“Know you appreciate the sadistic side, girlfriend. Didn’t want to leave you unbalanced.”

“Jesus,” she breathed. “Some minister.”

“Ministration comes in all forms, love.”

She managed a snort, but she was well and truly limp now. She mumbled something appropriate, no idea what. Eyes closing, she gave herself back to their hands.

Cass came back a few minutes after the cries subsided. The cookies were in the oven, but she knew her sister wouldn’t be eating them until later. Marcie was fast asleep, so deeply her arm had fallen off the side of the lounger, the way it had when she was ten. Tenderly, she knelt by Dana, tucked it into a folded position under Marcie’s chin. Glancing at Savannah, she gestured, then helped the woman move over to a corner of the sun porch, out of hearing distance, in case Marcie drifted back to consciousness.

“Matt’s spoken to Max since we talked. He confirmed what Max told us. He’s never seen Ben like this. He thinks whatever he’s been carrying inside him the past couple years may have ruptured, or at least cracked pretty hard. He told Matt the guys should go look for him, because he doesn’t think he should be alone.”

Savannah nodded, studied her tense face. “You’re her sister, Cass. What do you think?”

“Matt asked me the same question.” Cass sighed, shook her head. “I know she’s loved him since she was sixteen years old. He’s every woman’s fantasy, but I don’t know if he has what it takes to be a woman’s reality. To be what Lucas and Matt are to us. We’ve always known he’s the extreme one, Savannah. The one who carries the most demons. As her sister, it scares me to think of her exposed to that.” She gave a tight smile. “At the moment, I want him dismembered and his body dumped in a swamp.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Cass raised a brow. “There’s something you want to say, but you’re not sure it’s appropriate.”

“Using your negotiator skills on me?”

“Always. I’d miss good stuff if I didn’t.” Cass sobered though, glancing at the sleeping woman, the focus of their concern. “Tell me something that will make this all right, Savannah. Something that gives me hope of a happy ending.”

“I believe Marcie is right. I think she is the one for Ben, the same way each of us has been for our husbands. Only they accepted the truth of that first, pursued us, convinced us of it. With some rather tempting and unorthodox methods.”

Cass managed an amused eye roll. “A huge understatement.”

Savannah nodded. “Ben had a very different history from the other men. He’s never let a woman get close enough to hurt him. He has surrogates, the wives of his friends, safe targets for his affections, but it’s different from having a woman of his own. He’s armored against that level of intimacy, and behind that armor is a lot of darkness. Marcie had a way in no woman has ever had.”

“Through our family connection.”

“Correct.” Savannah shifted on the footstool, adjusting swollen ankles onto the brace beneath Cass’ chair. “We know these men have many traits in common. One of them is possessiveness, though they pretend to be civilized about it.”

Cass snorted. “No disagreement here.”

Savannah acknowledged that with a wry twist of her lips. “We love them, belong to them utterly, consider them ours as well. Ben is just as possessive and protective about what he considers his. However, he doesn’t trust women, because the woman he was supposed to trust unconditionally, from his first breath in this world, abandoned and betrayed him. If his unconscious self recognized Marcie as his soul mate, seeing her with those two men tonight perhaps ripped something open that he’s kept locked down for far too long.”

“She’s always had more bravery than sense,” Cass said. “But he had no right—”

“No, he didn’t,” Savannah said evenly. “He had no right at all to do what he did. But figuring out why he did it, seeing what he will do next, that’s the difference between whether there is a future for them or not.”

Cass considered that. “Matt told Lucas. He’ll be home later tonight. I’ll have her in her pajamas by then, but he’s going to know. Emotions are going to be running high.”

“Matt will send Peter or Jon after Ben. He can face Lucas at the office Monday. In a reasonably public place, Lucas will hold off murdering him.”

“I’m not so sure of that.”

“Janet will cover their asses for many things, but not a capital crime.”

“True.” Cass sighed again. “I want to do something, Savannah.”

“We did something tonight. Something important. She needed us.” Savannah nodded toward Marcie. “Let the men deal with Ben right now. They’ll know how to handle him. Marcie herself has a choice in all this, once she feels a little more herself. We don’t want to step on that.”

“You might feel less equable when you have your own child,” Cass said, but without rancor. Rising, she moved back to Marcie, knelt by her. She couldn’t bear looking at that strained and exhausted face any longer without touching, reassuring herself that her sister was okay. It made her think of Jeremy’s pale, thin face. She’d seen him a couple weeks ago, and knew things were drawing to a close for him. The knowledge of that came forward now, making her feel even more fiercely protective, and more helpless.

“She’s so sure, Savannah. Why is she so sure?”

“The letters,” Marcie mumbled. “His letters.” Her brown eyes opened, met Cass’ blue ones. “I wrote to him in college, and he answered. I could tell…it’s hard to explain. I just knew. The things he told me…to help me, they told me things about him as well.” Pain suffused her expression. “Maybe I am too young, too stupid, too sure. But, Cass…I’m not sure I’ll survive being wrong.”

Tears spilled forth anew. Cass didn’t know what to say to that, but she put her hand over the one Marcie had curled up under her chin. As she slid her arm over the younger woman’s back, Dana and Rachel, who’d been stroking and keeping her comfortable, now drew closer once again. Marcie didn’t seem to notice. She kept that lock on Cass’ gaze, her chin tightening. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. If I am wrong, if he doesn’t love me, if there’s no chance…I’ll go to Milan. I’ll put it back together, Cass. It’s okay. I’ll be all right.”

Did she know her words broke as she spoke them, her hand quivering in Cass’? When Marcie fixated on Ben as a teenager, Cass had been glad. Ben had been the big brother Jeremy failed to be. He’d also done what Cass couldn’t—he’d taught her to relax enough to enjoy life, to have fun, to be young. But what Cass had called a fixation, a crush, had been something very different in Marcie’s mind, evolving into this as she became a woman. If she had to go back, would she have discouraged Ben’s friendship with her sister, seeing her like this now?

The answer to that question depended a great deal on what happened next, as Savannah said. They were a close-knit group for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was how much faith they had in this unique circle of men. She couldn’t let this one night wipe away seven years of Ben being what he’d been to all of them. Just on principle, though, she might nurse a homicidal rage toward him for a day or two.

“You will be okay,” Cass agreed, wiping away the tears. “You’re very strong. You have family who loves you. Me, Lucas, all of us. We’ll be here to take care of you, no matter what comes. I promise.”

Her heart tightened at the thought of her husband, her Master, the man who meant so much to her. Lucas loved Marcie. Being the kind of Master he was, he would know what Ben had done to her with barely a glance. It wasn’t the marks on her body. That was something Marcie craved. What would ignite Lucas was her shattered expression, her loss of faith, the evidence of betrayal. Ben broke down a sub with brutal methods, but only to bring her to a place where he gave her the maximum pleasure, the perfect experience. In this case, Ben had merely broken her, pushed her aside. Given his lethal talent at breaking a submissive, what he’d done was an unforgivable breach.

No way around it. Monday was going to be pretty ugly.

“Remember, we can still strap him down naked and go after him with a Taser. Combine that with a few chocolate truffles, and it’d be the perfect girls’ night.”

That helpful advice came from Rachel. “I think Dana’s having a bad influence on you,” Marcie said.

“Everyone always blames me,” Dana complained. “No one realizes Rachel is really worse. I’m just her beard.”

Marcie hiccupped, a half-chuckle. It also produced a few more tears, breaking Cass’ heart a little.

Seeing it, Savannah glanced at Rachel and Dana. They picked up her cue without a word. The three of them slid their arms around both sisters, giving them an embrace that promised them all the love and support they needed.

Until tonight, the K&A men had never let any of them down, had rescued them from some unbearable situations. Savannah knew Ben would make this good. If he didn’t, he wasn’t the man she believed him to be. While she might call her own judgment into doubt on rare occasion, she knew one thing about Matt Kensington. He never misjudged people. It would all work out. If it didn’t…she’d have a go with that Taser herself.

* * * * *

Ben knew he had no business being around anyone tonight. He wanted to pound on something. Fortunately, hanging around long enough to torture himself with that brief conversation between Marcie and Max had given him a target.

So Pfeiffer hired ham-handed security who liked to punch girls in the face. He’d stayed in the shadows long enough to hear that and be certain that Marcie didn’t break Max, talk him into something stupid. Like Ben hadn’t already won the hands-down prize for the stupidest act of the millennium.