"It won't work," he told her. "I know you, baby, like no one but Raeg knows you, and I know this isn't going to work. Just as you do."

He and Raeg would go insane watching a bunch of bastards socialize with her, the knowledge that she would eventually be choosing a husband, possibly from one of the men she met at the arranged parties, uppermost in their mind. The men in attendance would be men who knew their own minds, their own strengths, and the very nature of those chosen for Summer to consider would ensure they went after what they wanted, what they thought they could have.

Seeing that in the men, knowing that once he and his brother left, Summer had every intention of building a life without them, was killing him, even though he knew he couldn't blame her. No one could blame her, least of all him and Raeg.

They blamed themselves, or the past-a monster without remorse. That was who they blamed, that and the very things they couldn't eliminate.

"I'll kill the bastard who touches you within my sight." The savage, naked fury brewing in Raeg shocked Falcon.

Summer's face whitened, her breath hitching audibly as her gaze swung to his brother.

Falcon glanced at Raeg, then rubbed at the back of his neck in resignation. He had only said what Falcon felt as well.

"Raeg..." She whispered his name, regret filling the sound as tears gleamed in her eyes. "This wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't what I planned."

"But you knew I'd fucking lose my goddamned mind with it, didn't you?" Raeg wanted to throw something.

Son of a bitch, he clearly understood why Falcon had slammed his fist into the barn wall earlier. Better the pain of a shattered hand than a shattered soul.

She shook her head, her lips parting to deny the charge.

"Of course you did," he bit out furiously. "You knew or you wouldn't have taken our names off the invitation list. You would have made damned sure we knew what you were doing if you hadn't known what it would do to us."

She blinked furiously, her fingers linking together nervously as she shook her head, her expression stark white and filled with shock.

"I didn't want to know you didn't care," she said, her voice resonating with so many pain-filled emotions that he hated hearing it. "That's why I took your names off the list. The thought of you showing up, amused..." Her voice broke, a hand lifting to cover her lips, but not quite quick enough. He caught the subtle trembling, the sound of tears that thickened her voice. "I couldn't bear it."

"You knew I would care," Falcon objected, and regret filled Summer's expression.

"And I knew you wouldn't do anything even if you did," she stated, that knowledge stamped on her face, filling her eyes. "I've always known the two of you would never commit to a woman separately. It's simply who you are and I was too frightened that Raeg wouldn't care. That he didn't care."

"Don't fucking do this while we're here, Summer." Raeg wanted to make it an order, he wanted to demand she have mercy on all of them, and he couldn't.

"I'm sorry," her voice broke again, lips trembling before she fought back her tears, breaking his heart with the knowledge that like them, she was holding back the pain tearing her apart. "If I do what you want, Raeg, then it will break me when you leave. Is that what you want? Is that really what you want to see as you walk away?" Her lips trembled and Falcon swore the tears filling her eyes would fall. "That's not what I want for you. For whatever reason, you feel you have to go. But I don't want you to be alone when you leave. I want you to find love..." A sob almost escaped, and Falcon's throat tightened, the agony trapped inside him threatening to escape in a howl of pain. "I want you to be happy, even if you can't be happy with me."

Turning, she all but ran for the stairs then, reaching for the banister as Falcon jumped to his feet to run to her.

Raeg beat him to her. He gripped her upper arm, pulling her around and against his chest, one hand pressing her head to him as his arm wrapped around her fragile body.

He bent his head over hers, and Falcon watched his expression twist painfully, eyes closing as Summer's fingers clenched in his shirt and her body bowed into the pain he knew was exploding through her.

She wanted them to find love, wanted for them what she wanted so desperately to give to them, and she had no idea the depth of love they felt for her, Falcon thought. She couldn't know, or the betrayal she would feel later would only be deeper than it would already be.

Standing several feet from his brother and the woman both of them treasured, Falcon could feel the murderous fury threatening to steal his control, and the veil he'd kept between him and that fury was torn away. Hatred crept from the darkness where it had hidden, pure, bitter, complete hatred for the man who caused this, a father who would strip their souls without remorse.

"I will kill, Summer," Raeg whispered against the top of her head, holding her, vowing what Falcon knew both of them felt. "Understand that, baby, believe it. If even one man dares to lay his hands on you in my sight, I will kill..."

Because she belonged to them. She was theirs, and they were far more possessive than even they'd suspected. They might share her with each other, but never, not at any time, would they'd willingly allow another to touch her. Not and keep their sanity.

Chapter.

FIFTEEN.

Friday came far too quickly, yet time seemed to drag in slow motion, each second filled with so much emotion, so much pain, that she didn't know how she survived it.

The fitting for her dress was quiet, absent of the laughter and teasing she, her sister, and their friend and dressmaker, Trina had shared during the other meetings. The beautiful gown no longer filled her with excitement, or with a sense of beauty.

Steven arrived, and that afternoon she sat in the beautician's chair, staring blankly at the mirror as the older man slowly, methodically straightened the curls and waves of her hair.

Steven was a little older than her father, she guessed, at least in his early sixties, though like her father, he carried his age very well. Easily six two, his shoulders still broad, his body toned, he was the least likely beautician in the world. Yet, he was a master. She rarely allowed anyone else to fix her hair.

"So much hair," Steven stated, his voice a bit hesitant as he spoke. "You are the belle of whatever ball you arrive at, my dear."

There was a curious, questioning gentleness to his voice as his hazel eyes met hers in the mirror.

Summer stared at her hair, knowing it wouldn't be this long once Raeg and Falcon left.

"I'm thinking about cutting it," she said hollowly. "It doesn't seem worth the effort anymore to keep it so long."

Steven paused, his expression reflecting his surprise.

"Why would you do such thing my dear?" he asked softly as he sectioned off another portion of her hair, combing it carefully, then laying the straight iron to it before drawing the iron slowly down the long strands.

"It would be better short," she answered, fighting the trembling of her lips, the pain that was only building.

Raeg and Falcon had barely spoken to her since the day before. And they hadn't slept with her. They'd stayed in the guest rooms, though like her, she doubted they'd slept much.

"Shall I assume this has something to do with those two young men waiting outside?" he asked somberly. "Have they broken your heart, sweetheart?"

The gentleness in his voice was filled with fondness and years of friendship. He knew things about her that no one else was aware of, secrets he'd never revealed nor gossiped about. He was one of the nicest men she knew, and sometimes he seemed to understand so much more than his words ever said.

"I must say," he continued when she didn't answer him. "I'm not really surprised to see them here. I had the pleasure of shaping Alyssa's hair just after you left. Raeg seemed rather put out when I inquired about you at the time, more so than usual. Shall I assume he and Falcon are the reason for all that pain filling your eyes? Should I take them to task for wounding your tender heart, sweetheart?"

Tears filled her eyes, because she knew he was serious. He was very protective of his clients, and he always swore she and Alyssa were his favorites.

"No," she whispered as he continued to work on her hair. "It's complicated."

"Love is very simple my dear," he disagreed. "It's the reasons we fight it that can become complicated. Usually far more complicated than they need be if I know those two."

There was a question in his voice. Of course he'd want to know why they found it complicated. She did as well.

Summer could only shrug. "They won't tell me why."

"Do you ask?" he questioned her curiously.

"Falcon would tell me if he could," she admitted. "I think it's complicated." She frowned. "Maybe it's me, Steven," she whispered. "Maybe it's like Caleb said about the heart he broke. Maybe they just care so much that it hurts, but they know they don't love me the way they should and it will hurt me less if they walk away." She stared at his reflection in the mirror, needing someone to explain this to her, needing some way to make sense of why they would walk away from her.

His brow furrowed, his hazel eyes meeting hers before he turned his gaze back to his task, perhaps considering what she'd just asked him.

"I've known Raeg and Falcon, albeit distantly, for many years now," he finally answered. "You know when Raeg was about twenty, there was a young woman he was enamored of, one who preferred not to have his brother in their bed. The brothers went their separate ways for a while. The young woman was murdered in their bed while he was meeting his brother for drinks one night."

She stared back at him in shock.

"That's not in his CIA file," she said, not in the least worried about revealing her status as an agent. Steven had been referred to her by Margot Hampstead, the senator's first wife, just before her death. He was an agent himself, though he claimed to be retired.

"Of course it isn't." He waved the comment away. "His parents were agents for the company as well. His father and mother, Falcon's mother too. They made an incredible team. It was his father who killed the young woman actually. She was an agent herself, determined to prove a suspicion that Raeg's and Falcon's mothers were alive and reveal where they were hiding. Some governments simply refuse to accept that enemies don't live forever," he snorted, rueful amusement crossing his face. "From what I understand, Raeg trusted her implicitly but the information she wanted didn't exist. There's rumors that while he was meeting with his brother she was making plans to kill him on his return. I gather his father was rather put out over that, and killed her instead."

She'd known Raeg's parents were CIA, she hadn't known about this, though.

No wonder he refused to love anyone, she thought.

"He really loved her then?" she asked, the pain only growing inside her. "That's why he's willing to walk away from me?"

"Men can be stubborn," he advised her. "We're not exactly logical where our hearts are concerned. And we'll often fight real love with the same determined force that we would any enemy."

"He won't stay, will he?" she asked the other man then, knowing the answer even before he paused and stared back at her.

"I doubt it," he sighed heavily, compassion filling his gaze. "Raeg will always remember that first mistake, that trust he gave to someone planning to betray him. That's a powerful memory for a man."

A powerful enemy for a woman to have to face, she thought.

"I love them," she whispered, saying it out loud, needing someone to hear the words.

"Yes, you have for a long time." He nodded. "Just remember, my dear, whether returned or not, love is never wasted. And they may be angry over the parties at the moment, angry that you're making plans to continue on without them, but remember this. There is nothing more powerful than the challenge of realizing a woman is strong enough to live without you. Never, never allow them to realize any different. If you have any chance of keeping them, then that's it."

There was no chance of keeping them, she already knew that. Her pride wouldn't let her fall in front of them though. A terrible thing, her pride-she knew that. She would easily cut her own nose off to spite her face, as her mother was prone say.

"Cheer up, Summer," he ordered her gently, the Scot's accent a soothing burr. "True love can never be defeated. It's invincible, I promise you this."

She stared back at him, hoping she hid her disbelief. Hell, she'd never imagined Steven was more nave than her little sister, but it appeared he might very well be.

She was fucking beautiful.

Steven had straightened every strand of her long black hair before pulling the front of it back to the crown of her head in a ponytail that trailed strands of tiny, silver bells whose muted sounds were heard only occasionally and so softly at first that he wasn't even certain what he was hearing.

She wore one of those soft, feminine skirts that looked so damned good on her. This one fell to her ankles in muted shades of gold and pale blue, the loose material swaying around her seductively. It was paired with a soft bronze camisole top and strappy flat sandals.

She looked like a gypsy as she drifted about the crowd gathered in her aunt's backyard, her sister and her mother at her side.

They stopped and talked to damned near every man there but just long enough for introductions before Summer just drifted away, sometimes in the middle of a conversation.

"We're killing her," Falcon said from beside him, his voice rough with fury, with pain. "It's like watching her bleed out slowly."

Raeg just watched her, his arms crossed over his chest, tight. The need to hold back that ache centered beneath them imperatively.

"Fuck," Falcon cursed when Raeg didn't answer. "I'm getting a drink."

He broke his silence. "Get me one. A double."

The drink was neutral. It didn't take thought, it didn't take restraint, or an awareness of his control to deal with. It was just a drink.

They'd been there for hours. The barbeque, the meal, and hours of watching Summer float around the yard from table to table, that facsimile of a smile on her lips, killing him with a knowledge of the pain she was holding back.

"That woman," Mike Taggart, Caleb's boyhood friend, commented as he stepped to Raeg, "is not Summer Calhoun." His expression, his gaze, was filled with dislike as Raeg met his gaze. "What the hell have ya'll done to her?"

Loved her, Raeg answered silently. They had been ambushed by the one emotion they'd sworn they wouldn't let themselves feel.

"Find somewhere else to be, Mike," Raeg suggested coldly. "I'm not in the mood for your bullshit."

He'd only met the man twice, and each time, the bastard had done something to piss him off.

Mike grunted at the order. "It could be Caleb standin' here instead. He's ready to kill you and your brother, you know. Him and his daddy both. That look in Summer's eyes is about to kill everyone who knows her."

It was killing him and Falcon as well.

Raeg kept watching her.

She stopped and said something to her mother and Aunjenue, shaking her head at her mother's response. She didn't smile, she didn't flit around from group to group, flirting and driving him insane with jealousy. She was just there, physically.

Mike's muttered curse was ignored just as his warning was, and finally he turned and stalked off, returning to the table where the Calhoun men sat. Thankfully, Summer's brothers all remained at the table with their father.

No one approached him and Falcon, though Raeg recognized damned near every man there. The intelligence community was actually rather small in some circles and mingled with certain law enforcement and military groups closely.

Those were the men who chatted and socialized with the multitude of women flirting and chatting willingly with them. Still, there were far too many whose eyes followed Summer, who watched her with male interest and speculation.

"Here." Falcon shoved the drink at him before turning to watch Summer again, his body tight with tension as he sipped at his drink.

This had to end soon, Raeg thought wearily. They couldn't continue like this. It was killing all of them.

"How much longer do we have to do this?" Falcon growled, the low, guttural tone of his voice at odds with his brother's normally fiery nature. "I'm not going to deal with these bastards much longer."

"No one's touching her," he reminded his brother.