Connor cleared his throat and our attention moved to my brother who was standing watching us with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked so much like my father in the way he stood with a disapproving expression. I swallowed the emotion of peaking back into the past where the ghosts of my parents haunted me.

“I think it’s time you told us what the hell is going on.” His stern features was an evident sigh he would not settle for anything less.

“We don’t have time.” The strain was visible in Sin’s expression. “We have to get back to the house before Mack suspects something.”

“Who the fuck is this guy Sin?”

“Someone we don’t want to cross.” Sin’s gaze held my brother’s. There was no doubt he was deadly serious. His features tight and strained.

The fear that had lived in me since the start of this whole thing spiked. I reached for Sin’s hand and threaded my fingers with his as I took a steady breath to settle my emotions. His presence gave me some comfort, like we were together in this. Not alone.

I wished he had been honest with me from the start but that was something we would talk about when we could.

“What the hell is going on Sin?” Connor sounded exasperated.

“I can handle Mack but I need you to keep out of this. I know you Connor and you like to meddle and that’s going to get someone hurt.”

The someone was either Sin or I. The fact that Mack seemed to dislike me didn’t count well in my favor. I bet I would be his choice for any punishment that needed to be dished out.

Connor’s frown deepened. It was clearly not what my brother wanted to hear.

“I had to pick my sister up from the police station. I don’t think you have a handle on …anything.”

Sin ran his free hand through his hair. “I don’t have time for this, Connor. We have to get back. The longer I take the more dangerous position you are putting your sister in.”

He was already leading to me to the door but Connor stepped in front of him, cutting us off from the only exit.

“I can’t let you walk of here with my sister without telling me what’s going on.”

Sin glared at him and I felt the tension fill the air as they sized each other up. It was so male and unnecessary in the current situation.

“You’re overstepping Connor,” Sin warned with a growl of frustration.

“She is my sister.” Connor’s voice was tight as he played the family card when he wanted to get his way.

“She’s my world.” Sin lifted his chin defiantly at my brother.

The way he stood up to my brother was a reminder of who he was. He didn’t back down from anyone, I couldn’t see him backing down from Mack either. There was a strength in him that I admired.

My heart fluttered at Sins’ declaration and I fell a little more in love with the tattooed bad boy who owned my heart. Only a few days I had believed the worst that he had cheated. It had broken me. And he had done it to try and keep me safe.

Sin thinned his lips. “I tried to keep her out of this but I couldn’t. I don’t have a choice. Do you understand that?”

Connor was already shaking his head. “You’re endangering her and the baby.”

“Connor,” I said, trying to soothe the situation. I could see it from both their viewpoints but I didn’t want to be in the middle of this argument.

“You’re putting them both in danger.”

“I’m doing what I have to Connor. Do you think I wanted her messed up in this? I didn’t want her anywhere near him.”

I assumed the him was Mack.

There was silence.

“You’re the reason she’s in the mess in the first place.” He was placing the full blame on Sin’s shoulders but that wasn’t fair. I’d played a hand in getting myself into the situation.

“Stop Connor,” I admonished. “It wasn’t his fault.”

“Are you kidding me? He was being noble by allowing you to believe he had cheated? He broke your heart.”

I swallowed, hating the rawness that still felt so recent it was difficult to forget how it had felt when I had faced trying to pick up the pieces.

“And now he had dragged you into a dangerous situation?”

Sin glared daggers at Connor. “If I could keep her out of this I would send her back to New York with you right now but I can’t. If she suddenly leaves, Mack will believe something is up and that will make this whole situation much worse.”

I had sealed my fate when I had confronted him in the club and stirred Mack’s curiosity.

“She’s pregnant.” My brother tried another angle.

“I know that. I’m trying to keep this situation from blowing up. And you’re not helping right now.”

“There has to be another way.” Connor studied Sin with a frown.

“There isn’t.” Sin’s words held a finality to it that made Connor shift uncomfortably.

“I trusted you to keep her safe and look where that landed us.”

“I don’t have time to play the blame game. Right now Mack is probably already starting to notice we’re not at the house. And it wont take him long before he starts putting some guys on it and they will find out what went down. What do you think is going to happen when a dangerous gang leader wrapped up in every criminal activity you can think of finds out the cops interrogated us?”

Connor remained quiet.

“It wont matter if we talked or not. He will be suspicious and that won’t bode well for us.”

Connor didn’t answer.

“This situation is already volatile and suspicion will be enough to send him over the edge.”

What did that mean? Over the edge? I personally didn’t want to find out.

For a second the world tilted and I had the urge to give into the dark where I could hide from this. I inhaled sharply, not wanting to give my brother any reason to be more difficult. I trembled.

I swallowed, squeezing his hand a little tighter. That took his attention away from my brother. The look I gave him must have told him exactly how I was feeling because he put an arm around me to hug me.

I wanted to stay there, in his strength so he could hold me up when I felt like crumbling under the pressure.

“I have a way out but I need time.” He whispered to me. I nodded. I trusted him.

“I can’t do nothing.” My brother had always been the one to take control of a situation, he wasn’t used to sitting on the sidelines waiting for things to happen. It wasn’t who he was.

“You don't have a choice.”

Connor’s expressed was one of pained struggle.

“Let us go Connor. I promise to let you know what’s happening when I can.”

My brother was torn between being the protect he had been my whole life and stepping aside to allow another to take on the role.

“Connor,” Sin prompted impatiently. “We have to go.”

He stepped aside. I let go of Sin to give my brother a hurried hug. “I love you,” I whispered to him.

I needed him to know that, in case something did happen.

“I love you too.” Then to Sin he said, ”You keep me updated when you can.” He finally relented.

Sin and my brother shared one long last intense look before Sin gave a brief nod. “I will.”

He gripped my hand in his and led me out of the hotel room.

I hurried to keep up with him. Adrenaline began to pump through me and I hoped we could get back to the house before Mack could get suspicious.

There was no time to talk. No time to ask question or get answers. The most important thing was keeping our cool so we could outplay Mack.

If there was anyone who could get us out of it was Sin. I trusted him to keep me and the baby safe. I trusted him with my life and that of our unborn child.

He would not fail us.