Sean: A Stepbrother Romance (Coded for Love 3)

Come on, come on, he silently urged his invisible lifelines.

He felt the pit growing deeper and darker, felt Rowan slipping away, knowing he’d never live with himself if he let Delahane win this. Knowing he’d never be free if he died. And if he refused to press the button, he had to go down fighting. Bottom line, he wasn’t going to do it. Come what may.

So he folded his arms over his chest. “What if I change my mind?”

The guy in the cap reacted instantly, drew out a gun, strode to Sean’s side, and leveled the gun at Sean’s temple. “Make the transfers or I blow your brains out.”

Sean took a deep breath.

The tip of the gun felt cool and hard against his skin, and he could hear t

he guy’s breath rasping, but he was straining his ears for something else.

But there was no sound of sirens, no cavalry.

It didn’t matter. They couldn’t make him do it.

And if I’m dead, he decided, there would be no point in threatening my family. Can’t do a job if I’m gone.

Sean fixed Rowan’s image in his mind.

He was ready to die to protect them.

But he wasn’t going down without a fight.

Chapter Twenty-three

Rowan looked at Draco’s face, horror struck.

She was already stressed out of her skull. Seeing her own brother so upset made her flip. “He’s messing with something dangerous, isn’t he?”

“At last, it dawns on her.” Draco looked skyward. “Of course he bloody is. He’s doing it to protect you and Pixie, and here you are parading around in front of a bunch of criminals.” He waved his arm toward the warehouse. “What do you think Sean would say?”

“I didn’t know.” It as a feeble response, but she had nothing.

“We were worried about you,” Sky interjected.

“It’s because we care, Draco,” Lara added.

Draco glared at her. “It’s because we care that we told you to stay out of it.” He glanced at all three of them, but he kept looking back at Lara.

She squared up to him, folded her arms across her chest and looked at him sternly. “We all have to follow our hearts. You know your sisters aren’t stay-at-home girls, and you know me well enough. I was never going to play the wallflower.”

“My mistake. I won’t let you wheedle information out of me again, no matter how good you are at it.” He glanced back at Rowan and Sky as if he didn’t want them to hear that.

Too late, Rowan thought, Lara was definitely her type of woman.

The distant sound of sirens caught Rowan’s attention. It wasn’t unusual in the city but there was more than one siren going off this time, which indicated a big incident, and by the sound of it they were headed this way.

Draco turned his head too. Why? Rowan’s mind ticked over frantically.

Several police cars and unmarked vehicles shot by in convoy.

Draco gestured for them to get around the street corner and then ran back out into the passing pedestrians. A moment later he was back. He was on his phone, scrolling through messages. “Okay, good.” He looked up, waving them back again. “Okay, we’re on. Please stay out of this now.”

“But if the police are involved…” Rowan swallowed hard. “Does that mean Sean will be arrested for hacking again?”

“Yes. But—