Mako turned his palms upward, as if trying to seem like less of a threat. But he knew exactly what it would mean walking into this home. Exactly what he’d put at risk.

The first time the two had met, Mako had made it perfectly clear that he resented the family Hank Wright had in America. He’d flat-out said he’d do what he could to make them hurt if he ever had a chance. The SURFING exposé was probably the culmination of his every fantasy. To meet Sage under false pretenses only confirmed his sliminess.

There was no way Tanner could allow that. “Didn’t I tell you to go home, Mako? Your kind needs to be kept far away at the other end of the globe.”

Avalon’s eyes went wide. On second thought, Tanner realized how that sounded, but she didn’t know the whole story. Didn’t know the history.

“Just saying hello, friend. That’s all.” He showed gleaming white teeth but no real amusement. “I heard there was a party and I tagged along.”

“With you?” Tanner spat the words at Jack. “You brought him?”

Jack lifted a single eyebrow. “You wanna reconsider how you’re talking to me?”

The growl grew in Tanner’s throat, swelling up from his chest. His biceps snapped hard, and his fists curled in on themselves. He lunged forward before he could think about it, but it wasn’t Jack’s body he came up against. It was Avalon and her slim curves.

She set both her hands in the center of his chest and pushed. “Down, man. Chill.”

“They can fuck off.”

“I know, I know.” Her eyes were wide, but calm. So strange—the smile tucking in the corners of her lips seemed real. She wasn’t the least bit afraid of him, even though he felt like ripping Mako limb from limb. “Jack, get your boy out of here.”

“Right.” He grabbed Mako by the upper arm, but for a second the other man didn’t move.

Other man. Tanner could almost spit. Would if it wasn’t his mother’s kitchen floor involved. That was his half brother. Almost as big a shithead as their father.

Eventually, Mako shifted, letting Jack drag him away. They made for the back door, hopefully so Jack could take him straight to the alley and as far away as possible. At this hour, LAX and an airplane was probably too much to hope for.

“Don’t come back,” Tanner yelled over Avalon’s head.

“Not tonight, I won’t.” Mako waggled his fingers in a mocking wave. “But the company was so fine, who knows about next time?”

Tanner surged up on the balls of his feet again, but before he could get around Avalon they were gone.

A strange silence washed over the room. The only noise was the still-roaring beat of his blood in his ears, plus a harsh panting that he eventually realized was his own breathing. He unlocked his fists finger by finger.

Avalon’s hands still rested on his chest. Her mouth had opened on a silent gasp. “When did you become an asshole, Tanner?”

He shook his head in protest. “You don’t know. There’s things that . . .”

He wasn’t the bad guy in this situation. He’d even tried to be Mako’s friend when he’d first found out, thinking maybe a mutual disgust for Hank would draw them together. Or failing that, the bonds of brothers. But the guy had made his position perfectly clear.

A shark could have eaten Tanner for all Mako cared. Fuck, he’d have probably chopped Tanner up into chum and spooned him into the ocean if given half a chance.

Sage clasped her hands before her stomach. “Tanner, it’s not right to maintain that level of aggression carried over from competition. It’ll eat you alive.”

“For the last fucking time, there’s shit neither of you know. He’s not just a competitor.” The words exploded from him like shrapnel, hurt coming up his throat much as if it really had been tiny shreds of metal.

He straight-armed through the back door, into his mother’s patio garden. But the tiny walled-in place didn’t give him the relaxation it usually did.

The wrapped-up power jittering down his arms had to go somewhere. Punching the wall hadn’t been in his repertoire since he’d been a seventeen-year-old kid pissed because his dad wouldn’t let him take off for the Worlds until he was another year older and done with school. He still had the scar on his third knuckle to prove that one.

But he was considering it tonight.

The back door opened, spilling a triangle of golden light and noise across the patio blocks. “I don’t need to be soothed, Sage.”

But the voice that answered was decidedly huskier than his sister’s. “I was more worried you intended to follow them and kill that guy. I’m not so great at soothing.”

He pressed his hands over his temples and squeezed. Tight. With the ebb of his killing impulse, his head was starting to hurt. “Yeah? And how’d you stop me?”

She ranged around the dark edges of the tiny patio. Out of reach. That was probably better. If he was on the verge of hitting walls, he certainly shouldn’t have someone as delicate as Avalon in his hands. At least she didn’t have a camera in hand. He didn’t think he could have handled it.

She slid her hands in her back pockets, then shrugged. “Probably call the cops if necessary.”

“Look, I’m sorry you saw that.”

The look she slid over her shoulder was altogether knowing. A siren to call him to the rocks. “But I did. And Sage did. Your mother could have walked in at any moment. A whole party of friends and family waited one room away. People you work with. I didn’t think you were that much of a hothead, Tanner.”

“There are things you don’t know.” His fists strained until he thought his knuckles would pop.

“So you keep saying.” She leaned her shoulders against the wall. In the dark, he couldn’t see any more of her eyes beyond a soft gleam. Her mouth was a gray shadow. “But you’re not explaining.”

“I can’t.” But that was his automatic response.

The one he’d honed over years and years of protecting his father—and, more specifically, his mother. Keeping her feelings safe, even if she never knew it.

The time for keeping quiet was long over. Tanner had a deadline now.

Mako had made it perfectly clear that he was in town. He had no problems stepping foot in what Tanner considered his territory. He couldn’t keep his mother safe if Mako wasn’t content to stay in Tahiti and Australia anymore.

Tanner dropped into a deck chair, his knees spread wide. “Fuck,” he muttered.

Avalon eased off the wall. She’d seemed laid-back during the whole confrontation, and when he’d been popping and ready to go, but now that his anger eased, she bounced up subtly. As if shedding a skin, like the relaxed part hadn’t really been her. Really she was eager and curious in a way that burned outward.

“Spit it out, Tanner.” She eased a hip onto the glass table. Her feet landed between his outstretched legs, but she wasn’t quite touching him. “You’ll feel better if you do.”

“I doubt that.”

The weight of the secret might disappear, sure. He wouldn’t have everyone staring at him, wondering why he’d been such a shitty son for all those years. But it would only be a trade.

He’d break his mother’s heart. But Mako intended to do it anyway. . . .

It would be better coming from him. Not less painful, no. There was no way he could spin anything that hard. Hell, if there was, he’d have told her a long time ago. But it might be less of a betrayal.

He scrubbed his palms over his eye sockets, then pushed hard. Anything to hold back the pressure in his skull. “I don’t want to do this.”

“Then don’t.”

“Easier said than done.”

“You could always run it by me first. If you wanted to.” Her cheeks looked leaner when she wasn’t smiling, less rounded. But her mouth still seemed lush.

He’d much rather return to the portion of the night where he’d been kissing her. Holding her. Thinking so easily about fucking her.

He couldn’t help but touch her. Two fingers trailed along her thigh beneath the skirt. Every time he touched her skin, it seemed softer. But that had to be all in his head.

This was neither the time nor the place. He pulled his hand back, laced both together over his stomach. His muscles had latched hard, as if he were bracing to be swallowed up by a huge barrel wave. Blowing out his tension with a breath that lasted only a second.

The time had come. Mako wasn’t going away, which meant he’d have to tell. Sit his mom down and tell the nasty secret he’d held and watch her heart break.

This was going to be a fucking blast.

He shoved up out of his seat with abrupt and barely leashed fury. The move brought him even closer to Avalon. But she didn’t flinch. Only looked up at him with those big mossy-colored eyes, her forehead wrinkled in expectation.

“You about to hulk out or something? Because I think those guys are long gone.”

He shook his head. There was no way he’d ever admit the way his stomach churned. “I have to have a talk with my mom.”

Her eyebrows lifted even farther and her lips parted. “The talk? Like, the where the hell you’ve been talk?”

The laughter caught him out of nowhere, zipping through him. Avalon was good for him, it seemed. “Yes, that one.”

“It’s about damn time.”

“I know.”

“This is a good thing. No family can survive with secrets.”

The irony of that one chewed away at his nerves. “Trust me on this. She’s not going to like it. Not in the least.”

But as he turned to walk away, her hand flew out and caught him by the wrist. Against his arm, her fingers looked reed slender. Graceful. “Wait. If you’re sure it’s going to be that bad, wait an hour. Give her this night. She’s wanted this party for the longest time.”