Angel stilled. Our eyes held. For that moment there was only us, no one else.

Memories came in flashes. The ones when we were smaller, where I followed him around to the one when he stood beside me at my mother’s funeral. My heart filled with emotion. To every moment that had led us to this point.

He leaned in and kissed me. I clasped his face savoring it.

Kaiden cleared his throat. “Someone’s coming.”

It broke our moment and brought us back to reality.

There was an unmistakable sound of foot steps. James and Angel moved to shield me. I felt vulnerable still only dressed in a night shirt, in no way prepared for what was about to unfold. They were putting themselves between myself and any danger that was about to walk through that door. For a moment the importance of that hit me leaving me with no doubt what that meant.

Angel was not with me for revenge. If he was there was no way he would lay down his life for mine. I felt an intense guilt for having doubted him even for a second.

I held my breath as the footsteps stopped outside the door.

My heart was beating so loudly, it echoed in my ears. I tried my best to keep the panic at bay.

The door splintered open with such force I took a shaky step back.

A bald man dressed in a trench coat entered with a gun in his hand. “Well what do we have here?” he sneered as his partner, who was overweight with a beard, followed him inside.

They both looked like the type of guys that would sell their souls for the highest price. Maybe they had already if this was their line of work.

There was that part of me that wanted to be brave and face whatever was going to happen head on but I had to fight the instinctual part of me that wanted to survive by running as far as I could get. It was the irrational fear that I fought to stand with men who were willing to lay their lives down to protect me.

The bald guy eyed me out and he smiled. “You’re a difficult woman to get close to. We’ve been on you since you came back to town and this is the closest we have got.”

Angel moved to shield me. “What’s your price?”

The bearded man gave a hollowed laugh and shared a look with his partner. “We aren’t for sale.”

“Everyone has a price, name it.” Angel continued to try and negotiate for our lives.

I didn’t believe for a second that any amount of money would get us out of this. Guys who wanted money didn’t shoot first.

“You can’t put a price on power,” the bald guy scoffed.

Angel studied them. “You want power, I can give you that.”

“You are in no position to negotiate with us. Right now you have no power.” The bearded guy shook his head and moved closer.

James and Angel moved closer together to shield me.

“You’re making a big mistake,” Angel warned calmly.

I didn’t know how he held his cool in the situation. I was a mess, my hands were sweaty and my heart beat was all over the place. Every breath shaky.

Angel shrugged. “What did they promise you?”

It was the first time I saw a moment of hesitation in the two men. Did Angel really have any chance getting us out of here? I held a tiny bit of hope that somehow he would be able to save us.

The men remained silent, reluctant to reveal what they were going to get in return.

“How many guys are in on this?” Angel asked.

“There were fifteen,” James answered. He had kept count during the shootout.

The bald guy glared opening at James’ assessment. “Now there are only six of us.”

They had managed to take a lot of them out. But not enough to swing things into our favor. We were in the most precarious situation with little to no hope of survival. Even with odds like that I didn’t see any of them waver.

“They offer you positions in the family?” Angel asked.

When neither of them answer Angel nodded. “Then you’re dumber than you look.”

The bearded one lifted his gun to aim it straight at Angel. I reached for him to stop him from being so provocative with men who here their to end our lives.

“I would be careful if I was you,” the bearded one said.

“Name one man in the organization high up enough to give you any sort of power whose surname isn’t Vincent.”

The bearded guy’s arm lowered slight as he looked back to the other guy.

Angel was reaching them and I held my breath.

Could he really pull this off? Give them enough doubt to be able to negotiate our way out of this mess?

“They are playing you guys. They have no intention of giving you anything. Only outsiders would believe that bullshit. If you go through with this you won’t live to see another sunset, that I guarantee. Power doesn’t mean much to dead men.”

This time the look shared between the two guys was one of nervousness and fear.

I couldn’t believe it was working. My hand tightened on Angel’s jacket.

“It’s just a matter of who finds you first, the Vincents or my men.”

“Um…what are you offering?” The bald guy asked, shaking his gun at Angel.

They were ready to negotiate. I was floored and trying not to allow myself to feel relief until Angel had them tied up in a nice neat bow with no loose ends.

Desperate men resorted to desperate measures. The most important thing was to keep everyone calm.

“Enough money for you to disappear.”

I watched the men mull over his offer.

“The Vincents will send more men for her,” the bald guy said.

I stepped between James and Angel. “Soon I’ll be taking over and that won’t be problem.”

“Taking over?” They looked between themselves.

“My father is Andrew Vincent,” I revealed seeing the fear in their eyes at the mention of my father.

Angel nodded. “They didn’t tell you that you were going to kill the heir to the Vincent family fortune and business.”

They both shook their heads.

“You have five minutes,” Angel said, with all the confidence of knowing he had scared them enough for them to question their actions.

They lowered their guns. “We’ll take it.”

“James will be in contact with you later today to pay the money. I have to warn you. If I ever see any of you again I will hunt you and your families. There will be no place on earth you can hide.”

Slowly, they nodded before they backed up leaving the way they had entered.

Only when I could hear the retreat of men outside did I allow myself to feel relieved that we had survived an impossible situation. I leaned my head against Angel’s back and took a breath trying to fight the adrenaline off.

Angel turned to take me into his arms and James sheathed his knife. I fought the urge to cry. I had never been so scared in my life and I had believed without a doubt that had been it for all of us. It was too overwhelming to think about right now. I took a shuddering breath and Angel pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“It’s over,” he murmured.

It would linger in my mind what could have happened. It made me want to hold Angel a little tighter and tell my brother I loved him. Even James, I wanted him to know that he meant something to me and I would always remember how he had stepped up with Angel to protect me.

James left to check outside to make sure the shooters had left like they had said they would. He returned moments later. “The coast is clear.”

Kaiden left the wounded driver to search through the kitchen cupboards until he found a bottle of vodka before returning to crouch down beside him.

“It’s going to hurt but it will stop it from getting infected until we can get it stitched up.”

The guy nodded.

Kaiden poured some over the wound and the guy hissed, scrunching his face in pain.

“The sooner we get out of here the better,” James said.

He was right.

James went to help Kaiden get the driver on his feet who winced slightly.

“We’ll get him sorted out when we get back. If we take him to hospital, they will ask questions we can’t answer.”

There would be no way to cover up what had happened here.

“We need to take care of the scene,” Angel said to James who nodded before disappearing through the door to the garage.

He returned with what looked like a canister of gas. James went down to the bedroom I had slept in and began to pour the gas there.

My heart was still racing as we got out of the house and James finished pouring the bas over the kitchen before following us. He stood just outside the doorway. He pulled out matches before lighting one and throwing it inside.

It only took minutes for the fire to race through the house as we stood watching.

The efficiency they dealt with the situation was something to take in and admire. Was this from years of being a step ahead of the law? I wouldn’t have the first clue what to do to keep the cops from figuring out what happened. I had never even thought about that. Our fingerprints were all over the place and would have led them straight to us.

A few minutes later we were ready to leave. James was in the back of the car with the driver and Angel was going to drive back. There were a few bullets holes but luckily enough it started without an issue. I was in no state to drive otherwise I would have offered. I just wanted to decompress and sort through the hectic events.

“What about your friend?” I asked, knowing Kaiden had lent the place from a friend.

“I’ll let her know what happened but she will go with any story we want.” He shrugged.

“I’ll cover the damages,” Angel offered and Kaiden nodded.

“You sure I can’t drive you back?” Kaiden asked me but I shook my head.

I didn’t want to be apart from Angel. After everything we had been through I didn’t want to let him out of my sight, not even for a second.

I shook my head interlinking my hand with Angel. My brother saw the affectionate action and nodded.

The adrenaline was wearing off and I was tired. The sight of the men who had died trying to kill me didn’t illicit any empathy. It had either been them or me and the people I loved most. There was no choice.

Angel led me to the passenger side of the car. I let him take over. He put my seatbelt on as I curled up on my side. He got in the car and started it up.

I closed my eyes, finally being able to feel like I was safe for the first time since it had happened.

We had only been driving for ten minutes before Angel braked suddenly. A car had turned in front of us stopping us dead. Kaiden stopped, coming up beside us.

It was still dark and hard to make out the identities of the men who got out of the car.

I jolted. Adrenaline pumping again. Had the guys changed their minds and come back to finish us off?

“What’s going on?” James asked.

“We have company,” Angel answered without any of the fear pumping through my veins.

Would it ever stop? It felt like we had been fighting one long battle with no end in sight.

Angel put the car in reverse and was about to hit the gas when he stopped.

The tallest man stepped directly under the street light and his features were revealed.

“It’s your father,” Angel said before I recognized the man.

“Where is she?” Andrew demanded.

Angel stopped me with a hand to my wrist when I made a move to get out of the car.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him before he reluctantly released me.

I opened the door. The men beside my father drew their guns cautiously but lowered them when I got out of the car.

“Kira,” Andrew gasped and walked over to hug me so tight I couldn’t breathe.

I heard Angel get out of the car to watch us.

Enemies brought together with the same goal. To protect me.

“We’re okay. Angel got us out of it.”

My father’s arms tightened on me. “If he had been prepared like he should have been it wouldn’t have been so dire.”

How on earth did he know all the details when it had happened under an hour ago?

“How do you know what happened?” I asked, brushing off his criticism of Angel. If he had seen how Angel had talked our way out of the situation he would respect him. I didn’t know of anyone who could do what he had done.

Besides it had been my rash actions that had

“My men arrived just after the guys came out,” he revealed.

We hadn’t seen a thing.

“You will never have to fear those men again,” he assured me and I frowned.

“What did you do?”

“I took care of them,” he informed me.

I knew what ‘took care’ meant. I stilled unsure of how I felt about that. To harm another person wasn’t something I took lightly but like the man who had killed my friend Bruno, these men would have taken my life and the life of the people I held dear. I couldn’t feel any sympathy for them. Greed had driven them to do what they did.

My father loosened his hold. “I’ll take you back.”

Angel stepped forward. “No. She’s my wife and my responsibility.”

I pushed away from my father, very aware of how dark it was and how tired I was.

“I need you both to be on the same page. I know it’s a tall ask especially when you have been enemies for longer than I can remember.” I looked from Andrew to Angel.

Kaiden had also climbed out of his car and was watching the showdown with caution.

“But right now I need you both to come to some sort of cease fire. Can you do that? For me?”

I looked to my father, who eyed Angel out before slowly nodding.

Then my gaze went to Angel. “I need you to be on board with this.”

He nodded reluctantly.

I let out a sigh. “I’m going back with Angel. You can come by tomorrow to see me and we can work out where we go from here. Okay?”

Andrew nodded and then Angel did.

“Do you have weapons?” Andrew asked Angel, who shook his head.

“We used everything back at the cabin.”

Andrew turned to his men and without even saying a word one of the went to the trunk of the car and came back with two guns which he handed to Angel.

“Thanks,” Angel said stiffly.

“You take care of her otherwise I’ll be coming for you.” My father looked him dead in the eye when he made the threat, Angel didn’t blink. He wasn’t afraid of my father and I loved him a little more in that moment. He was fearless.

“If anything happens to her I’ll hand you the gun,” he stated matter of factly.

I swallowed, at the impact of his words.

My father gave me one last hug before he left with his men and I returned to the car.

Angel handed a weapon to Kaiden before he got back in the car and started it up.

“Did you mean it?” I asked.

He started the journey back ensuring he kept just above the speed limit to get us home as fast as he could without drawing any attention.

“What?” he asked, only taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at me.

“What you said to my father.”

He nodded. His hand found mine. “I don’t say things I don’t mean Kira.”

My heart inflated and I couldn’t breath for a few moments as I waded through the emotion.

“If I failed to keep you safe, there is no point in continuing.”

I trembled.

I didn’t know if I could carry on if something were to happen to him. It was something I didn’t want to think about especially when we had all come so close to death.

Needing to feel close to him I lay my head against his shoulder. “Same,” I breathed.

His lips touched my forehead and I closed my eyes.

He had been in my life for so long, I couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t. Even contemplating his demise in a hypothetical situation took my breath away.

“I was so scared tonight. It wasn’t the dying part that made me scared the most, it was the part of watching you die.”

“Let’s not think about what happened, or all the ways it could have gone down. We were lucky to get out of it and we make sure it never happens again.”

I nodded. “Never again.”

I could definitely get behind that.

We got back to the house and I felt like I was home when we pulled through the gates.

Men were waiting to carry the injured driver into the house to tend to him. Angel opened the door and pulled me out. I was tired. All I wanted to do was sleep for a week.

Kaiden came to us. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. I need to take care of some things,” he said, raking a hand through his hair.

I hugged my brother. “Thanks for everything.” He had stepped up when I had needed him the most and that meant something.

“Anytime.” He released me, and I watched as he left, the gates closing behind him.

Angel led me to our room before leaving to check on the driver.

I was exhausted but I changed and washed the blood from my hands before I climbed into the bed.

Even as tired as I was I couldn’t seem to drop off to sleep when Angel left to check on the driver. I sat up in the bed and pulled the covers to my chin as I waited for him to return.

The door opened quietly as Angel came into view. “You’re still up?”

“I couldn’t sleep without you,” I admitted.

He smiled. “I have something for you.”

I frowned as he held out his hand. He opened it to reveal my engagement and wedding ring.

I had left them at the cabin.

“I forgot about those,” I murmured as he slid them back on my fingers.

“James found them.”

He stripped off his clothes, down to his underwear and got into the bed beside me to hold me close. I lay my head against his chest just breathing him in and allowing his presence to surround me. We had nearly lost each other and that thought made me hold him a little tighter. I drifted off to sleep, where he kept the nightmares at bay.