When Tynan finally appears in my living room, I’m not ready.
I should be. I’ve been waiting for him to come for almost a week now. Or maybe even longer—since I first found out he was actually alive and not dead like I thought for five long years.
Before he died, it sometimes felt like I’d waited my entire life for him. For someone who understood me, every aspect—even the contradictory ones—effortlessly. And then he came, and I started to inch toward the idea that perhaps we could move beyond being friends, that we could have a real, true love…
And then he died.
Except he didn’t. He faked being dead, and now he’s here. In my living room.
He looks the same, but older. His hair is a shade between wheat and red that’s too deep to be called strawberry blond. When the sun catches it, it used to glow like flames. There’s a scar running across his cheek, close to his nose, that wasn’t there before. But his eyes remain a blue so light I have to call them gray. Except in certain lights when they’re definitely blue.
His expression is closed off. Opaque. If he’s happy to see me, there’s no sign.
I wouldn’t say I’m happy to see him. Every inch of me seems to be shaking, but when I look down at my hands, they’re still. Steady. How remarkable.
I’m seeing an actual ghost, but I’m not shaking with terror. I’m not ready to face him though. Not yet. I need to… I don’t even know what. Get over him? I don’t know if that’s even possible. Certainly I hate him for what he’s done. But if I can hate him this hard but still have my heart stop when I see him, there’s no hope for putting him behind me.
Maybe I’ll never be ready to see him. But here he is.
“Morgan.” His voice is deeper, richer.
That’s all he says. Just my name. As if that’s enough to cover everything between us. As if it’s enough to have me falling into his arms.
I cock one hip, put on my most bored expression. But with the way my pulse is jumping, I’m 180 degrees away from bored. “Tynan. You came back.”
His sister’s pleas must have worked. I’ve met her, now that she’s living with Gage. She has Tynan’s quiet presence but without his magnetism. I didn’t think her mission was successful—I mostly gave up hope he’d reappear.
But here he is. My pulse keeps spiking and spiking until I’m worried I might pass out. But I hold on to my bored expression.
He says nothing, simply watches me with those eyes. I used to feel they could see right through me. Now though, I’m only annoyed, exposed. He came all this way and he won’t talk?
“Am I the first person you came to?”
“Of course.” He gestures to the sofa. “May I?”
Of course. Like him coming back was all for me. Never mind that he disappeared five years ago, let us all think he was dead. Never mind that when he did decide to let everyone know he was alive, it was to play some sick game with the guys. I’ve got my own problems with the five of them, but they didn’t deserve that.
“Sure. But forgive me if I don’t offer you any refreshments.”
His head snaps up as he sits down. “You’re angry.” Like that’s a revelation.
I cock my head. “That surprises you?”
After everything he’s done, he has the fucking gall to be surprised that I’m angry. He should be thankful I’m not throwing lamps at his head.
“I suppose it shouldn’t.” His voice is as rich as ever, but I suddenly realize something is missing from it. Some human dimension it had before that’s gone now. It’s not quite robotic, but definitely lacking. “I came to you because you need to move quickly to secure your inheritance.”
“I already got my inheritance. And we both know that’s why you’re really here—to get your cut.”
His faint smile is entirely humorless. “Do you really think I need my cut, as you put it?”
“You’ve been gone for five years. I have no idea what your situation is.” But when he came for the guys, he managed to do a lot. Things that only people with wealth and resources can do.
“I didn’t come for money,” he says. “You should sit down too.”
It’s my house, so him telling me to sit down makes my blood pressure spike. “Why, will this take a while?” I immediately regret my tone even though I’m still pissed.
One eyebrow snakes up. “It’s been five years. So yeah, it will take a while.”
“And whose fault is that?”
He gestures to the chair across from the sofa, his mouth firmly shut. The implication is clear: no more talking until I sit down. His sister did that too when Gage caught her. Kept her mouth shut until the very last moment.
I sit down, my limbs stiff, my back not touching the chair. I can’t be even a smidge easy with him, not after everything that’s happened.
“It’s my fault,” he says softly once I’m sitting. “But I thought they were trying to kill me. I’m still not convinced that it was Oscar.”
My heart sinks. So he didn’t come back to help put Oscar away. He’s here for something else entirely. But if not for that or for the money, then what?
“You were there when it happened,” I say dully. “They’re expecting you to have more evidence. To be the final piece they need.”
The thought of Oscar being free, smiling at me at intimate gatherings, pretending like everything is okay… My stomach twists. I could play along for a while, but I was counting on Tynan to stop him, to make all this end. To get justice for my dad.
But it looks like he’s not going to do that. He’s not going to make this all better.
“I’m sure they do,” he says. “And I’ll tell them what I know. But I didn’t come back for that.”
I cross my arms, trying to hold in some warmth while not looking like a frightened child. I wasn’t ready for any of this. And now, after all this time, I just want him gone.
Except some damaged part of me, the part that never healed after his death, doesn’t.
“You came back for your sister,” I say. “That has to be it. Well, she’s with Gage, not—”
“Not her.” His voice is steely. “Camber made her choices. And she didn’t choose me.”
I shiver against my will, feeling the chill in my bones. He’s not even angry, just… so cold. Betrayed. “She risked her life for you. Or rather, those notebooks.”
“How is she?” he asks quietly.
“She’s fine.” I search for a better answer, which is tough because none of us see Camber that much. Gage seems much happier every time I see him, so things must be going well, but Camber is the ultimate homebody. “Safe. Gage keeps her close.”
Tynan drums his fingers on his knees, the first sign from him that he isn’t an android. “Good.”
“So you do care about her.”
His head snaps up. “Of course. She’s my sister.”
“She told Gage you hadn’t spoken to her since you left home. Years and years of no contact. She didn’t even know you were supposed to be dead.”
When I heard that, I realized that the Tynan I thought I knew, the memory I kept alive in my mind, wasn’t true at all. That I spent all these years holding on to something that never was.
“We grew up in a unique household.” Tynan actually looks uncomfortable.
“So I’ve heard.”
“What did Camber tell you?”
“Nothing. Which is also exactly how much you told me about your childhood.” I’ve only heard bits and pieces thirdhand, told to me by the guys who happened to hear it from Gage, who heard it from Camber herself.
What I did hear was shocking. Living entirely alone, cut off from the outside world, left to run wild on the family property. The only people they ever interacted with were their own family members.
“I’m not here to rehash the past,” he says curtly. “At least not that part.”
“So you don’t owe me any explanations, is that it?” I shouldn’t have expected that he would, but still, I’m pissed. After all this time, something would be nice.
But I suppose I have to keep in mind this isn’t the Tynan I remember. This man is a total stranger even if my body and emotions are reacting like he’s the old Tynan.
“I didn’t come back for the notebooks. I didn’t come back for my cut.” His mouth twists as he lists them off. “I didn’t come back for my sister. I didn’t come back to implicate Oscar. And I didn’t come back for explanations.”
That’s a very long list of negatives. A whole pile of things he doesn’t care about. I wet my lips, my heartbeat getting thready. There’s not much left for him to have come back for.
Not much except my dad’s last project. The one he explicitly said he wanted to go to me and my sister and us only. The one that Tynan has a pretty good claim to himself, based on the work he did on it.
“Then what did you come back for?” I brace myself, ready to not give anything away when he answers.
But like I wasn’t ready for him to appear in my living room, I’m not ready for his answer, which knocks me down to the soles of my feet.
He spreads his hands as if it’s so obvious. “I came back for you.”