Chapter One

      “You think one of us is the Fixer?” Luc asked his mother. “Yeah, right.”

      “It has to be one of you chosen ones,” Elana shouted from the doorway of Harrison’s hospital room and marched out into the hallway, with the family right behind her. Her three-inch red-soled heels popped like gunfire against the winter-white marble floors. Now that she had everyone’s full attention, she pranced in front of her brothers, tossing her hair along with her accusations. “We all know I can’t be trusted to do anything.” She flashed an accusatory look at her mother, which Mariella promptly ignored.

      “Don’t be ridiculous,” Rafe sputtered, ignoring his sister’s typical outburst. “How could it be one of us?”

      “Ridiculous! Is that what you call some behind-the-scenes person manipulating our fucking lives—ridiculous? That’s the best response you can come up with, little brother?” Luc snarked.

      Rafe swung his body toward Luc and got within inches from his face. “Are you the Fixer, Luc? I wouldn’t put it past you.”

      “Fuck you.”

      Mariella stepped between her warring sons. She pressed her hand against Rafe’s chest and then Luc’s. “Stop! You are brothers. Act like it.”

      Not put off by his mother’s intervention, and still ticked off from his fight with Rafe, Luc emitted an incredulous chuckle. “Obviously, Dad’s accident has taken its toll on you, if you think for a moment the Fixer could possibly be me. I barely have enough hours in the day to manage my practice without looking for ways to screw over my own family!”

      “You could have fooled me,” Elana piped in, wanting to keep stirring the pot of discontent. “You’ve always been the one who thinks he knows best about everything and everyone. Maybe you fix lives like you do body parts. You never had a problem telling me what to do and what you think about what I do.”

      “Somebody has to,” Luc threw back.

      Elana’s dark hair showered her bare shoulders as she tossed her head back and laughed. “Typical. You always have to be right.”

      “Enough!”

      All eyes turned toward the command and seemed to notice Joe for the first time.

      “For Christ’s sake,” he hissed. He gestured angrily to the room behind them, glared from one to the next and stepped in between the warring factions. “We’re in a hospital, and I don’t care how private and secret it is—people have ears. Not to mention that your father