Chapter 7

Iprobably should have been worried about how quickly Cash was becoming so important to me—especially right after my dad had proven how untrustworthy he was. But it wasn't fair to make Cash pay for the mistakes someone else had made when he'd been so supportive of me.

My knees were shaking so hard that I wasn't sure I would have made it down the hallway to meet the half sister I'd never known if Cash hadn't been by my side. With his arm around my shoulders, he guided me to an apartment outside the clubhouse and above a workshop. Apparently, it was where Kiara and Knight lived. Before he rapped his knuckles against the hard surface of the door, he turned to me. Pressing a finger under my chin to tilt my head back, he scanned my expression and asked, "Ready?"

"I guess I better be. That Knight guy didn't look like he was going to take no for an answer."

He stroked his hand down my back. "Like I said, nobody's gonna make you do anything you don't want."

I flashed him a soft smile. "I know, it's just my nerves talking."

He brushed his lips against mine. "She's gonna love you."

I hoped he was right, but there wasn't any more time to worry because as soon as he knocked, the door was flung open and a woman—who I probably would've guessed was related to me if we'd met under different circumstances because we looked so much alike—threw herself at me. "I'm so glad you're finally here, baby sister."

"Baby sister?" I echoed with a giggle, wrapping my arms around her back and giving her the biggest hug I'd ever given anyone as my eyes filled with tears. I'd never been much of a crier until the past few days, but nobody could blame me since my life had been turned upside down. At least these were happy ones.

Tears streamed down Kiara's cheeks when she took a step back. "I'm a whole year older than you, so that makes me your big sister."

"True, but can we stick with little instead?" I asked, my nose wrinkling. "I'm eighteen, too old to be a baby anything."

"I don't mind calling you little sister, but you're wrong about that." She flashed a grin over her shoulder. "Tell her what you call me all the time."

"Whatever you want, baby," Knight murmured as he tugged her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her stomach as he stared at us over the top of her head.

"Okay, but that's totally different." I jerked my chin toward Cash. "Although he calls me sunshine instead of baby."

Kiara's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Knight shook his head with a chuckle. "Did you already forget your promise about not getting involved?"

"No, but that was before I met my sister," she huffed.

Knowing that they'd been talking about what was happening between Cash and me had my cheeks filling with heat. Since that was a subject I wanted to avoid until I knew exactly what was going on with us, I blurted, "Um, so…you're not mad about me?"

"Not at all," Kiara assured as she stepped away from Knight to tug me into the room. "Being an only child kind of sucked for me, so I always wished I had a sibling."

She led me over to the recliner in the corner before perching on the side of the mattress closest to me. "I didn't mind that much since I've known my best friend for so long that it's basically like we're sisters."

Kiara beamed a smile at me. "Tell me all about her."

"Her name is Lorelei." I shot a glare at Cash, who was leaning against the doorway. "I'm not sure where she is right now since she was on vacation with me in Aspen. Kidnapping must be popular with the Silver Saints because some guy named Grey apparently snatched her when she came back from skiing the day that my…our dad told me what was going on."

Kiara didn't look the slightest bit surprised. "Yeah, I guess it makes sense for the guys not to shy away from kidnapping when the president and his old lady got together when he took her from her bedroom in a rival club's compound years ago."

"Really?" I gasped, my eyes widening.

"Yup." Her attention shifted to Knight and Cash, and she made a shooing motion with her hands. "I think we'll be fine by ourselves for a little bit, guys. You might as well find something to do while we do some sisterly bonding over gossip."

"Don't go anywhere until I'm back," Cash grumbled as Knight bumped his shoulder to force him into the hallway before shutting the door behind them.

"Where would I even go?" I muttered, shaking my head.

"They tend to be ridiculously overprotective." She rolled her eyes—the same shade of blue as mine—with a laugh. "They'll probably be waiting right outside the door the whole time we're talking, just in case one of us needs something."

"He probably thought he was just being protective when he tossed me over his shoulder for ‘my own good' when I didn't want to leave Aspen," I muttered.

"I'm not surprised at all. That Bickle guy is scary." She pressed her lips together and shivered. "But I don't want to ruin our first conversation by talking about any of the bad stuff right off the bat."

Telling me about how Mac and Bridget became a couple was the perfect way to break the ice. Once that story was done, I felt as though I'd known Kiara for years instead of minutes. Maybe the instant connection between us was because we were sisters. I couldn't be sure, but it didn't really matter. I was just happy we were bonding.

After she told me a few more stories about how some of the other couples got together, I asked her about Knight. That got us talking about the stuff that had gone down with our dad since that's how they met. "Bickle really broke Dad's hand? He didn't say anything about that when he called Mom and me in Aspen."

"Yeah, I was hiding in the closet in his office when it happened." She cringed. "It was awful."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that." I leaned over so I could pat her hand, offering her a tremulous smile when she flipped her arm over to lace our fingers together and squeezed.

"It was totally worth it to meet Knight and finally find out about you."

My voice was shaky when I asked, "Um, what about your mom? How's she taking everything?"

"I'm not really sure." Kiara shrugged with a sigh. "We've barely talked since everything went down, and she jetted off to some tropical island for Christmas because she couldn't bear to be in town over the holidays knowing that people were gossiping about Dad."

My eyes widened. "Didn't she want you to go with her? It's Christmas!"

"Nope, she was almost as mad at me for getting together with Shane as she was with Dad for getting caught sending innocent people to jail." She shook her head with a shrug. "She's always been more concerned about appearances than my happiness. She was already gone before I found out about you and plans to stay a while. I don't know if Dad has even told her yet."

"Yikes." It was a relief to hear that my dad's wife was as awful as he'd told us because that meant he wasn't lying, at least not about that. And I didn't have to feel quite so guilty about him loving my mom instead of Kiara's. But it was also horrible because I hated that Kiara hadn't gotten to grow up with a mom like mine. "I'm sorry."

"None of this is your fault, Karina." She got up and pulled me to my feet so she could give me another hug. "This situation sucks for both of us, but at least we have each other to lean on now."

I beamed a smile at her. "Yeah, we do."

She was probably right about the guys waiting right outside the door since Cash chose that moment to poke his head inside to ask, "You guys okay?"

"Better than okay," I chirped.

"We're awesome," Kiara added.

Knight came inside and pulled my sister against his side as Cash led me into the hallway and back to his room.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," I chanted, gripping his shoulders as I pressed my cheek against his chest once the door shut behind us.

His palm slid down my spine, sending a sensual shiver in its wake. "For what, sunshine?"

"Everything," I breathed.

"Even though you haven't gotten the chance to talk to Mac yet?"

"Uh-huh." I nodded. "Getting to know my sister was way more important, and she filled me in on a lot of what went down."

A gleam of humor shone in his eyes as he asked, "Does your thank-you include me kidnapping you?"

Thinking about the stories my sister had shared with me, I nodded. "Especially that."

"Thank fuck. I figured you'd be pissed at me over that for a long damn time."

I pressed my hands against the back of his neck so he'd lean closer as I whispered, "Nope."

Then I threw caution to the wind and kissed him. It was fantastic…right up until the point when he ripped his mouth from mine with a deep groan.

Jumping away from him, I dropped my gaze to my feet as heat filled my cheeks and tears welled in my eyes. "I'm sorry. I figured since you kissed me earlier that…um…you'd be okay with me kissing you, too. I guess I misunderstood."