped a hostage escape, did you?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Did she?" Raleigh demands .

I resist the urge to grind my jaw. "She didn't, and she wouldn't have even if I hadn't gone after her. You want to know what happened when you left her on the side of the road? Three of Morgan's men jumped her and tried to drag her back to the Speares."

Raleigh opens her mouth, then closes it again. Mulishly, she settles herself back on the edge of her bed. "Did they hurt her?" she asks.

I think about picking Clara up off the sidewalk. The scrapes on her arms from when she was dropped. But as soon as those images pop into my head, so does all the rest of it.

Her labored breath as her naked body lined up with mine. Her softness, her heat. The way her cries of pleasure made every inch of my skin feel alive.

I cannot fantasize about having sex with my little sister's best friend in front of my little sister . I refuse.

Unfortunately, my mind is rebelling against me. I can't think of Clara objectively right now.

"Not badly," I manage to say. "But she could have been. So for the second time today I'm going to try to understand what the hell you were thinking."

"How about you tell me what you're thinking?" she shoots back. "How long do you plan to keep her prisoner? Is she supposed to be leverage against Morgan or do you still expect her to spill his secrets? Because I told you she wouldn't, and you could've just listened to me this morning instead of-"

"This is not about me not listening to you," I say, though now I wonder if it is, at least to her. Raleigh thought I was suspicious of her this morning. She was defensive of her friendship with Clara, but she was also angry at Clara for not opening up to her more. Despite that sense of betrayal, she still tried to help Clara get out.

Despite that betrayal… or because of it? Maybe it was less ab out doing something for her friend and more about getting rid of a problem.

It's an uncharitable thought, perhaps, but my sister is a more calculating person than my father ever gave her credit for- than I gave her credit for, back when we were virtual strangers to each other. I know better now.

"All right," I say, softening my voice to find the fine line between calming and condescending. So far, I've taken Raleigh's role in this situation for granted in a way that encouraged her to make moves behind my back. I need to let her in on my plans, just enough that she stops trying to take steps on her own.

"I'm not going to use Clara as leverage against Morgan," I tell her simply. "I'm going to use Morgan as leverage against Clara."

Raleigh frowns, her back straightening a little. I can tell she wants to appear uninterested, but she can't help but ask, "Oh? How do you plan to do that?"

"Clara can't escape her uncle without dealing with him," I say. "She doesn't want to admit that, but maybe today will show her how true it is."

"So you're pitting Clara against her uncle?" Raleigh demands. "I already told you that won't work!"

"Not when her motivation is fear," I agree. "But when her choice is to destroy her uncle or lose her chance to have the future she truly wants? That's a different story."

Raleigh's lip curls with disgust. "So no matter what, she's just a pawn to you." I open my mouth, but she plows on. "This is the exact same shit dad planned to pull with me. He kept me in a box so I wouldn't know anything about anything, and then when I was old enough, he probably would've married me off to Morgan himself to make peace."

That stops me cold. I wasn't involved in any discussions my father had about Raleigh's future when I was younger. After all, I was too busy being isolated myself to consider that Raleigh was going through something similar. It never looked that way, when she always had Clara by her side and I was the one looking at them through a window.

Was it relief Raleigh felt, not grief, when our father finally died? Has she been afraid all this time that someday I'll decide that she's more useful to me as a pawn than a sister? I didn't think I'd done anything to give her that impression. Am I missing something?

"You told me you were going to do better than him," Raleigh scoffs. "But in the end, all you care about is finding what other people care about so you can use it against them. I can't even tell if you came in here to talk to me because you want to make something right between us, or because you're trying to get something out of me."

I remain silent. Whatever I say now will sound like an excuse or an attempt to appease, and we both know it.

Raleigh throws herself back on her bed and pulls her laptop toward her again. "Go away, Tommy," she sighs. "I'm not interested in playing your games right now."

I'm not used to someone else getting the last word over me, but it's fitting of my little sister to defy the norm. I could order her to remain in her room until Clara gives me an answer to her ultimatum, but that would be like driving a shovel into the rift between us and levering all my weight against it. Better to give her space now.

I close the door behind me and check my watch. It's not even dinner time. It hasn't been a full day since I drove to Raleigh's house in a panic with fire alarms blaring out of my phone. How can so many things go so wrong in one day?

I rub a hand roughly over my face with a sigh and consider whether or not a third cup of coffee will improve the situation. Because if something doesn't give soon, Morgan and I will be firing guns at each other by midnight.