Prologue

Carys Taggart stared at the man she’d loved since they were children. Well, one of them. The other sat beside her, but he’d done nothing to deserve her death stare.

They sat on the balcony section of one of Dallas’s fine dining establishments, located in an equally luxurious hotel, overlooking the city lights. It was elegant and somewhat private, and she wondered if this was where it all finally ended. At least he’d chosen a beautiful spot to end what had felt like a lifetime love affair.

“It’s not forever.” Tristan Dean-Miles was a gorgeous man with dark hair and green eyes. He was six foot three, and over the last few years had gone from gangly computer geek to muscular soldier.

She missed her computer nerd so damn much. The nerd wouldn’t be leaving her. The hacking-obsessed young man she’d adored wouldn’t be standing in front of her breaking all of his promises. She felt inexplicably weary, and it wasn’t because she was in her final year of medical school. The stress of taking the USMLE was nothing compared to sitting in this restaurant watching the man she thought she’d marry let her down. Again.

“That’s what you said last time.” The other man she loved looked as tired as she did. Aidan O’Donnell. Six foot two, with lean muscle he honed in the gym and by running.

Her life was complicated.

“I know,” Tris replied, a deep patience in his tone. “I’m sorry. I know I did, but things have gotten…complex.”

She’d known they would have trouble when Tristan had announced he was going into the Army instead of grad school. They’d had plans. Plans they’d made when they were stupid kids who thought they could make a relationship like this work.

She sat there in the middle of the fancy restaurant Tristan had likely picked either as an apology for what he’d been planning to say or as a shield so she couldn’t yell at him. Either way, she sat there feeling like a piece of herself had broken off, and she wouldn’t get it back.

Just because Tristan’s parents had made it work didn’t mean they could. Tristan’s unique family had made what they had feel somewhat normal. But there was a reason the world wasn’t full of happy threesomes.

“Complex?” Aidan’s jaw had taken on the hard line she associated with his stubbornness. It always tightened when he was working through a problem he refused to give up on. Even when the “problem” had told them again and again he didn’t want to be solved. “What is that supposed to mean? Tris, we’re supposed to get married in a few months. We agreed when we finished medical school, we would make this thing legal and start our family.”

It was what they’d always dreamed of. At least she and Aidan. They would get through school, marry, and move in together and start their lives. They would do it without shame, and anyone who didn’t like it would be ruthlessly extricated from their group.

“There is nothing I want more, but I have some things I need to do before I can settle down, and it might mean staying away from the two of you for a while.”

“So you did it.” She knew what he wasn’t saying. This had been her fear for months now.

“Did it? Baby, all I’m doing is my job.” Tris looked so reasonable. He looked like a young man from a good family in his well-tailored three-piece suit. Unlike Aidan, Tristan came from money. A lot of it.

Her family did well, too, but not like Tristan’s. Aidan’s was upper middle-class. He hadn’t worried about college or medical school, but he’d eaten his share of ramen noodles and worked some heavy-lifting part-time jobs.

Tristan could have done anything he wanted to. Had any job in the world. He could have taken his place at his father’s side and learned how to run one of the top investigative firms in the world. Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch specialized in locating people who were lost or who didn’t want to be found. The company did well, but it was his parents’ creative endeavors that had made them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Between his father’s software innovations and his mom’s best-selling novels, there was little the Dean-Miles family couldn’t afford. Tristan could be here in Dallas with them.

But something else had called to him.

“It’s a job you don’t need,” Aidan pointed out. “Look, I understand you’re enjoying the adrenaline rush of being Army intelligence, but where does it end? You said you wanted to spend the last couple of years working this out of your system. I got it. Medical school is a lot, and you thought we wouldn’t have time for you.”

She would have made time. Even if it had been nothing more than holding him while he slept.

“I didn’t join the Army because you weren’t paying enough attention to me.” For the first time Tristan’s calm looked slightly rattled. “I went in to see who I could be. To test myself.”

“Is testing what you’re doing now?” Aidan had on slacks and a jacket, but he hadn’t bothered with a tie. He was the more casual of her two lovers.

Of course there hadn’t been a lot of sex. Certainly not lately. She had two boyfriends, and it had been months since she’d seen some action. Tristan had been gone, and she and Aidan had been studying or working. They often fell asleep on the couch while trying to eat dinner and watching some random sitcom.

She’d told herself everything would change when Tris came home. His contract was up, and surely he’d had enough of being apart. She’d told herself Tristan would come home and the world would feel right again.

“What I’m doing now is serving my country,” Tris replied resolutely. “You should understand. Your father served his. Carys’s whole family did their time. I don’t question your reasons for spending four years in med school. And have you thought about what happens when you pursue residencies? Are you going to turn down a great one because it’s not in Dallas? Or will you ask Carys to make the sacrifice?”

She huffed. “Do you think we haven’t talked this through? I’m in obstetrics. I can learn what I need to in almost any city. Aidan’s showing amazing promise as a trauma surgeon. Of course I’m going to follow him if he ends up in a top program. The truth is he’ll have some pull if they want him badly enough.”

Aidan was the shining star of their class. She was okay with it. There wasn’t any jealousy between them because she was doing exactly what she wanted to do. Specializing in high-risk pregnancies.

“So we’re all supposed to follow Aidan?” Tristan got to one of their problems.

“No.” This was why it couldn’t work. Why her father worried so about her.

Sweetheart, Jake and Serena and Adam were set in their careers when they got married. They knew who they were and what they wanted to do. They were settled. I worry meshing two lives is hard at your age. I don’t know how you’ll manage three.

She’d told her dad they could do it because they loved each other. Because love was enough.

It turned out she was wrong.

“No? All right, then what are we supposed to do?” Tristan asked. “Car, you’ve been quiet this whole time. It scares me.”

It should. She shut down when she was done with something. “I need to ask you a couple of questions before I make my decision.”

A brow rose over his eyes. “There’s a decision?”

“Maybe we should take this discussion home.” Aidan could also be the peacekeeper. It was kind of his place in the relationship. She and Tristan could be combustible. Aidan was the calm voice of reason bringing them together.

Without Aidan, she and Tristan would explode. They would have passion but no peace.

Without Tristan, she and Aidan were floating through life, muddling by in a sea of study and workouts and routine.

They were perfect together as a threesome, but sometimes perfect wasn’t enough either. “He wanted to meet us here for a reason, Aidan. He’s been gone for three months and when he gets home, he doesn’t come to my place or to the place he literally shares with you and Cooper. He goes to a hotel and asks us to meet him there. He chose this place for a reason, and it’s not for hot sex.”

Aidan’s face fell because hot sex was probably what he’d been looking for.

She knew better. This wasn’t an invitation to intimacy.

It was a breakup.

“Sex is certainly not off the table, sweetheart.” Tristan’s bad boy made a sudden appearance, and she knew this wasn’t going to go well.

So she should get it over with. “It is. You haven’t touched me in months. I understand. Honestly, I don’t get the whole wait-for-me thing. Be brave. Rip the bandage off. Make a clean break.”

And then his scared boy was right there in his eyes. “Carys, I’m not breaking up with you. Why would you think that, baby? I know I’ve been distracted, but you have to admit, it’s not like you’re the queen of free time right now.”

It was odd how cold she felt in this moment. Like an icy shroud had descended. Probably because she needed it. If she didn’t have it, she might be on her knees begging him not to leave them. She wasn’t sure they could make it without Tristan. They fit and without him… But no. She suspected she knew what was really behind this new delay of his.

All of her life she’d loved nothing more than she’d loved these two men. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt if she needed Aidan to give up medicine, it would hurt, but he would do it. It was precisely why she was willing to follow him.

But Tristan had found something he loved more than them, something that fulfilled him in a way no relationship ever could. If it was anything but what she suspected, they could probably work it out.

But Tristan’s secret love left no place for anything else. Not in the end.

Still, she thought she should be thorough.

“Is there another woman?” She didn’t ask about a man. Tristan and Aidan loved each other, but they’d never seemed to want to get physical past sharing her.

“No.” He didn’t hesitate. “I’ve been faithful to you. I would never cheat on you. Hell, I don’t even look at other women.”

“He wouldn’t,” Aidan said with a frown. “He’s just being a dick.”

“How is it being a dick to want to do my job?” Tristan argued.

The job was the problem. “Why didn’t you come home when you could? You had leave two months ago.”

A fine flush hit Tristan’s face, but he otherwise didn’t react. “I had some things I needed to take care of.”

She bet he did. “Were you auditioning?”

Aidan frowned. “Auditioning?”

He was a brilliant man. A truly gifted surgeon who would someday save so many lives, but he missed some of the small details of life. Carys took care of them. “For the Agency.”

A gasp came from Aidan. “He wouldn’t.”

“He did.” She knew it because of all the secrecy surrounding him. Her cousins would stop talking when she walked in a room. Her uncle was an excellent liar—not a bad trait when working in espionage—but even she could see he’d been uncomfortable talking to her when she brought up the wedding. “Did you even have to audition or did the twins finally make all their dreams come true?”

Her cousins Kala and Kenzie Taggart had grown up wanting to be like their mom and dad. Their father—Carys’s uncle—had been a CIA operative, and their mom an information broker. She loved her cousins, but they played dangerous games. Games that were about to kill her relationship.

Tristan sat there as though he wasn’t sure what to say.

Because his life was classified now.

She felt the wall between them, the wall he’d built without even asking how they felt about it.

“Have you had a chance to look at the menu?” The waiter obviously hadn’t noticed the tension.

Carys put her napkin on her plate and moved to pick up her purse. “I don’t think I’m hungry anymore.”

“Carys,” Tristan began and his voice had gone deep and low.

He was the Dom in the relationship. The one who needed control to be fully himself. Aidan liked to drift between roles, and she was the sweet sub.

But even a sub knew when to walk away.

She shook her head. “You don’t get to use your Dom voice on me, Tristan.”

Aidan started to stand.

She shook her head. “Don’t. You need to make your peace with him so we can see if we can move on. I’ll be fine because I’m going to walk one block down to Top and get a drink, and you can pick me up there when you’re done.”

“Carys Taggart,” Tristan began.

Aidan held out a hand. “Give her a minute, man, unless you want her to explode.”

Tristan settled back down. “This isn’t over.”

Carys walked out. Because it sure felt like it was.

* * * *

“I think I’ll have another Scotch on the rocks. The Macallan 20.” Tristan sat back and forced himself not to run after the love of his life. She didn’t understand. She couldn’t possibly understand, but if Aidan was still sitting here, he had a chance.

“Just bring the bottle,” Aidan said, his jaw going stubborn.

Oh, this could get nasty. Aidan was punishing him via credit card. The good news? His credit card didn’t have a limit.

The waiter’s focus went back to Tris, his eyes going wide. “Sir, the cost would be…”

Horrifically expensive. Yeah, he got it. Nothing mattered except placating Aidan right now. “We’ll take two glasses, and have the chef make some chicken wings.”

“We don’t have those on the menu.”

This poor guy. “And yet he will make them. Tell him I’m in the presidential suite.”

“Of course.” The waiter turned and walked back inside.

He should have done this in his suite. In the suite, he could have shown her this wasn’t the end. In the suite, he could have gotten her underneath him, and there would be no question about how he felt.

“You’re a coward.”

Tristan closed his eyes and took a long breath. He’d known this would be a difficult conversation. “How? Because I assure you there’s not a lot cowardly about the work I’m doing. I’m putting myself in harm’s way for my country. I’m sorry I couldn’t be some office worker for you.”

“I’m talking about how you did this.” Aidan sat back, staring at him, gesturing around at the luxurious surroundings they were in. “This conspicuous show of wealth doesn’t help you.”

“I wanted a special night.” It was true and also a lie. He’d wanted…he wanted to go back and not open that file, not get curious, not end up in a corner.

Aidan wasn’t having it. “You wanted to show her what she could have if she waits a bit longer. You know damn well I can’t give her this.”

“No, you give her everything else.” It was an old wound between them.

Aidan shared her interests. They could talk medicine for hours and hours. Neither of them understood his need to unlock mysteries via his keyboard. They certainly wouldn’t understand the forces behind the mission he was on now. Not even his uncle knew.

His parents didn’t know, but then Adam Miles would have already figured the problem out and Jacob Dean would have handled the whole physical mission without batting an eye. He was the child of giants, and he felt so small.

But if he could follow through, he might prove himself wrong, might be worthy of being their kid.

Aidan sat there for a moment. “Is she right?”

Tristan didn’t have to answer. His silence was enough.

“Fuck.” Aidan’s expression fell. “This is honestly what you want? Because I don’t know how we get through this. We’ve put off the wedding once.”

Aidan was the easy one. Tristan had known the minute he’d realized he was going to join the twins’ CIA team he would need to work on Aidan because Carys wouldn’t want to listen. “I need more time. That’s all. Look, what Kala and Kenz are doing is something totally new. It’s an experiment, and it’s exciting. I know you don’t understand.”

Aidan held up a hand. “But I do. Man, do you think I don’t get excited about getting invited to watch a craniectomy? I dropped everything including a date with Carys. She understood. But we’re not talking about a five-hour surgery. If you do this, your life is classified.”

“It already is. Do you think my Army intelligence job consists of me giving soldiers tests or something? I’ve been seeking information for the US Army while you’ve been in med school. The only difference is I’ll be doing it for another agency.”

“For the Agency.”

Tristan glanced over to make sure the other tables couldn’t hear them. There were only three on this balcony. It was as private as they could get. “Look, I know I said I would come home, but there’s something I have to follow through on.” He leaned in. “It’s a project I started a while ago, and if my instincts are right, it’s big.”

“So is our wedding,” Aidan countered.

“Our wedding means nothing if the world burns. And don’t look at me like that. Like I’m talking in hyperboles. I’ve been tracking a group, one I think is behind several terrorist events across the globe.” He couldn’t tell Aidan too much, but he had to make him understand.

Aidan was…more than a friend. More than a brother. Sometimes he thought Aidan was half of his whole. Like they were one soul born in two bodies, and they’d managed to find the one woman who could handle them. His parents always talked about how they’d been inseparable, even as babies. Aidan’s mother was his mom’s best friend/personal assistant, and they’d been through everything together—even their pregnancies. It was as natural as breathing to share Carys with Aidan.

He couldn’t lose them, but he also couldn’t walk away. Even if he wanted to.

“There’s a job, and I’m the only one who can do it,” Tristan said quietly. “It’s important.”

“It sounds like the twins can do it. Or Cooper. You should know he’s a good spy. He’s been home a couple of times, and not once did he mention ‘hey, I’ve joined a CIA team and your partner is coming with me.’” There was a bitterness to Aidan’s words.

Tristan couldn’t blame him. They’d been in their house for a couple of years now, and in the beginning it had been the three of them. He and Aidan and Cooper McKay had moved in together after college. Then he and Coop had gone into the military, and now they treated the house like a way station while to Aidan it was home. For now. “He’ll be here in Dallas more, you know. For Coop, this is a way to come home more often.”

“It’s a way for him to try to keep Kala from killing herself,” Aidan shot back. “Coop never intended to go into the Agency. But I have to wonder now if this wasn’t your end game.”

“My end game is and always has been marrying our sub and living a happy life.” Frustration started to well. Somehow he’d thought this would go better. “But we can’t get there if this…” He took a long breath. “The man I’m tracking is an arms dealer, but the important part is he can lead me to someone much more dangerous. Aidan, you know how there are breakthroughs in medicine the public doesn’t know about yet?”

“Of course,” Aidan replied. “There are any number of studies and new tech coming through. They’re in testing before they’re released to the public.”

“Weapons are the same way.” A pit opened in Tris’s gut. The same one he got every time he thought about this mission of his. “What if I told you there’s a man out there in the world who is working on a delivery system for a bomb you can hold in the palm of your hand. A weapon capable of decimating all living things within a city the size of London and yet leave the buildings standing.”

Aidan went still. “Is that what you’re telling me, Tris?”

He nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell her?”

He’d thought about telling her for months and come to one conclusion. “Because it won’t matter to her. I’m not saying the world won’t matter. I’m saying she’ll be more worried about me. Does she need more to worry about while she’s in the middle of her last year in medical school? Which will make her more stressed? The idea of me being a selfish ass who wants to play soldier or me being in real danger?”

“Okay. I’ll talk to her. But we can make this work if you’ll come home every now and then. I assure you simply spending time with her will settle a lot of her concerns.” Aidan sounded so reasonable. “And there’s zero reason for the wedding not to go through. You don’t have to do a thing. Carys and the moms are handling it all. You show up, say I do, we go on a horny honeymoon, and then we settle down. If she’s got a ring on her finger and believes we have a future together, she’ll be more patient.”

There were a couple of problems with Aidan’s scenario. “I have to step back from you both. I don’t want to, but there’s a reason I’ve stayed away.” He shouldn’t be doing this, but he couldn’t lose them, and he couldn’t leave them completely in the dark. Besides, if his boss found out, well, his boss was his Uncle Ian, and he would likely kick his ass. “I’m going to tell you something not even my team knows. I didn’t join the Agency because the twins talked me into it. I joined because it’s the only way I can do what I need to do. I’m going to be working for several teams beyond the one the twins and Coop are on. The arms dealer was killed three weeks ago.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Aidan asked.

“I took over his operation. He worked in the shadows, and so I have to be there, too. It’s the only way to find the person I need to find. The bombmaker. I find the bombmaker, I shut down his operation, and then I can come home. Until then I worry anyone close to me could be in the line of fire if it ever gets out that I’m The Jester.” Bile rose in his throat. “Fuck. Now I’ve brought you into it, and I am a fucking coward. Aidan, I should never…”

What the hell was he doing? Carys had walked out and…

Aidan leaned toward him. “Hey, I’m sorry. You’re not a coward. I didn’t understand.”

“I shouldn’t…”

“Yeah, you should,” Aidan said. “I don’t know how the team works, but I can guess who else is working on it. Lou left her assistant professor job to play around in a think tank? Nah. She’s working tech. I’ve also heard Ian and Charlotte and Tash have been mysteriously out of the office at the same time Coop is out of pocket. So if my brain functions the way it should, I can put it together, and you’re the one on the outside. Kala has Cooper and Lou. Kenzie has Tash and her mom. You deserve someone to talk to. I assure you I won’t say anything. Neither will Carys.”

Guilt threatened to swamp Tristan. “I can’t drag you into this.”

“You don’t have to.” Aidan reached out and gripped his hand.

It was a familiar gesture and one he’d always counted on. All of his life Aidan had been there. Carys had been there.

He had to do this job. For them.

* * * *

Aidan walked into the bar at Top, a familiar sensation buzzing through him. He’d worked summers and weekends here, washing dishes and later as a server. Always, always watching the boss’s daughter. Hell, he could remember running around the backrooms when he was a kid and begging the pastry chef for a taste of whatever he was making. There was so much of his childhood here. So many memories.

How could Tristan give all this up? Even for a little while. It wasn’t something he understood, but if he was going to save the most important relationship of his life, he had to go with it.

“Hey, Aidan,” a familiar voice said. “She’s in the bar. Do you know why she’s drinking straight gin martinis on a night when she should be celebrating Tristan’s homecoming?”

Sean Taggart. Carys’s father was the chef and owner of Top, but there was still an air of military authority hanging around the man decades after he left the service. He stood just outside the bar entrance, wearing slacks and a button-down that let Aidan know he wasn’t in the kitchen this evening. The other thing he wore? A tight expression, a sure sign he was worried.

“Tristan needs some time.” He didn’t want to give his best friend up.

“Tristan is playing dangerous games,” Sean said quietly. “Tell me he’s not bringing you into them.”

Well, at least he’d been right about one thing. He’d known damn well there was zero chance Ian Taggart hadn’t talked to his brother about the CIA team he was now leading. “You could have mentioned it to me.”

“I’m telling you now. I hoped he would come home and you could talk some sense into him,” Sean said. “But then I saw the look on my daughter’s face and realized what had happened. Did he break up with y’all?”

The fact he’d said “y’all” and not “her” showed how far they’d come. For many years, Sean had lived in what Aidan’s da liked to call Delusion. According to Da, it was a nice place where one didn’t have to think about one’s children having sexual needs who might make a couple of mistakes along the way. Sean had been forced out of Delusion when they’d gotten engaged right here on the patio at Top. To his credit, he’d taken a long swig of Scotch and then welcomed both Aidan and Tristan into the family.

“No. He asked for more time,” Aidan replied.

“Didn’t he already ask for more time and you gave it to him?” Sean asked.

“It’s complicated.” He wanted to talk about it. Sean would understand. Sean might be able to advise him.

But he’d promised Tristan.

“It always is. So what have you decided?” Sean studied him for a moment. “I ask because I know you’re about to walk in there and convince Carys to do what you think she should do.”

“Sir, is there something you would like to talk about?” It had been a rough night, but it looked like it was going to get rougher. He now knew way too much about a former arms dealer known as The Jester and far, far more than he ever wanted to know about the dark threats of the seemingly peaceful world around him. A threat that could kill everything he loved if Tris was right. And now he had to deal with his future father-in-law, who seemed to have taken exception. “Because I don’t make Carys do anything. No one can. She makes her own decisions.”

“Ah, but she makes them with the two of you in mind always,” Sean argued. “And now I worry one of you is no longer thinking with her best interests at heart.”

“Do you mean me or Tris?”

Sean sighed. “Of course I mean Tris. Aidan, I wasn’t in the same position Tris is in, but I know it’s damn hard for a man to give himself one hundred percent to his spouse when he’s involved in the kind of job he’s doing. My brother got out for that very reason. So did Ten Smith and Beck and Kim Kent. So did Kayla Summers. You find someone you love and get out. Not the other way around.”

He wished Tristan had fucking come down here with him so he wasn’t the one who had to face down a disappointed father figure. But no, he’d gotten a call from Lou, who needed him desperately and he’d said sorry, I have to go. Like always. Like Sean was telling him. The job came first. Before Aidan. Before Carys. Before anything else.

And yet he was going to defend the asshole. “It’s not forever.”

“How long are you going to put off the wedding? We’ve already done it once.”

On this Aidan wouldn’t be moved. Tristan was on a timer. Hell, Tristan had been the one to tell him it might be better if they went through with the wedding because it would keep up the illusion they were no longer together.

Were they together? Because he sure as fuck felt alone right now.

“We’re not moving it again,” Aidan replied. “At least that’s what I was going to talk to Carys about. If she’ll have me, I’d like to go through with the wedding. It’s not like what we were planning was exactly legal.”

“No, but I thought Tristan was the one who would legally marry her and then they would both take your name.”

Because Carys had said she refused to be Carys Dean-Miles O’Donnell. They’d sat up late the night they’d asked her to marry them and argued about it. They’d passed a bottle of expensive champagne around as they’d lain in bed and reached a compromise.

Three kids, if possible, and their first names would be Dean, Miles, and Taggart, or a feminized version of some kind. Deana. Myla. He wasn’t sure how to make Taggart pretty, but they would figure out a way if they had to. And they would all be O’Donnells.

“It doesn’t matter in the end.” It was a lie Aidan hoped he could convince himself was true. “I promise you I won’t let anything bad happen to Carys.”

“I think something bad already has happened. Getting her heart broken isn’t exactly fun,” Sean said with a sigh like he’d known it would end like this. “Are you sure it can work without him?”

“He’s not leaving us,” Aidan insisted.

“He won’t mean to, but I know how this kind of job goes. How long did he say he needed?”

“Six months. Eight, tops,” Aidan said, glancing into the bar. Carys sat alone, her back to him, but there was a slump to her shoulders that made him ache. “He wants to clear this one mission up and then we’ll be good. The wedding is months off. Even if he needs more time, we’ll be okay. If not, we’ll go through with things the way we need to.”

Sean chuckled, but there wasn’t any humor to the sound. “Oh, if we’re betting, I’ll take the over.” He sobered. “Are you sure you want to wait?”

Aidan wasn’t sure of anything. “Not forever.”

“I’m going to give you some advice, son. Postpone the wedding for a year. Honestly, I’ve been worried about the stress it will have on Carys even with Grace and Serena and your mom doing most of the work,” Sean said.

He didn’t want to wait, but it might be for the best. However, there was another problem. “The stress won’t go away. If we wait a year, we’ll be almost through our first year of internship. It’s intense. But I get your point. If I want this to work, I might have to be patient. I don’t think this is about Tristan wanting to be some big spy. I think he got involved in something, and he feels like he needs to follow through.”

“He got involved with my nieces,” Sean said under his breath. “I love them, but damn I worry about them. Tris will be okay. Ian’s in control. But I worry about what this is going to do to Carys.”

“I’ll take care of her.” He was going to shield her from the worst of it. He would convince her without dragging her into Tristan’s suddenly dangerous world. He would hold the connection so when Tristan was done there would be something for him to come home to.

Sean put a hand on his shoulder. “I know you will. I know you love my daughter. I know Tris does, too, but sometimes it’s not enough. You should talk to her. I only have so much gin.”

Sean turned to go, and Aidan took a deep breath, getting ready. Tristan had his mission and now Aidan had his.

To keep them all together.

It was only six months. Then they could enjoy their engagement and wedding planning and get on with the rest of their lives.

He walked through the bar to join his future wife, sure he could handle this.