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“And ould we do that?” Vince said with quiet calm that she didn’t trust one second and probablyon pure chutzpah and the dogged belief that if she could get these people talking, things ht start to make sense in her world Maybe she was delusional and all this sharing was going to blow up in her face but she had to try “Nowhere in our agreement did it state that you wouldyour bounds, sweet pet”

“Perhaps But I don’t care Besides, you and I both know that there’s no e can sis were Not now”

“Perhaps if you’d kept your legs shut around Dillon ouldn’t be in this position,” Vince growled and she gasped in hurt surprise at his vulgar state look, which Vince dislower “This is total bullshit If I wanted to be peppered with nagging questions, I’d have taken a wife by now If you want to be interrogated, by all means, stay, but I’m out of here”

“Vince…” Nolan said, stopping him with a firm hand as he attempted to brush by Penny willed the sudden moisture away as her bravado quailed under the fiery heat of Vince’s dark ht We need to tell her”

Vince stared, unable to believe his brother’s state about the past when there’s nothing that can be done about changing it,” he said in a low tone “Why can’t we just leave her in peace?”

A current of understanding and empathy passed between brothers and Penny was floored by how connected the tere, even as adults The twin-thing was in full force for even though Vince looked as if he’d rather chew off his own foot than remain and talk about Isabel, he backed away and went to the bar to pour hi to need plenty of this tostory hour”

“PourSit I’ured out, this story doesn’t have a happy ending and I fear, we are not the heroes” He grimaced as he admitted, “In fact, ere bastards in this tale and I’m afraid of what your reaction may be when you hear the entire story”

Penny sed but ed to nod She came for answers “My Papa always said, don’t ask questions that you don’t want answers for Whatever you tell me, I’m ready to hear”

“We’ll see about that” Vince downed a shot of whiskey and shook his head as if he didn’t believe her “Sweet girl, you have no idea how sordid our past has been We’ve done things…well, let’s just say, there’s probably a special place reserved in hell for the Buchanan boys, and that includes Dillon Are you sure you want to know all our dirty secrets? You still have a chance to close Pandora’s box”

“I can’t go back to how things were — coed I’irl and why Dillon hates you”

Nolan accepted a glass of whiskey froh “Isabel Walker was like an angel” A brief s the true devils ere, we had to have her But Dillon got to her first As you already know, he has a omen But Dillon broke the rules, he fell in love with her and declared Isabel off-limits Of course, that only spurred us to want herany and all things at your i We saw it as a challenge and si We had no idea that Dillon had stopped playing the game We didn’t believe him when he said he’d fallen in love with her”

Penny’s gaze flicked to Vince to gauge his reaction to Nolan’s telling of the story and when he refused to look her way, she sensed that either he was asha else he didn’t want to share or acknowledge “So it all started off as a ga not to cry at the callousness When Nolan nodded in a subtle motion she looked away “That’s despicable You played her for fun”

“I told you eren’t the heroes in this story,” Nolan said “Would you like me to stop?”

As horrified as she was, she knew she had to follow through to the bitter end “No, please continue,” she whispered “But right about now that whiskey is looking pretty good” Vince filled a shot with the ari She ave her a ut before continuing Penny choked a little as the fine liquor seared her throat and stole her breath but she needed the liquid courage to continue listening

“Isabel was one of those rare ge and wanted to believe the best in everyone She was the exact opposite of everything ere accustomed to in our world You have to understand e but it also comes with pitfalls People are never what they seee we’ve never experienced Everyone alants so fro to never accept anything at face value And ere all guilty of being the worst that ed, over-educated, and coood coh of our shenanigans, particularly that of Dillon's he put his foot dohich was so eren't accustomed to either Honestly, our father never paid much attention to us He was always too busy with his own life to deal with three raauntlet with Dillon But when it happened, Dillon bucked against our father's will and a war ensued Unfortunately, Isabel was in the middle"

"Did your father like Isabel?" Penny asked

"No Aside from the fact that she was dirt poor and had no connections our father’s opinion of Isabel was that she was good for one thing and when she wouldn't give it up to him he didn't want her around anymore"

"Your father propositioned Isabel?"

Vince offered a dark chuckle "Our father liked to sairlfriends Be thankful he's dead"

Penney shuddered "How disgusting"

Vince laughed "Yes, well you can’t expect sinners like us to be raised by a paragon of virtue Our father wasn't exactly a good man"

"I'ht of her own Papa and hoonderful he been as a father and she wondered how the three boys would've been different if they'd been raised with someone as kind, compassionate and moral “What did Dillon do when he found out about your father propositioning his girlfriend?"

"He went into a rage I've never seen hiry I think it was the moment he realized that Isabel meant more to him then just a piece of meat I think Dillon would've married her" Nolan shifted, as if the ed Dillon and for a time he was a better man I don’t know,after that he made his demands The irony is that Isabel defended our father because she didn't see the harm in his request for Dillon to work for him On the surface it appeared that our father just wanted Dillon to stop screwing around and become responsible But we all kneent deeper than that Hell, none of us wanted to work for our father But Dillon was the only one who had the balls to stand up to hiest price When Dillon refused — his actual words to our father were to go fuck himself — Dillon was cast out of the family"

"The old man was in rare form," Vince recalled "God, that man was a prick"

"How could a father do that to his son?" Penny asked "I can't iine how hurtful that must've been for Dillon"

"Yeah, it’d done a number on him But he was too proud to admit that he was scared and he was too pissed off to take it back Isabel tried to talk some sense into him but he wouldn't listen" Nolan paused for a refill "And ere too selfish and self-absorbed to realize e had in "