I was in shock. “Kaiden?” I took a step forward.

It was him. He seemed taller than the last time I had seen him. He had similar coloring to me. We both shared looks from our mother, not from our father. His hair was the same dark brown color that matched our eyes. But there was a maturity in his face that hadn’t been there before. He had definitely grown up in the time since I had last seen him.

My brother's expression changed, and he rushed to me to grab my arms. His eyes searched mine. “I thought you were…” He swallowed. I couldn’t understand why he seemed to be so emotional.

“You thought I was?” I prompted, hoping he would finish his sentence. He was acting so strange.

“You were dead,” he whispered. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or me.

“You’re not making sense, Kaiden.”

Why on earth would my brother believe I was dead?

“I saw the autopsy report. It was you.” There was so much grief in his features it was difficult not to feel his pain. “Even when I got the report that someone had spotted you this evening with Angel, I had to come and see it for myself.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I argued, feeling like I was missing something important.

“How is this possible?” my brother whispered, his eyes drinking in my features, like he was seeing a ghost.

And then he gathered me close. So tight it made it difficult to breathe. “Kaiden, I can’t… breathe.”

He released me. “I’m sorry. It’s just I can’t believe you’re really here. You do not know what hell I’ve been living in since.”

Angel was watching us silently.

“Why does Kaiden think I died, Angel?” I asked, suddenly convinced he had a hand in it. It was the only explanation I could come up with.

“You did it?” Kaiden’s expression changed, lightening fast from shock to anger. “How could you do something like that? Do you know what it did to me?”

I stepped between the two, feeling like the situation was about to spiral out of control. I wanted answers. If Angel was dead, he couldn’t give them to me.

“I did what I had to.” He walked over to his desk.

Anger vibrated from my brother, who I was still trying to stop from getting to Angel. They had once been friends, but now all that remained was a mutual respect, which I wasn’t sure would survive this.

“He is not big on explaining,” I muttered, feeling more annoyed by the moment. If I didn’t need so many questions answered, I would have let my brother have a go at him.

They were both of equal size, so it was difficult to say who would win if they fought. My brother’s anger made him more unpredictable, so that’s why I would put my money on him. But I could not underestimate Angel. He possessed a ruthlessness that even scared me.

He lowered himself into the chair as I held my brother back.

“If the Vincents had believed she was alive, there is nothing they wouldn’t have done to find her. And you know it only would have been a matter of time before they did”

The fight seemed to leave my brother’s body, and he stilled. I let my arms fall free of him.

“What was I supposed to have done? Hand her over?” Angel asked Kaiden. “I offered them money, double what your father stole, but they wouldn’t accept it.”

It was like I wasn’t even there.

“You could have told them they couldn’t have her.” My brother said through clenched teeth.

“And that would have started a war between our families. I need to make choices I can live with.”

It would have been bloodshed and mayhem.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I asked.

“And what good would that have done? You knowing, wouldn’t have changed a thing. I didn’t want you to live in fear.”

Suddenly, I felt dead on my feet and a sank down into a nearby chair.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kaiden asked Angel.

“The only people who knew were the ones who set the whole thing up. The more people that knew, the higher the risk that it would get out. I couldn’t take the risk.”

My shoulders sagged, and I felt bone tired and defeated.

“What happens now?” I murmured.

“I need time to figure out our next move.”

Our. It signified unity. I wasn’t alone in this. All the anger that I had directed at him was gone. How could I remain mad at the guy who tried to keep me safe, even if he had used drastic measures?

My brother paced and rubbed his chin. Then he stopped.

“We could put her into the witness protection program.”

Our life wasn’t for everyone. My brother had been a prime example of that. As soon as he had turned eighteen, he had joined the FBI and that had also entailed keeping his distance from the family and the criminal activities.

Angel had protected my brother from retribution and allowed him to follow his chosen career with the agreement to never disclose the family dealings to the authorities. If he did, the consequences would be dire.

I think the FBI knew what they had gained in my brother, someone who had grown up in surrounded by criminal activity and who understood the ways things worked was too valuable to pass on, no matter what secrets he kept from his past.

I balked at my brother’s suggestion. “I don’t want to leave and never speak to anyone I’ve ever known. Including you.” That felt worse than death somehow.

“I’m more worried about keeping you alive and out of reach to the Vincents while I find father.”

“Only snitches go into the witness protection program.” This time Angel spoke. “Everyone will think she gave someone up. She’ll make many other dangerous enemies.”

That was the worst thing you could do in a world where loyalty meant everything. It meant the difference between life and death.

“And what do you think you’re going to accomplish by finding your father?”

Kaiden shrugged. “He’ll fix this. He has to.”

Angel shook his head. “And how do you believe he’ll accomplish that?”

I dropped my head into my hands and took a deep breath, knowing that Angel would have been thorough enough to have thought of every angle.

“He stole the money so they can punish him.”

Angel shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way and you know it. If you weren’t an FBI an agent, they would have targeted you as well. It’s the only reason you’re still alive.”

A hand touched my shoulder. “You okay?”

I lifted my head from my hands to look up at my brother. “I’m fine.”

But it was a little white lie. Truth was, this revelation scared me. I’d never come face to face with them, but I knew of them and that was enough to put a fear of proportions that I had never experienced before into me.

“We have to protect her.” His attention was not on me, it was on Angel.

“That’s what I’ve been doing for the last two years.” His voice was matter of fact.

All that hatred and anger harbored over the last two years felt like a colossal waste of time. I tried to think how I would have coped with knowing that there had been really evil men after me. It would have affected every aspect of my life. I understood why he hadn’t told me.

“I wish you had told me,” I murmured.

“Like I said, I didn’t want you to live in fear.”

“If you had told me, I wouldn’t have rocked up here making a mess of the whole ‘I’m supposed to be dead’ thing.”

“I’ll figure a way out.” Our eyes met, and I nodded.

I knew him well enough to believe him. He meant it. If there was a way, he would find it.

“I’m tired.” I stood. It was probably early hours of the morning already and I had been going for far too long without sufficient sleep. “I need some rest before I can deal with any more of this.”

Angel rose and walked over to me. “Maria made up your usual room.”

The house was massive and had so many rooms when I had been younger it had seemed like a maze. Occasionally I had stayed over when my father had worked late with Angel’s father.

I nodded before I turned to my brother. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

We still had so much catching up to do. He had distanced himself from the family and me when he had joined law enforcement, and I missed him.

“I’ll be here.” He nodded.

Feeling like I had dealt with everything I could, I left the two of them in the study.

I trudged up the stairs feeling the weight of the situation heavy on my shoulders, but I couldn’t deal with it right now. All I wanted was some sleep and a shower, in whichever order I could manage.

I took a moment to breathe in the room's familiarity when I opened the door. It was exactly the same. It reminded me of childhood memories, some good, some bad.

The only thought on my mind was to get some sleep. I needed to have my wits about me and I needed rest. I headed straight for the bed and I was asleep before my head touched the pillow.

In the dark, the nightmares took hold, and I was up shivering, trying to figure out how Angel was going to get me out of this big mess because from where I stood, there was no way out.

I’d heard frightening stories about the Vincent brothers and I knew for sure I didn’t want to get tangled up with that. They were evil men who did evil things.

Who exchanged people for monetary debt? It was barbaric and archaic.

Eventually, tired of trying to get some sleep and knowing I would not get any, I got up and showered. I found all my old clothes in the walk-in wardrobe. It felt like going back two years as I browsed through my clothes and I also found some boxes filled with my personal stuff. It took be back to a time before Angel had sent me into exile. I didn’t know how all my old stuff had ended up at Angel’s. It was something I planned on asking him. At least I had clothes, even if they were a little big.

When I had left the small town I had been living in the last two years, I had left everything behind. The life I had led had been a lie, under an assumed name. I didn’t want any part of it.

I pulled on a shirt and shorts before I headed downstairs. My mom had always made me warm milk when I hadn’t been able to sleep and after the day I had something nostalgic was just what I needed, even if I wasn’t so sure it would work.

The house was silent. The light in Angel’s study was still on. I hesitated, unsure if I wanted to see him when I was feeling as vulnerable as I was. The only way I could usually deal with him. The anger I felt for him was my protection against him. Without it, I had to face that I might not always hate him as much as I wanted to.

Throughout our childhood, he had been an annoyance, a stupid boy that knew nothing. But as we had gotten older, as Angel had matured, I had looked at him differently. When he turned sixteen, my heart had fluttered at the sight of him and that’s when I had developed a crush on him. His brooding good looks had made my knees weak, and I hadn’t been able to fight it.

It had taken me two years before I felt confident to make a move. I had built up the courage with alcohol, which had not been my best decision making. I had gone to his bedroom, lay seductively on his bed, and waited for him.

In my daydreams, he would see me and it would be love at first sight. It was my thirst for fairytales that had played it out in my head so many times I had believed it to be a reality.

It had horrified him to find me waiting for him invitingly, dressed in lingerie I had nervously bought the day before. He had turned me down flat. Confidence shattered and feelings crushed. I had fled his room.

I had barely looked at him after that. Every time I remembered my drunken proposition, I wanted to die of embarrassment at my immature attempt at seduction.

But I still found him attractive no matter how much I didn’t want to, and it scared me. How could I still look at him like that when he had treated me so terribly? Was I destined to become my mother? Could I control the outcome? Was it inbuilt in me, right down to my DNA, to feel something for someone who would treat me as bad as my father had treated my mother?

I didn’t immediately believe Angel would cheat like my father did, but he was very dominant and I didn’t want to play the role of the submissive partner. I wanted to be an equal, not something to be owned. But it wasn’t like he was interested in me like that at all, and he had used every chance to show me that.

After the incident, he had paraded every girl he had been with in front of me to push the point home that he had no interest in me in that way. It had hurt so badly, but I have never shown it. The girls had been beautiful and sophisticated; I had felt like a troll in comparison.

In the kitchen, I warmed up some milk a little and sat at the table with my thoughts about my mother wading through better memories from my childhood. I yawned, but I knew I would just toss and turn if I went back up to bed, so I took my slightly warm drink and went to the living room to find something to keep my mind off what was really bugging me.

There was nothing on the TV but the background noise took my mind off my thoughts of what the Vincents would do to me if they got me.

“You okay?” a voice interrupted me. Angel stood in the doorway. His collar undone and his sleeves rolled up. He was strikingly good looking. Midnight black hair with dark eyelashes to bring out his dark blue eyes that sometimes, especially when he was angry, looked like dark sapphires. Physically, I couldn’t fault him on anything. In fact, it was hard to find anything wrong with him until he opened his mouth. He looked effortlessly handsome, and I hated how he looked this good with no effort. Whereas I probably looked every inch, the sleepless night I was having. I glimpsed the dark hair on his chest. I swallowed and nodded.

“Nothing like scary gangsters after me to keep me up all night long.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. How did he expect me to sleep when there was so much at stake, like my life? It wasn’t even like I had brought this on myself. My only mistake was being the daughter of a father who didn’t give a shit.

“Now you understand why I didn’t want to tell you before.” He joined me on the sofa.

I nodded, cradling the warmth of the cup of milk.

“How did you plan my death?” I asked, curious to know how he had pulled it off.

“The less you know, the better.”

It was like trying to draw blood from a stone with him and I didn’t have the patience for it.

“Why won’t you tell me anything?” It was beyond frustrating.

“In my world, it’s better to only know what you have to.”

I rolled my eyes. He was always so careful about everything; it was annoying. A man in his position had to be careful, but he took it to a whole new level.

“What happened to my father’s house?” I asked, changing the subject to hopefully one he would answer my questions without reserve.

“He sold it.”

It felt like I had no roots in a town I had spent almost my entire life. I felt a loss for something I couldn’t explain.

Angel studied me, but I refused to show what was going on inside.

“I have a question.”

He nodded.

“Why do you have all of my stuff I left at my house?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“It does.” I gave him a side glance.

“I didn’t want him to throw your stuff out.”

So he had kept them. Knowing that did something strange in my chest.

“If I didn’t know you better, I might believe you actually care, Angel.” But I knew better than to believe that.

He scoffed at me. “Don’t interpret my acts of kindness as something else, Kira. I don’t want any repeat drunken propositions.”

His dig hit me straight in the chest, bringing up the old feelings of embarrassment and resentment. The warm milk from my cup hit him in the face before I even realized what I had done. I shot up and stood back, afraid I had pushed him too far this time. The empty cup in my tight grip.

“Get out before I do something I’m going to regret.” His threat was low, but it didn’t make it less frightening. I got out there as quick as I could, hating that I had lashed out without even thinking. He made me do stupid things, things I wouldn’t normally do.

He brought out the temperamental, angry, insecure person out in me.

I made one stop in the kitchen to get rid of the cup before I dashed upstairs to my room. I locked it just in case his anger didn’t wear off.

Feeling out of sorts, because that had been so out of character for me. I was used to the digs and the undercurrent of contempt between us, but I had never physically lashed out at him like that. I wasn’t completely to blame. He shouldn’t have made the comment about a vulnerable moment in my life where I had made a mistake. I didn’t need any reminding of it.

When I thought about, I totally believed he deserved it. Why say something like that? It was a low blow.