The ride back to the hotel was silent, pavement roaring under the town car that Lachlan's brother had rented out for the week, his brother in question having not been seen since the night before when we'd landed in California.

Lachlan's hand pulled me out of the car with him, his body tucking me within his embrace as Vera trailed beside us as we entered the gleaming lobby of the hotel.

"I'll go to my room and see if Blythe is there, she hasn't been answering my texts. Lincoln and Taylor said they were hanging with Evan in their room still trying to get a solid location on your birth father. I guess it's just a waiting game now."

"Okay, I'm going to go back to the room and take a shower, change out of these clothes," I told her, heading towards the elevator with Lachlan moving with me, our entities nearly as one.

"Do you want me to get you something to eat while you shower," he asked before the elevator doors could close and the immediate relief that filled my eyes was answer enough for him.

Chuckling at my eagerness for food, he placed a chaste kiss on my lips before letting the doors shut behind him, the promise of a full stomach calming me as I leaned my head against the cool metal of the elevator panel while pressing our floor button.

I was almost to our floor when the elevator stopped one below mine, and in walked Lachlan's brother, Brandon.

"Hey," I said, noting the red rimmed eyes and fresh bruise he sported across his cheek dusted with a five o'clock shadow. He reeked of bourbon, my dad's beverage of choice.

"Lachlan's little toy, what a nice surprise," he drawled, though I could tell that he was almost to the verge of passing out and most likely out of his mind.

"What do you mean, his little toy?"

He winked at me, the sight of him so strung out so completely unlike the person who'd given me a ride back to the academy a few weeks ago after the snowed in debacle with Lachlan in his car. Then, he'd been polite and refined, pulled back and quiet.

Now, he was a mess.

"I guess you'll find that out soon enough, baby. He's not here right now, wanna show me how you make him so happy?"

I nearly gagged as he filled up the space between us with his scent mixed with sweat coating his body.

"No, thanks," I said, and suddenly the doors opened up to my floor.

"This is my stop," I said, disgusted by his behavior but not enough to slap him when he invaded my personal space yet again.

"I'd follow you to your room, but I don't think baby bro would like me pissing on his territory. See you soon, gorgeous," he said, his hands slithering through my hair before my hand could catch his wrist in a painful grip that he just laughed at.

"You'll have to try better than that to hurt me, sugar. I've got a pretty high pain tolerance and, well, I'm pretty high too so there's that."

I rolled my eyes and escaped the cramped elevator before I did something that Lachlan wouldn't like- which included hurting his brother, something I was positive I was capable of considering the teetering state he was in. He was too sloshed to be able to hurt me, and I wouldn't let him get close enough to do anything.

Sliding in the room and making sure that Brandon had indeed gone with the elevator, I sighed and peeled off the funeral clothes, realizing that I was alone for the first time in over twenty-four hours.

I took being alone for granted, I noticed, wanting to feel the emotions that tugged at my heart that I couldn't allow myself to feel while in front of others, ashamed of tears that always threatened to spill.

The shower sputtered to life and I removed my makeup while I waited for the bathroom to steam, signaling me that the water had heated enough for me to enter the spray.

I rolled my muscles under the raining shower, my heart tugging me in a million different directions, but my main line of thought was what I'd do if my birth father found me before I found him, or what I'd do if we actually caught him.

I'd want to confront him, that much I was sure of. I would look him in the eye as he realized that he had failed, or when the life slipped out of me, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of me looking away, from fear or rage or sadness, I wouldn't let up. He would know my conviction until the very end- mine or his, it was anyone's guess.

I fell apart, then, in the spray of the protective barrier of the shower, where no one could see my weakness. My soul bled out the pain that had etched itself into my core, Ian's loss striking me fast like a cobra.

Saying goodbye to him was necessary and needed, and I would heal from there, but I still needed to break, at least once, something I hadn't done since learning of his death.

I slid down the wall in the bathroom, hiccuping sobs until I could barely breathe, the steam clogging up my throat and nose while I tried to shove the heart wrenching agony out of my skin and into the open where it would hopefully dissipate, along with the pain that wouldn't escape me.

Eventually, the pain lessened and the ache in my chest was significantly less. I understood and accepted that Ian was gone and never coming back, and that some part of me had played a role in his death, but I wouldn't shatter from it. I would grow back stronger, with thicker skin and a shielded heart encased in ice so thick only Lachlan could be able to thaw, because only Lachlan had been able to reach me so far. I wouldn't pull away from him, not when it seemed like he was my sanctuary, my hope.

The door opened in the room just as the tears no longer flowed down my face, only the purified water from the showered marred my skin, and standing up, albeit a bit wobbly, I felt fine once more. Not okay yet, but fine.

Shutting off the water, I toweled my skin turned an angry, streaked red from the blistering hot water that I hadn't realized was hot enough to cause damage.

Hissing at the pain from the slight burns coating my skin, I knotted the towel around my breasts and exited the room, another white towel wrapped around my head to keep my long hair from dripping everywhere.

Lachlan stood in the middle of the room with a paper bag filled with greasy food and I couldn't have been more grateful, but the heat that banked in his eyes as he took in my unclothed form was enough to make me forget about my rumbling stomach...for a little while at least.

"I didn't know how you liked your burger so I just grabbed the condiments and figured you could put them on as you wanted it and you could take off any vegetables you didn't like," he said, eyes still clinging to my long tanned legs not hidden by the towel.

His eyes swung up and landed on my left shoulder, and they furrowed in confusion.

"What happened to your shoulder?"

"Oh, I burned it on accident. The water was too hot when I got in and I didn't have enough time to put it back on cold before it burned me," I lied effortlessly, not even trying to hide the fact from myself that I hadn't felt it burn me at all, almost like my body was impervious to the heat, until it wasn't.

"Oh, well do you need some aloe to put on it," he asked, coming up closer to inspect the damage more thoroughly, noticing other spots that hadn't escaped the water's wrath.

"Why are they all over you, though?"

"I-"

I was cut off by a clanging noise outside of the room, and Lachlan cursed while pulling away from me, those dark eyes telling me that this conversation was not over yet, and went outside of the room to investigate.

There were curses uttered and a clash that sounded like someone or something being shoved up against the wall.

I hurriedly dressed in some leisure clothes, leggings and one of Lachlan's shirts, before pausing outside the door to hear what was being said before I intervened, knowing that if Lachlan was in danger that he had his gun on him.

I only hoped that he knew how to use it properly without hurting himself in the process.

Muted voices floated through the crack in the door and I caught the tail end of Lachlan fighting with none other than his brother.

"You know, you did a real good job with Kat. She didn't make a move on me when I drove her back to the dorms that night, and in the elevator she wanted nothing to do with me. I'd say you did too good of a job, especially considering she probably has no idea why you started paying her any attention in the first place."

What the hell was he talking about?

"Shut your goddamn mouth for once in your fucking life Brandon or I swear to god I will tear into you right here and there won't be enough left of you to spew that bullshit ever again," Lachlan growled low, but not low enough that I couldn't hear. He sounded frantic and panicked, like he knew that I could come out at any moment and hear what was happening. Like he didn't want me to know...

"What, scared your new little toy won't like the plan we had for her from the beginning? He told you not to get attached, Lachlan, and look what you went and did. He won't be happy with you, you know. He gets very...violent when someone goes against his orders, but you know that too, don't you baby bro?"

I pushed the door open and the two men in the hallway turned to face me, Lachlan's hand loosening on the tight hold he had on his brother's shirt as he pushed him up against the wall in the hallway.

"What the hell is he talking about, Lachlan?"

"Kate, I promise it's not what it sounds like."

A tidal wave of hurt and betrayal sliced through me while my mind struggled to put together the pieces of what was happening in front of me. I could only imagine the 'he' that Brandon was talking about was their father, and that Lachlan was instructed to get close to me, for whatever reason I had no idea, and he'd been told to not get 'attached'.

Suddenly the memories of Lachlan coming to my rescue, initiating conversations with me at the frozen pond, giving me a ride in his SUV in the middle of a snow storm that it seemed like he just couldn't wait to get stuck in with me.

Bile rose to the back of my throat as tears burned in my eyes while I put it all together right in front of them.

"I'd say she figured it out, bro. Guess the jig is up," Brandon snickered and suddenly I didn't want to show my weakness in front of the two of them. I'd let myself grieve what this meant alone, in the sanctuary of peace I held within myself, but I would not let these two have the satisfaction of hurting me.

"Why?"

My word was like steel coated in anger and Lachlan flinched from the ice cold look I'd flung his way.

"Dad thought we could use you to make sure your dad wasn't pulling out of our deal, that he wasn't attempting to merge with another company instead of ours."

Brandon's words slithered over my skin and I welcomed them, the truth settling in through me as I realized that not once had Lachlan ever truly wanted me for me, but for the value I possessed in gaining his father information on my own and his company.

I barked out fake laughter.

"That's funny, considering I haven't spoken to my father since I returned to New York. Not sure how you'd get any information off me considering I want nothing to do with that asshole," I said and Brandon's eyebrow quirked up while Lachlan looked like he'd swallowed a piece of glass.

"We didn't need information from you, just from your phone, which Lachlan was all too happy to steal once you were asleep in his bed."

My mouth opened of its own accord, eyes narrowing on the person in front of me that I'd been falling for, the cut of this betrayal far too deep for me to accept.

"You're fucking disgusting," I spit at him and his eyes grew heated and angry, but I continued.

"Did your daddy even hit you, or was it all a ruse to get my trust? What, we both have daddy issues, mine's trying to kill me and yours hits you. Perfect pair, right?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Kate."

I was pretty sure I did, and the fact that he didn't call me by my nickname anymore stung deeper than anything else he could've said to me. It really all was just a lie.

"You can just go to hell. Both of you," I scoffed at them, wanting to put as much distance as I possibly could between us but Brandon caught my attention once more.

Brandon peeled himself from the wall and acted like he was about to come at me, but Lachlan quickly shoved him back.

"What, she's all bark and no bite. I wanna see what happens when she feels mine," he said huskily and I tensed at his words, terrified to the bone that he was going to hurt me.

"Brandon I swear to god, one more step and I'm laying you out."

"Then do it baby bro, because I'm coming for your girl, whether you want her anymore or not when I'm done with her is up to you," he taunted, just as Lachlan's arm reared back and he sucker punched his brother in the face, blood splashing across Lachlan's face as he did so.

"That all you got? Come on, man, she's one of them! I'm your family, you're not really gonna hurt me for her?"

Brandon was wheezing, his nose half crooked, his split lip seeming to tease his brother to go back for more.

"Watch me," Lachlan said and sent punch after punch sailing towards his brother until finally he grabbed his body and pushed him into the other wall, slamming him against a mirror that hung on the walls, shattering the glass as he did so.

I rushed forward to stop him from killing his brother, though I wasn't quite sure why I even cared anymore, and Lachlan's arm reached out to push my stomach with an extremely hard shove, causing me to stumble back and my bare foot to slice against the glass while I tumbled to the ground as my head knocked into the wall behind me. Hard.

Stars swam in my eyes as he stared down at me with panic rising in his eyes.

"You're no better than your fucking father," I spat at him as I climbed to my feet, wobbling on shaky legs.

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as steam appeared to come spilling out of Lachlan's ears as his brother slumped to the ground, head lolling to the side as he grew unconscious.

"What the fuck did you just say to me?"

He stalked dangerously towards me, and I couldn't believe that this stranger was someone that I'd shared my bed with for so many nights. I truly had no idea who this person standing in front of me was.

"You heard me. You're. A. Monster. Just like your father."

He walked predatorily towards me, his face a mask of barely concealed rage while I was positive mine held nothing but icy contempt.

He got so close to me that all I would have had to do was reach out and my lips would be on his, but kissing Lachlan was the farthest thing from what I wanted to do, not after what I'd just learned, but the fact that my body was reacting like that with him so close to me was problematic, in more ways than one.

"Well maybe that's what I was made to be then. I'm not the hero of this story, I guess I'm the fucking villain and you'd better get used to it. I only showed you any attention because my dad told me to. Doesn't matter why I did it. I didn't "save you" that day in the rain, or when you were out in the cold, or even when you went under the water in the lake. You were just a means to an end, and this ends right here and now," he said, dark eyes blazing with heat and something just under the surface, something brewing and cracking apart, almost like his heart was breaking right in front of me.

Well, mine had broken long ago, and the person I thought was mending it had just taken those stitches and severed them in half, ripping the bleeding organ from my fucking chest and stomping on it with his feet.

I steeled my resolve and pushed as much strength into my words just as I noticed Evan, Lincoln, Taylor, Sloane and Holden all appearing in the hallway. I didn't care, nor did I wonder where Blythe and Vera were at the moment. I needed to get this out, and I didn't care who was around to hear it.

"You don't mean that, I know you don't. Because I know you only got close to me at first because he threatened Blythe, that much is obvious, but you're pushing me away right now, and it's because you're hurt and you think that hurting me will make you feel better but guess what- it will probably just make you feel a whole hell of a lot worse when you're stuck inside your head tonight and can't sleep but don't have anyone to talk to, because I refuse to be treated this way. I should've been told the truth the second I told you about my birth father and what I was going through. I bared my fucking soul to you and what I got in return was a barely scratched surface of your daddy issues and I deserve a whole hell of a lot more than that, Lachlan brooks, not to mention this fake evil bullshit you're trying to pull right now. So spare me your apologies when you come to your senses; I don't fucking want them now, and I won't want them then, either."

His face paled when he realized the gravity of what I understood which was far more than he had let on. He reached for me but I immediately flinched and jerked out of his hold, accepting Evan's help as he came to pull me away from the damage and tend to my fucked up foot that had been cut on the glass.

I gave him one last withering look which made him deflate within himself and allowed the twins to deal with him as Sloane slammed into his shoulder while rushing into our joined room, probably to grab all of my things for me.

I didn't look at anyone else as I hobbled down the hall with blood dripping from my foot, my heart as slashed as the laceration on my foot.