Cubic zirconia perhaps? But they didn't appear to be that either. From appearance alone, she was beginning to get the feeling the bracelet was far more expensive than Steven had let on.

To be certain, she'd have to show it to Brody. Her brother could look at a piece of jewelry and instantly ascertain exactly what it was.

First, she had to figure out what to do with the lovers driving her completely insane, she thought wearily. A woman really shouldn't have to treat two grown men like little children who needed to be taught the truth. They should be mature enough to see the truth when it was punching them in face.

At this rate, she would end up punching them in the face.

She was in the mood for it too. Their father was a greedy ass, she decided. He could have at least saved Dragovich for her, to allow her to get her own little thrill on since it was her life the bastard had tried to snuff out.

Struggling with the clasp of the bracelet as she attempted to secure it, she stepped from the bathroom into her bedroom, staring down at her wrist at the thought.

"He could have left us some blood to spill," Summer informed Raeg and Falcon as she glimpsed them waiting for her.

"Yeah, he's a fucking prick like that," Raeg told her, stepping to her and taking the bracelet from her. "Here, I'll-"

He seemed to freeze, staring at the jewelry in shock.

Raeg stared at the bracelet, his world narrowing to the links of the silver and gold heirloom piece, the sapphire, amethysts, diamonds, and rich gold accents as familiar to him as a past he rarely allowed himself to remember.

"Raeg?" Summer questioned him softly. "Did I break it?" She stared down at the piece of jewelry in his hand. "It's so pretty, but the clasp is kind of fragile."

She was aware of Falcon's breath catching as he moved to see what held Raeg's attention.

"Where did you get this?" Raeg asked her numbly, his thumb brushing over the interlocking gem-studded links and the priceless diamonds held between every third link.

Three links. The rumored liaison centuries before between two Falcone ancestors and the lover the cousins had taken together was well known within the family. The bracelet had been given to the lover, it was said. A gold link surrounded by two silver ones and bridged by priceless diamonds was said to represent that once-sordid affair.

Their father, Roberto Falcone, had gone a different route though. He'd taken two female lovers because, he'd told sons, their love for each other was as deep as their combined love for him.

"Summer, where did you get this bracelet?" Falcon questioned her imperatively, the suspicion filling his voice matching the suspicion only growing in Raeg's mind.

"Steven," she answered them, confused. "He said it was his mother's. He was supposed to give it to his son but he said not every man was blessed with sons."

He hadn't told her he didn't have sons, just made a generalization, Raeg thought, aware of how Roberto Falcone could weave lies.

Then he frowned. "Steven? Your damned hairdresser?"

The older man had been Margot Hampstead's hairdresser as well. Raeg had seen him often in the Hampstead mansion before Margot's death as well as after.

Roberto would have never been able to fool the highly perceptive Margot. She'd known him far too well, had worked with him for years. If Steven was the shadow agent also known as the former CIA's Cyclops, then Margot would have known it.

The right height and build, but Steven and Roberto looked nothing alike, he thought. Then again, Cyclops had been known for his ability to hide in plain sight, that was what Shadow Ops did. They could change looks as easily as a chameleon, completely fooling those around them.

"What's wrong?" she asked, clearly confused as she looked between them. "Do you recognize it?"

"Recognize it?" he whispered, stunned, so completely confused by the sight of this once-treasured piece of jewelry that he could barely process it. "It was our grandmother's. It's been passed down to the Falcone heir for over five hundred years, Summer. Each diamond, each gem, is considered priceless, completely flawless."

She jerked her hand back, staring back at him in shock, then at the bracelet.

"A reproduction," she whispered, blinking back at him. "It has to be a reproduction." But he saw the suspicion in her eyes.

He turned it over, searching for the inscription on the back of one of the solid links, knowing it was no reproduction.

For our heart-Falcones Rough, almost worn smooth, but there and still readable. He pointed to the words and watched her pale as she read them.

"How did Steven get it?" she whispered. "I know he knew your father and mothers..."

"He told you that?" Falcon questioned, his expression hard now, his gaze icy once again. "What did he tell you?"

Summer repeated their conversation. The events of the death of Raeg's lover all those years ago and some advice Steven had given her left Raeg reeling-and if the look on Falcon's face was any indication, his shock went just as deep.

"How did he fool us?" he questioned, turning to Falcon as he fought to process this information. "I've known Steven for years. He used to do Margot's hair."

Margot had been their mother's closest friend as well as Roberto's.

"Are you trying to say Steven is your father?" she questioned as Raeg felt a sense of unreality filling his senses.

"Steven has to be Roberto," he told her, staring at the bracelet, then back to Summer. "And he just gave it to you?"

Summer nodded, holding back the last piece of advice Steven had given her to tell them the difference between their relationship with her and Raeg's with the lover Roberto had killed so long ago.

Her own stubbornness in remaining silent on that conversation was in conflict with her desperate need for them and their presence in her life.

Pride could be a terrible thing, she thought wearily, watching as they exchanged looks. She knew those looks, knew the regret and longing in Falcon's expression, so at odds with the icy cast of his gaze. The torment that filled Raeg's gaze was just as apparent, yet neither man was smart enough to look to the past and see the differences between her and some stupid bitch who tried to use Raeg to further her own agenda as a double agent.

"Do you remember what I told you?" she asked both men, her chest tightening painfully. "If you leave me, there's no coming back." Gripping her fingers together she faced them, feeling the heaviness, the pain, like a familiar presence inside her chest now. "I love you," she whispered. "You'll let me face this with you, or I won't be a part of your lives when or if you return. Are we clear on that?"

Raeg's gaze went from the bracelet to Summer, his expression twisting painfully before he shook his head.

Stepping to her, he lifted her wrist silently and secured the bracelet around it. Once finished, he held onto her for several long moments, his thumb brushing over the links.

"Do you think we don't love you?" he asked her, lifting his gaze to hers, and the sorrow in his eyes went so deep that his declaration couldn't pierce the pain resonating inside her to allow her to feel even a moment's joy at the knowledge.

She jerked her arm back.

"No, you don't," she said, her lips thinning as she stared between the two men. "Love doesn't run away, Raeg. It binds lovers together. It creates a bond that danger can't break. I will not be left behind like some helpless little twit. Leave me behind and I promise you, you will regret it."

She didn't need protectors. She wasn't Cinderella and had no damned desire to be.

She would have shot the fucking stepmother and buried the bitch in the backyard if it had been her. And those stepsisters were just too stupid to live anyway, so helping them out a little wouldn't have been a problem.

"You don't understand what's going on here, Summer," Raeg protested, pushing his fingers through his hair before staring back at her broodingly. "You don't know Roberto as we do, or what he's capable of."

Her lip lifted in a bitter, sardonic smile. "I believe I was told what he was capable of, Raeg. But I'm not that woman, nor am I that damned easy to kill."

"Roberto won't care about facing you," Falcon continued the argument. "He'll catch you in his crosshairs just as he caught Dragovich, and then it will all be over with."

She could only shake her head at them sadly.

The same man who had given her a family heirloom because she was his sons' lover, who had been a part of all their lives long enough to have realized both Raeg and Falcon's feelings for her, a man whose obvious fondness for her had been commented on by both of them.

He would put her in his crosshairs simply because she was sleeping with his sons rather than planning to kill them? She didn't think so. And they should know better.

"Then go," she told them without anger, without heat, as she waved toward the bedroom door. "Go now, while I can bear to watch you walk away."

He just stared at her, glared at her actually, the muscle at his jaw pulsing furiously. And for once, Falcon wasn't cursing in five languages nor was he angry. He was so incredibly somber, not at all the fiery, playful man she so loved.

"I'll make it easy for you," she told them then, steeling herself to make the only choice left to her. "I'll go. Then you don't have to see what the hell you're walking away from."

Turning, she walked away, certain they were going to stop her.

Any second ... in the next heartbeat ... before she reach the door ...

Before she reach the stairs.

When she took that first step down, her breathing hitched and the first tear fell.

She didn't fight them, she couldn't fight them. But when she reached the landing she stopped, holding onto the banister as her shoulders shook with her silent sobs and the pain lanced at her senses.

She should just tell them what Steven said, she thought even as she shook her head desperately.

Oh God. She covered her mouth with her hand to hold back the ragged, gasping sounds that came with her tears. She didn't do crying well, never had. If she lost control of the pain, she'd end up wailing like a five-year-old in the midst of a meltdown.

Finally, she regained control, wiped her hand over her face, drew in a hard breath, and opened her eyes to stare around the dimly lit foyer.

Just before she froze, the breath stilling in her throat.

Chapter.

NINETEEN.

She knew who they were, or at least she highly suspected. The problem, though, was that two of them shouldn't be there.

The slender, tall blonde held her finger to her lips in a demand for silence, then gestured to the living area and the other woman standing several feet away, with the weapon she held in her hand.

Dressed in dark jeans, a dark T-shirt, and a leather jacket, the older woman's coloring and regal features identified her as Raeg's mother. Selena Raegent was still a beauty, and obviously still in excellent fighting shape despite the fact that she had to be only a few years from sixty.

The woman leaning lazily against the entrance to the living area was as dark as the other was blonde. Mediterranean features, dark eyes, and shoulder-length black hair shot with threads of silver framed the strong, though still beautiful, features of her face.

She was dressed similar to the blonde, dark jeans and T-shirt, leather jacket and boots. She wasn't holding a handgun though. No, she'd gone all out and brought a compact assault rifle instead.

She grinned as Summer watched her warily, then nodded into the living area, indicating she should continue moving. Summer passed her, then she and the blonde followed along behind Summer until they reached the kitchen and the man sitting at her counter casually eating the leftover fried chicken her momma had sent the day before.

"Leasa always was a damned good cook." Steven, or rather Roberto, grinned as he waved a piece of chicken. "I would have joined all of you for dinner the other night, but each time she caught sight of me she did that frowning thing she used to do whenever she saw me in disguise. It was too soon to risk being identified."

Selena Raegent and Maria Mendoza moved to each side of him behind the center island, watching her curiously.

Roberto had never married either woman. It was rumored he'd named Falcon his heir to satisfy the family demanding he marry at the time-just for said heir. Though Margot had mentioned that Raeg was named as well, ensuring the two men would share equally in whatever they inherited.

"My hearts," Roberto said softly to the women at each side of him. "May I introduce the woman our sons are so enamored of? Summer Dawn Calhoun. Ms. Calhoun, Falcon's mother, Maria Mendoza, and Raeg's mother, Selena Raegent. Unfortunately, we could not bring their sister, Hailey Anne, this trip. Perhaps next."

Finishing the chicken, he laid the stripped bone on a paper towel lying on the counter before wiping his fingers on another.

"They're upstairs," Summer told them softly, feeling the dried tears on her cheeks as Roberto's gaze flickered to them with a frown. "I was just leaving..."

Roberto's lips thinned. "You did not tell them what I advised you to say, did you?"

The disapproval in his pale blue eyes had her frowning back at him, wondering what it was about men that made them think they could control her. It had to be her short stature, there was no other explanation.

"They are highly intelligent men, I'm told," she informed him mutinously. "And they know it was you who gave me the bracelet when they recognized it. If they haven't figured out yet that you have no intentions of murdering me, then they're not going to figure it out."

"I warned you he was too stubborn for this," Selena muttered at Roberto's side as she shot him an irritated look. Roberto frowned in dark displeasure. "Raeg will not accept that you're not a threat to her."

"And here I have always claimed he was the smart one," Maria snorted, propping one hand on a curvy hip and glaring down at her male lover. "This is unacceptable, Roberto. We grow weary of our sons ignoring our requests to see them. And our daughter does not even know her brothers."

Those were two very unhappy women, Summer thought.

Roberto leaned back in the stool and regarded Summer silently, almost accusingly.

"It's not my fault your sons are far too stubborn for normal good sense," she pointed out, frowning back at him. "I suspect they came by it naturally too."

"I told you how to handle this." He leaned forward, his gaze narrowing on her. "I was quite clear on it, Summer. You are just as stubborn."

Her lips pursed at the accusation.

"Excuse me," she bit out, deeply offended now. "I am not the one who created this situation, Roberto, Steven, whatever your name is tonight. You created it. Let's not forget that."

He stared back at her for long moments before speaking.

"Did I not tell you she was a cheeky little creature?" he asked the women watching him as a grin quirked his lips. "Reminds me of the two of you at that age, she does."