Drake eased his hold.
Silence fell over their little group, and Claire marched toward the suite’s door. She was scared and this could be a huge mistake, but…
Austin tried to help me. When he’d gone to visit her in the hospital so long ago, he’d given her money. Told her to get out of town. To start fresh.
Noah didn’t know what Austin had done. She was the only one how knew.
They filed into the suite. Noah stayed close to Claire, and Drake kept a careful watch on Austin.
“Five minutes.” Noah’s golden eyes blazed at Austin. “Then you’re done. If I ever see you around again—”
“I knew Ethan had a problem, long before he met you.” Austin was staring at Claire. “He hurt a few others girls. Roughed them up. One girl even wound up in the hospital with a broken jaw. She’d made the mistake of trying to break up with him.”
“Sounds like the jerk didn’t take rejection so well,” Drake muttered, disgust obvious in his voice.
No, he hadn’t.
“I asked my dad to get him help, but Harrisons…we don’t need help.” Austin swallowed. The click of his Adam’s apple seemed loud in that tense moment of silence. “At least, that’s the line my father always used. He’d tell us that no Harrison needed help, and then, when we did mess up, he’d beat the shit out of us.”
Claire stepped back. Noah immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“No one knew about that, right? I mean, a senator, beating on his kids. And it’s not like he did it that often.” Austin’s stare turned distant. “Only when we screwed up.” His voice dropped. “I learned not to screw up. So I didn’t…” He cleared his throat. “I thought things were better as we got older, but it turns out that things were just better for me. My father kept hurting Ethan, and Ethan—”
“Kept hurting anyone who got in his way,” Noah said flatly.
His face miserable, Austin nodded.
“The fact that your father abused him doesn’t forgive the fact that your brother killed,” Noah shot back. “Plenty of other people have hell for an upbringing and—”
“And we don’t hurt those who are weaker than us.” Drake’s face was tight. His words echoed with bitter fury.
We don’t hurt those…
She looked at Drake with new eyes, but he wasn’t staring at her. His attention was centered completely on Austin.
“I’m not saying this to try and-and excuse what he did. I just thought…” Austin’s hands fisted. “It’s my fault!”
She flinched.
“I didn’t help my little brother. I didn’t stop my father. I didn’t—” Austin’s glittering stare found Claire’s. “I didn’t stop Ethan from seeing you. Hell, I’m the reason he even asked you out. He was in competition with me. My father did that, put us against each other—made us enemies when we should have just been brothers.” His breath expelled in a hard rush. “Ethan took you because he thought he was taking something from me.” He stepped toward her. “I am so sorry, Claire. So sorry.”
Claire stared at him, lost. The powerful Harrison clan was gone. Austin stood before her, and he was crumbling right before her eyes.
“You didn’t do this to me,” she whispered.
His gaze held hers.
“You didn’t shoot my parents. You didn’t,” she had to take a steadying breath as the memories surged through her, “you didn’t find me on that dock and put a gun to my head. None of that was you. It was Ethan. Despite whatever else happened, he was the one. He chose to do it all.”
They all had the right to choose in this life.
Austin’s eyes lowered. “I’ve been checking through my father’s records. I know he caused you to lose your jobs. He had that detective, Sloan, following you, and when you came to New York, he even got the guy to trash your hotel room here.”
“Why?” Noah demanded, and fury vibrated in that word.
Austin’s shoulders rolled in a helpless shrug. “Even at the end, my father still wanted to find some evidence to prove that Claire manipulated my brother. He was in denial, and he wasn’t going to let that go. Not ever.” He shook his head. “I think he wanted Sloan to find some kind of proof that would show Claire was guilty. Maybe he thought there would be something he could use against her in that hotel room.”
“There was nothing,” Claire said simply. “Because I didn’t do it.”
Austin held her stare. “I know.”
Noah stepped in front of her then. “Your five minutes are up.” He grabbed Austin’s arm. “Time to kick your ass out.”
Austin didn’t fight Noah’s grip. “No more investigators, Claire!” He called out as both Noah and Drake shoved him toward the door. “No more lost jobs! No more trouble from my family ever again, I swear!”
She took a tentative step forward.
“I know you never wanted money from me,” Austin said, and he was right at the door now. “You didn’t take it before, but if you need it—if you need anything—I want to help. I want to make this right. I have to make it right!”
There were some things that couldn’t be made right.
“I’ll take him downstairs,” Drake said as he once again curled his fingers over the back of Austin’s neck. “And I’ll make sure he doesn’t get up here again.”
Noah leaned in toward Austin. “This was it. You had your say. Now stay away, understand?”
Austin nodded.
Then he was gone. Drake hauled Austin away and Noah slammed the door behind them.
He didn’t speak. Neither did Claire.
The sound of her breathing seemed overly loud in that room. Her whole body was tense, and she pretty much wanted to sink into a puddle on the floor and just tell the world to go away.
But there were about two hundred people waiting down in the ballroom. This was supposed to be an engagement party. If they vanished for the rest of the night, what would people say?
So she squared her shoulders. She lifted her chin. Adjusted her bracelets. And she walked toward the door.
Noah didn’t move.
She slid around him. Reached for the doorknob.
In a flash, he was behind her. His body curved over hers and his fingers wrapped around her hand.
His touch seemed to electrify her. Claire closed her eyes. She couldn’t handle the intensity between them, not at that moment. “We…we have to get back.”