“Where is she?” 

I thought I was dreaming when I heard Angel’s angry question.

I rubbed my eyes as I sat up in the bed. Kaiden had lent me a shirt to sleep in.

“She’ll talk to you when she’s ready to,” my brother said, his voice tight.

“I want to talk to her now. Where is she?” Angel persisted.

I dragged myself out of the bed. I was in no way ready for this confrontation. It was late and I had spent the last hour tossing and turning, thinking of every interaction with Angel with the knowledge of why he had done the things he had. It had been hard, my heart was still raw.

It didn’t matter how Angel had found me, what mattered was confronting him before things escalated between him and Kaiden.

I opened the door and made my way closer to the living room where the voice had originated.

“Kira.” Angel grabbed me by the arms when he saw me.

I couldn’t look him in the eye. It hurt too much to face him. 

“Let her go Angel,” Kaiden said, tension filled his voice.

“She’s my wife.” The possessiveness in Angel’s voice only added to his betrayal.

I pulled away from him. “Don’t touch me,” I said. This time I raised my gaze to meet his.

“What’s going on Kira?” He frowned.

James stood guard by the front door watching us.

“Why Angel?” I finally asked the question I had been wanting to ask since I had discovered his ulterior motive. “Why did you do this to me?”

He frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I tried to keep my composure. 

“You don’t need to do this.” Kaiden said, moving to stand beside me. “You don’t owe him any explanation.”

“The only reason you’re still living and breathing at this point is because you are my wife’s brother. Remember that.” The threat from Angel was real and not to be taken lightly. 

“I need to speak to Angel alone.” I could see the resistance in Kaiden. I touched his arm. “He won’t hurt me Kaiden.”

Physically at least. 

“I don’t like this one bit,” Kaiden bit out.

“James can wait outside with you.” Angel looked over his shoulder at his second in charge. James opened the front door and waited for Kaiden to cross the living room to exit before he followed behind him, closing the door.

We were alone.

“I want to know why you left in the middle of the night without even so much as a note.” Angel’s anger was always intimidating. The only difference this time was the pain from my broken heart was all consuming, leaving no room for fear.

“How did you find me?”

“I had James plant a tracker in your bag.”

I should have know he would do something like that, it didn’t surprise me.

I crossed my arms.

“Answer my question Kira. Why did you leave?” His jaw was tense. I hated how he still made me feel so much. “I’ve been worrying about your safety and you leave me without even an explanation. After I’ve everything I’ve done for you.”

He played the part of the concerned husband so well it almost made me question what I had learned and his intentions. But then I remembered how he had gone through my mother’s journals and hadn’t mentioned a word of it. If he wasn’t using the information for revenge, surely he would have told me.

“Why did you go through my mother’s journals?” I asked.

“I was doing everything I could to find your father. When I kept coming up empty I decided to trawl through your mother’s journals to see if there was any mention of a place I might be able to find him.”

I knew this already but I was testing him to see how much he would continue to lie to me. There was a part of me that still wanted him to explain all this away as part of my overactive imagination.

“And what did you find?”

His eyes held mine. “I discovered the identity of your biological father.”

The emotion I had managed to suppress up to this began to creep to the surface again.

“Why did you keep it from me?” My voice wavered slightly. I held my arms tighter trying to hold onto whatever little control I still had.

I feared if I got too emotional than I would lose control of the situation.

“It was a big secret and you’ve been through so much already. I intended to tell you when things calmed down.” He studied me. He almost had me convinced he was telling the truth. “I knew it would be another difficult thing for you to deal with especially after everything that has happened.”

“Why did you marry me Angel? And this time I want the truth.” I held his gaze unwavering, determined to get him to tell me the truth, no matter how much it hurt.

He frowned. “I married you to keep you safe from the Vincents.”

I shook my head, disappointed he was still sticking to his story. “I don’t believe you…”

“If you don’t believe me, why don’t you tell me why you think I married you? You clearly think I did it for another reason so why don’t you enlighten me.”

“Why were you so hesitant to tell me about your brother?” I changed the subject. I was in charge of this conversation, not him.

“I loved Julian and when he died it hit me hard. That’s why it’s still so difficult to talk about it. It feels like it happened just yesterday, and the pain is just as intense. Talking about it in any way is still difficult, even after all these years.”

Was that the truth? His words and tone reached the part of me that wanted to believe he hadn’t done any of what I suspected.

“So you wouldn’t take the first chance you could to get back at the Vincents for what they did to your brother?” I asked the difficult question that I hoped would shine a light on all the truths I was looking for.

“What are you talking about Kira?” He sounded more exasperated now than angry.

He was really put on a good show if he was lying. I almost believed he had no idea what I was getting at.

“Why would you marry me Angel? Why go to such lengths for a stupid girl who you have always just tolerated?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line.

“Why would marrying you get back at the Vincents? What would I hope to gain by any of it?” His voice was fierce.

“I’m not just any Vincent, am I?” I dropped my hands do my sides.

“I know who you are Kira.”

I bit my lip.

“You are more than your lineage Kira. I’m well aware of who your father is and what your birthright is. But to me you will always be the little girl, with the biggest heart who made me give a shit.”

His words hit me right in the heart, inflating it with so much emotion it hurt to breathe.

“If you were right and I was out for some revenge wouldn’t it be a life for a life? If this was revenge you would be dead already.”

He was saying all the right things but I still couldn’t allow myself to believe him. He had kept too many things for me, my trust in him had been shaken. Honestly, I wasn’t sure it would ever recover.

“None of your actions make any sense Angel. You treat me like I’m an annoyance and then you say the most beautiful things.” I swallowed. I didn’t want to think of all the things he had said that had made me believe he cared in some way. “I never know where I stand with you. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to believe this is about revenge.”

He was watchful. There was a few moments of silence.

“You know that in our world loving someone is a weakness exploited by our enemies.” He sighed. “You are my weakness.”

My mind was still trying to understand what he was saying but I was too scared I was hearing what I wanted to and not what he meant.

“You always followed me around and no matter what I said or did you never backed off.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Then when your mom died, I stared into your big sad eyes and I felt your pain. That’s when I knew I would do anything to protect you, even if at times I had to protect you from myself.”

“You wouldn’t hurt me?” I was still dazed by what he had said.

“When you tried to seduce me when you were sixteen I did what was right for you when all I wanted to do was lose myself in you. But instead I stood on the sidelines doing my best to do the right thing even when it killed me.”

This felt unreal.

“How am I supposed to believe any of this Angel?” I wanted to take his words as truth and wash away my fears.

“You’ve lied and kept secrets. How am I supposed to believe you did it all for me?” It was impossible.

I was still trying to come to some sort of decision on whether I could believe Angel or not. There was a sudden piercing sound, it came from outside. I frowned.

Angel looked over his shoulder just as Kaiden and James entered the cabin with the driver I recognized as the one who drove Angel around.

“Shooters,” James said, as he slammed the door shut.

James shoved a table in front on the door, then he took a gun from his waist and threw it at Angel who caught it. Kaiden raced down the passage and into his room.

I was fixed to the spot unable to comprehend what was happing.

“How many?” Angel asked, his exterior calm

How could he be so calm when my rising panic was making it difficult to breathe?

“Too many,” James replied and my blood froze. “We have guys an hour out.”

They shared a look that spoke volumes. What did that mean for us?

Angel’s hand wrapped around my arm and he yanked me behind the kitchen counter in the open plan living area. “You stay here. You do not move.”

I nodded.

“You don’t move from this spot. Do you understand?” His eyes leveled with mine and I nodded again.

I wasn’t as brave as they were to face the danger head-on. Even after all my training with James, I was still too scared to be of any help.

Fear fixed me to the spot where I huddled out of sight as Angel left me. I managed to peer around the side of the counter to see James by one window and Angel by the other. The driver was huddled behind the sofa.

Kaiden returned with guns and something that looked like a bullet proof vest.

Another shot pierced the air and the window shattered as Kaiden bent down to fasten the vest to me. He was rough and quick.

I was in shock and trying to figure out what was going on. Memories of Bruno came rushing back at that same panic that had held me then held me now.

When Kaiden made a move to stand I stopped him with a hand to his arm. “I need you all to get out of this safely. All of you.” I emphasized, not able to fathom if something happened to them. He nodded, like he had the power to grant my request.

There were more shots and I closed my eyes unable to face the fear that something would happen to the people I loved. I even held affection for James, who was firing off shots as fast as they were coming in.

Bullets hit above me, leaving holes in the wooden cabinets.

“One shooter at two o’clock,” James called out.

“I got him,” Kaiden replied, tersely.

“Another one at eleven o’clock.” It was James calling out all the positions.

It was still dark outside, making it much more difficult to spot the enemy.

There was so much shooting I couldn’t tell which were ours and which were theirs. I pressed my hands over ears trying to fight the panic that clawed me from inside.

We were unprepared. We had been caught off guard and it had been all my fault. If I hadn’t left we wouldn’t be out in the woods somewhere trying to fight a battle we had already lost. There was no way this would have happened if we had been back at the house.

Slowly, unable to hide any longer, I moved to be able to watch, hoping and praying for some sort of miracle.

Despite being taken by surprise they worked like a team, calling out instructions and executing them. It was the years they had grown up together that allowed them to work this efficiently.

“I’m out,” Angel yelled and Kaiden threw him a magnum.

Angel caught it and reloaded the gun.

The fear in me respected how they all faced the danger with a confidence I had wanted to foster.

The driver stood by the third window with Kaiden. He was the only one besides me who struggled to keep up with the shooting. Then he gasped. A deep crimson stain appeared on his shirt as he fell to his knees. He had been shot in the shoulder.

I couldn’t just do nothing. This felt like the Bruno scene all over and again. I had sworn I would do things different if I ever had the chance. Now was the time to step in and help.

I squeezed my eyes closed, building up the courage to do what I hadn’t before.

There was no way I would be able to live with myself if I didn’t do something to help. I worked out the safest way the get to the injured man before I started to crawl toward him.

When I reached him, he had his hand pressed to the wound.

“Let me see,” I said, as I ripped the shirt open. He flinched.

“It’s okay,” I soothed, swallowing to try and keep myself from feeling sick at the sight of his wound.

“It hurts,” he moaned, closing his eyes briefly.

Slowly, I rolled him slightly over to check the back of the wound and was relieved to see an exit.

“It looks like it’s gone straight through.”

“I told you not to move,” Angel said, taking a break between firing shots.

“He needs my help,” I replied over the shooting. “I can’t just sit and do nothing.”

Even if we were all going to die, I couldn’t do nothing while someone needed my help.

But it wasn’t like I had any training or experienced but I kept my hand on the wound and applied pressures while assuring my patient that everything would be okay, even if I had no idea if that was even true.

It kept him calmer and I felt like I was helping in some way. I wasn’t some helpless woman who couldn’t handle a stressful situation.

Then there was a shot that came through the back door in the kitchen. Wood splintered.

“We’re surrounded,” James announced.

I fought the thought that we wouldn’t make it out of this alive. Kaiden, James and Angel didn’t miss a beat and continued to return fire.

“I’m out,” Kaiden announced, when he ran out of bullets.

He moved to asses the driver’s wound and take over from me.

I tried to wipe the blood from my hands onto the shirt I wore.

Angel swore. “Me too.”

James was the only one still shooting.

The panic rose in me. Was this how I was going to die? It was a thought everyone experienced when they were in a position they knew there was very little chance of surviving.

Angel huddled by the window as he got his phone out and made a call. I watched his expression for any sign of hope but there wasn’t any.

“Our guys are still too far out.”

They wouldn’t get here in time.

There was no hope.

Then when James stopped shooting, all the shooting ended. A desperate heavy silence settled over us. It was hard to assure the injured driver when I knew none of us would make it out.

We had no way of defending ourselves.

I sat back on my hunches and my eyes locked with Angel. How was this happening just when we had started to clear the air and figure things out?

James backed away from the window and bent down to retrieve a knife from a holster on his leg. It reminded me of the pig and my stomach turned.

Angel moved to where I was. I stood and he took my hand into his.

I could hear someone yell something outside and James moved to the window.

“What’s going on?” Kaiden asked, his hands still on the driver’s wound.

James looked over to me. “They are here for her. If we send her out they won’t kill the rest of us.”

Angel’s hand tightened its grip on mine. They all shared a look as I reeled from the knowledge that if I was willing to die, I could save them.

I looked to Angel and he immediately shook his head when he saw my expression. “No. It’s not even an option.”

He refused to even consider it.

When I looked to James, his grip on his knife tightened and I knew his answer. He was ready to fight.

Then Kaiden shook his head when my eyes drifted to his. “Never thought I would agree with Angel on anything but there is no way we are handing you over to save ourselves. I know your adrenaline is off the charts so I’m going to put this down to a momentary lapse in reason.”

I bit my lip to stop the emotional wave I was riding from drowning me.

“We are in this together,” Angel said.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” I asked, trying to find a way for them to agree to it.

James stood and walked over to stand on the other side of me. “No.”

I couldn’t watch them die for me, even if I ultimately joined their fate.

The driver moaned as Kaiden applied more pressure to the wound.

There was no place to run or to hide. The shooters would figure out we were out of bullets and then they would move in.

For the first time in my life, I felt a real fear. The type that makes you look back on your life, feeling all the regret at the things you never did and should have.

I looked to the man beside me. My heart filled with emotion.

“I love you,” I blurted out. I didn’t want to die without telling him how I felt.