"For God's sake, could we at least keep things on the edge of reality, Falcon?" He sighed in disgust. "Just this once?"

Rather than simply telling Falcon he was right, that he ached for Summer just as desperately as his brother did, Raeg used the same line he'd been relying on for years.

She was Raeg's greatest weakness, Falcon sometimes thought. The one woman his brother ached for yet refused to allow himself.

"Reality?" Falcon asked. "Reality is, the day is swiftly approaching that we must walk away from the only woman on this earth who completes us. When we do, it will destroy us, and you know it, just as I do."

"You're reaching," Raeg snarled before slapping his glass onto the side table close to him and plowing his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Since when did you begin mistaking lust for love, Falcon?"

"Is that what I'm doing?" Falcon asked somberly, the realization at how very far his brother intended to isolate himself now sinking in. "Perhaps you're right. I should have never tempted you to share her between us." He nodded firmly. "I can claim her for my own while we are here. I do not require your presence to pleasure her. I proved that this morning, did I not?"

Raeg actually laughed at him. A mocking, though highly amused, laugh.

"Like hell," he bit out furiously. "I'll be damned if I'll let you have her alone."

Raeg stalked from the room and up the stairs, muttering beneath his breath, causing Falcon to smile with a bit of satisfaction.

This would see their hearts destroyed when they had to leave her, but while they were with her, the opportunity to create memories to sustain them was there. And Falcon wanted those memories. If he couldn't keep Summer in his life, he wanted at least to ensure he kept the memory of her in his soul.

Chapter.

EIGHT.

Pond and bald cypress trees grew tall and plentiful, Spanish moss dripping from the conifer branches like ghostly beings as they shifted and waved in the eerie light of the predawn fog.

Four thirty in the morning wasn't Falcon's favored time to be out and about. He'd done far enough of that when he was younger. But Cal had a schedule, and part of his schedule was checking his gator traps before dawn.

And for the past week, he'd made a habit of inviting Falcon along on these little excursions.

Falcon had yet to see a gator trap, or watch the old man bait one. He'd seen plenty of gators though. Some a bit larger than he would have expected, all of them eyeing the flat-bottomed boat Cal either pushed through the water with an old cypress pole, or guided along the blackish waters with one of the oars stored beneath his seat at the back of the craft.

They never used the attached trolling motor either. Even in the daylight hours.

Falcon still couldn't believe he was sitting there in the boat with the old man rather than curled around Summer in her comfortable bed. But he'd known when he woke a little before four that Summer's father would be coming to collect him. And there was Cal on the back porch waiting, when Falcon and Raeg stepped into the kitchen.

To give him credit, Major Calhoun invited Raeg along each morning.

Raeg always refused. Riding an edge that bordered on disrespect, he'd take his coffee and just turn his back on Summer's father as he left the kitchen.

"You know," Cal commented quietly, surprising Falcon. "Leasa's daddy used to pull me out of bed 'bout this time every morning. Made me madder than hell too." He paused for a moment, pushing the pole along the bottom of the water, propelling the boat further into the swamp. "I'd bitch and rail at Leasa every morning when I came back in. I'd order her straight up to tell her daddy to leave me the hell alone. I was no swamp rat and I wasn't about to become one."

Falcon's lips quirked at the amusement in the older man's voice, as well as the acknowledgment that Cal was rather fond of the memory.

"She'd beg and plead and order her daddy to stop insistin' I go out with him, but old man Collier, he never stopped. Then one day, we were about here"-he nodded to the area they were drifting into-"and he laughed at me, said I was sending his sweet little girl to do a man's job to convince him to let me laze in bed rather than gettin' out and being a man."

Falcon just listened. When Summer's father was silent again, he just waited. There was a reason for this little story, he knew. His own father may not have been much on instructing or teaching his son the ways of the world, but Falcon had been lucky enough to meet others who were.

"Summer hasn't tried to convince me to let you sleep in. And she hasn't mentioned Raeg's refusal every morning," Cal pointed out then.

Falcon flicked an amused look toward the older man's shadowed outline.

"If I didn't want to come out, sir, then you couldn't force me out." Falcon shrugged. "And it's not Summer's place to request you allow me to sleep should I decide that's what I want to do."

Neither he nor Raeg mentioned these early morning trips to Summer, though she was aware of them. He'd glimpsed her watching each morning as he and her father stepped into the wide, flat-bottomed craft Cal used to go into the murky depths of the swamp.

"You're good company out here," the other man admitted then as the boat drifted lazily through the waters. "I wonder though, if your brother would be near as well mannered."

Falcon couldn't help but chuckle as he relaxed back in the low seat, facing Summer's father.

"If he wanted to be here, then he'd only piss you off hourly-that's Raeg being nice," he grunted. "If he didn't want to be here, then he'd piss you off about every other word out of his mouth-bad enough that you'd used his body parts for those gator traps before you ever made it this far."

There was no sense in glossing over the fact that his brother could be the world's biggest prick. Especially when he resented someone as he resented Cal.

Summer's father was quiet for long moments, simply pushing the boat along the water, obviously well aware of where they were going despite the lack of light.

"You know," he said heavily when he finally spoke again. "I've heard about the two of you for the past eight years. How Raeg had taken his little jabs and pissed her off or hurt her tender heart. You'd smooth it over, get her laughing, and she'd forgive him."

Well, Falcon thought, he'd wondered how long it would take her father to work his way around to this particular conversation. It wasn't a discussion he wanted to have with the other man and he knew Summer would never appreciate her father knowing anything intimate about her life. She had a squeamishness about that he found both amusing and confusing. That was a part of what made Summer so unique though, so he didn't question it. Neither did he want to disrespect it.

Her father didn't understand their past though, or the hell Raeg had felt the night he walked in to find his lover dead only to learn his father had killed her. Because she was an agent. Because she'd been sleeping with him in an attempt to learn if he was actually Roberto Falcone's son as she suspected. It was information she would have sold to Roberto's enemies who wanted to find his son and use him to force Roberto and his lovers out into the open, so they could kill them.

"No comment?" Cal asked softly.

"Raeg doesn't try to hurt her," Falcon told him quietly. "And when he does, it actually hurts him far more deeply."

"You gonna make excuses for him like Leasa used to make for me?" Cal asked, his voice low. "Do that a lot, do you?"

Falcon gave a rueful smile at the question, knowing what the other man was trying to do and hoping he was smart enough to stay out of that trap.

"I know Raeg as no one else does," he stated carefully. "It's not making excuses. There is no intent to hurt Summer. Making her angry places a shield between them and ensures his emotions are not affected any more than she has affected them already. You see or hear only Summer. I see and hear them both, and I see things no one else would understand."

Because he loved both of them. His love for his brother was a lifetime of shared experiences and pain. His love for Summer, just as Raeg's love for her, was just as deep, just as enduring. She was the light to their dark, and he was going to hate losing her every second after they were forced to leave.

"Your brother's in love with her." It was a statement, not a question.

It was something Falcon hadn't expected Summer's father to realize so quickly. Though he should have expected it, he realized. Cal, like his daughter, was damned good at hiding exactly how perceptive he actually was.

"He is, sir." Falcon sighed heavily. He'd fallen into the trap so fast, Raeg would be disgusted with him but hell, he respected this man. And lying to him just didn't seem right. He loved Summer as well, as no one else ever could. "As am I, before you ask. Raeg simply has yet to admit it."

This could be a mistake. This man could kill him without a single moment's guilt, Falcon guessed, but, if Cal didn't kill him, he'd at least know he showed her father the respect she would expect of him. Even if she'd kick his ass for letting out any information that would even hint that she was having sex with him and his brother.

"Two men who love her," Cal mused. "Knowing how your brother feels and how he watches her with hunger, yet refuses to claim her, why haven't you claimed her? Why bring Raeg and tempt losing her forever yourself?"

Hell of a question, wasn't it. Yes indeed, Summer was going to end up kicking his ass in the worst way.

"I'll never lose Summer to my brother, sir," Falcon assured him, ensuring his tone was far more gentle than the fierce possessiveness he felt where his and Raeg's claiming of her was concerned.

"Because both of you think you can have her?" her father charged, his voice low but echoing with anger now.

Falcon simply stared back at the shadowed outline of the outraged father. And he couldn't blame him. There was a time when such sexual acts were kept so silent that they became skeletons skulking in family closets, and never allowed to see the light of day.

"Sir, this is a conversation I'd prefer not to have at a time when you could toss me overboard and provide your friends, the gators, a bit of a predawn snack." He sighed. "Could we talk of these things when we're once again on dry land?"

With a hard push of the pole the boat turned and headed back the way they had come.

"You think you can carry on like that here in Cliffton?" Cal growled. "That Summer won't be hurt because of it?"

"Sir, I think once Summer makes up her mind about anything, then she truly does not care what others believe. I've seen her face down the worst society has to offer, and suffer nothing more than their respect when it was all said and done."

"This isn't DC, boy," the other man snapped.

Falcon remained silent.

He'd already said way too much.

He respected Summer's father and he was loathe to lie to him, but neither would he give the other man the fuel he needed to poke at Raeg. Which, Falcon suspected, was the older man's aim. Her father and Raeg were playing a very subtle, very dangerous game behind Summer's back. If she learned of it, she'd end up poking them both back. Straight into a gator nest.

If gator nests really existed.

Summer could become rather vengeful.

And a vengeful Summer was a very dangerous Summer.

"I gather we are returning early?" Falcon observed.

"Well now, aren't you the smart one this morning?" Cal sneered. "I guess-"

"I took my smart pill this morning?" Falcon asked curiously. "Now I know where Summer gets that wicked humor of hers, sir."

The other man simply grunted.

Hell.

Summer wouldn't be pleased.

Big mistake.

Probably the biggest mistake of her life.

Summer rushed from the house while Falcon and Raeg were still showering. The sun was barely up, the fog still lying heavy in the air, filling the marsh that led into the swamp below the house.

They would know where she had run, no big secret there. She'd been running every morning for the past week. And they'd been letting her do it.

There were quite intelligent when they wanted to be-they'd known she was running, and they'd followed. The overwhelming need to escape the consequences of the night before, had ensured the need to put as much time as possible between her and facing them.

She shivered as she passed the line of weeping willows, rubbing at her arms and wishing she'd taken a few seconds to grab a sweater. The thin cotton white-and-red print summer dress wasn't much defense against the moist, early morning air.

"Mornin', Daddy." Stepping on the porch, she paused to bend and place a kiss on his cheek before straightening to move into the house and help her momma with breakfast.

"Summer." His stern voice stopped her before she disappeared into the house. "Have a seat, girl."

Oh, this wasn't good. When Daddy ordered her to have a seat, that meant she really wasn't going to like the conversation at all, she thought morosely.

"Raeg and Falcon will be here in a minute, Daddy." Stepping back, she stared down at him in resignation. "If you're angry with me, could you please tell me in private?"

An argument with her daddy in front of the men she'd taken as lovers wasn't going to be a pleasant start to her morning. Especially when she suspected the argument was going to concern them.

"Did I ask to speak to you privately?" he questioned her, his tone harder now. "Now sit down there and stop tryin' to find an excuse to escape."

But she so needed to escape, she thought desperately.

"Yes, sir." She stepped up to the chair he indicated and sat herself down.

Back straight, her hands in her lap, she kept her expression calm despite the brooding look he was giving her.

The silence stretched between them until the front door opened and her momma stepped out with two mugs of coffee. She placed them on the table next to her husband.

"Remember what I told you," her momma said softly.

Her daddy rolled his eyes at the reminder.

"Get breakfast, woman," he chided her with a hint of amusement. "Summer and I are just gonna chat a minute."

Her momma shook her finger at him warningly before turning and walking back into the house.

Summer remained still and silent, only moving when her father handed her a mug.

"Thank you, Daddy," she murmured. She sat the coffee carefully on the table next to her and returned to her previous position.

Her daddy watched her for long moments before shaking his head. She couldn't figure out what he was trying to do though. It wasn't disappointment in his face, and he wasn't curious. It was like he wanted something and she had no idea what he could want that would require him ordering her to sit and talk as he had when she was a child.

"You're a grown woman, Summer Dawn..."

"Yes, Daddy, I am." She met his gaze squarely, remaining respectful but in no way admitting to anything. She wasn't eight anymore, and there were things her daddy simply couldn't demand of her any longer.