Avery's eyes widened. "Oh no, I didn't mean--" She shook her head and closed her eyes. "I'm making a mess of this, because I don't know where to start. I don't know the truth of your life, only what the head of Rose House told me, and I'm not so simple as to believe those stories unembellished. They watched me, because I'm a Parrino. You're practically a fairytale, Lex. A myth. Cerys doesn't often lose control of her girls."
A question hung in Lex's throat, the one she hadn't thought to ask until just now because it had seemed impossible. Unthinkable. "Are you happy here?"
A broken laugh spilled free of her sister. "I've been working up the courage to ask you the same thing. What does that say about us?"
"I have everything." Lex wondered at how hollow the words must have sounded to someone who considered her way of life horrifying and deviant. "You heard Mad, right? Queen of Sector Four."
"So it's true?" Avery's gaze dipped to Lex's wrists, where her ink flashed beneath the cuffs of her jacket. "You belong to one of the sector gangs?"
"The gang in Four. The only one."
"And the leader, O'Kane. He's...kind to you?"
"Dallas is--" Belatedly, Lex remembered she bore faint bruises on her throat, not only from Noelle and Jasper's party, but from the night before. She fought the urge to lift her fingers to her skin, but she couldn't, not entirely, so she compromised by touching the lacy edge of her collar. "He gives me everything. He--"
It was no use. Nothing she could reveal without scandalizing her sister sounded like more than a man lavishing meaningless, material gifts on his property. Dallas was so many things--maddening, lovable, hers--
And none of that could be conveyed with simple words.
The door whispered open before she could find more complicated ones, and Avery flowed to her feet as a man joined them in the garden. Tall and solid, he looked like a distinguished businessman sliding into middle age with grace. His suit was carefully tailored, his silvering hair neatly trimmed, but his face was lined with stress and worry, and his gait was uneven, like he fought to hide a limp.
Not an unattractive man, not a monster. Avery hurried to his side, pulled by a force stronger than gravity. "Gordon, I didn't expect you back so soon."
"I decided they could do without me for the morning. I didn't realize you'd have company." He was tall enough that Avery fit under his chin, and he tugged her into an absent embrace as he studied Lex over her sister's head.
One look into his eyes and Lex saw his words for a lie--the man knew exactly who she was, knew her relationship to the woman tucked against his chest. The hand he settled on Avery's hip was as proprietary as the way he stroked her hair, running his fingers over the unbound length as if petting a cat.
When Avery leaned into the touch, all but purring, Lex had her answer. Her sister wasn't just happy. She was blissful. The warm, relaxed tone of her voice almost shouted it as she turned her cheek to Gordon's hand. "It's the most wonderful thing. My sister Alexa has come to visit me."
"She has, has she?" Perfectly polite words, but when Avery turned to face Lex, the wary protectiveness returned to Gordon's eyes. "Welcome to my home, Alexa. I assume the man in the receiving room belongs to you?"
The way he said man meant something else altogether: thug. "Not quite, but close. He's my guard." A word this man would understand more than friend.
"I see." He guided Avery back to the bench and urged her to resume her seat with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Do you plan to stay for dinner? I'm sure the cook can make accommodations."
His hand slipped back into the dark, unbound mass of Avery's hair, and Lex stared. So easy to see in that gentle touch clear echoes of the way Dallas touched her. Absently but constantly, movement without conscious choice, his hands resolving to stroke through need and sense memory alone.
And Avery worshiped her patron, pure and simple. Her regard was a shining, tangible thing, comforting and repelling Lex all at once.
Did she stare at Dallas like that, blind with something beyond adoration?
"I have to go." She'd come fully prepared to enlist Mad as an accomplice if she needed to drag her sister away from this damn place...but she hadn't prepared for