“What happened?” I asked, dread settling in my stomach. There was only one reason I could think of that Megan would need to see me so desperately she would wake me in the middle of the night, especially when she’d been on the phone with me when I’d been taken.
The things she must have heard…
She knew just how badly I needed the time off, and she’d done everything in her power to give me that and rise to the challenge of running Fresh Start in my absence.
“Let’s go,” Scar said, tucking his phone into the back pocket of his jeans. He grabbed his gun from his nightstand drawer and moved to his desk, yanking another out from under the surface and tearing the tape off from it. He checked it, handing it over to me. “I’m pretty sure you know how to use this,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
I realized just how much he knew about the day I’d been taken, and accepted the gun from him with trembling fingers. The last time I’d held one, I’d shot a man after I’d bashed another’s skull in with a fire poker.
“You keep it,” I said, shaking my head and handing it back to him. “You can give it to me if I end up needing it, but…”
I didn’t want to voice the negative association, the reminder that I was a killer as much as any of the Bellandis. That I’d become a Bellandi woman through the blood of my enemies.
I just didn’t have the husband to go along with that title.
“Alright,” he said, tucking it into the back of his jeans as he settled his favored gun into the holster he kept at his waist.
He guided me from the bedroom, taking me to the foyer that caused my heart to skip every time I laid eyes on it. Matteo was waiting as promised, two men at his side.
I recognized Simon, knew him well from the time I’d spent around Ivory and Matteo in the past year. The other man was a vaguely familiar face, someone I’d seen in passing but never gotten to know closely.
“Irina, this is Calix. He’s going to be your security until we resolve our conflict with Murphy,” Matteo said, earning a glare from Scar.
“No,” I said, shaking my head as I remembered what had happened to the last man who’d protected me. “Absolutely not.”
“I agree,” Scar said, wrapping an arm around my waist and tugging me into his side protectively. I could have snorted at the show of possession if I hadn’t been inclined to agree. Men were not my favorite, and being alone with one other than Scar was too much, too soon.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” The man named Calix chuckled, turning his molten silver eyes my way. His hair was a deep brown, nearly raven in color. He crossed his arms over his chest and studied me, saying, “Incest has never been my kink, dear cousin.”
Scar stilled at my side, something like panic locking his muscles solid for a single moment.
“I don’t have any cousins,” I said, shifting at Scar’s side. Whatever weirdness he had going on, my father had no siblings.
“I believe you met my father once when you were just a girl. Be grateful you’ve not had the misfortune to make his acquaintance since. He hasn’t gotten any more palatable with age,” Calix said, stepping forward and leaning in to brush his lips against my cheek.
Scar growled.
“You’re Eugene’s son?” I asked, furrowing my brow. I could see some sort of family resemblance, from the shape of his nose to the color of his hair, but Eugene was cold. Calix radiated with a warmth, even if it did seem to be bathed in the fury of a man who would slaughter his enemies at the first sign of rebellion.
“Yes. Your only cousin on your mother’s side,” he said, tilting his head thoughtfully. “You look just like her from the photos I’ve seen of her when she was younger.”
“I do?” I asked, wondering if I would be able to see them one day. Somewhere deep inside, the little girl who longed for her mother to return still waited, lurking beneath the surface and waiting to erupt at a moment’s notice when it seemed plausible.
“You do,” he agreed, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear affectionately. Scar swatted Calix’s hand away, seeming unmoved by the family relation. “Most of our family is psychopathic at best, so you and I are going to stick together as the humans of the Regas family.”
I laughed, realizing how instability must have run rampant in my family line if most of my maternal family was psychopathic.
“As touching as this reunion is,” Simon said, grumbling through his yawn. “We have somewhere we need to be. The others are already on site.”
“Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked, letting Scar turn me away from Calix’s knowing, playful grin and toward the front door and SUVs waiting for us.
There was nothing but silence in response.
Megan’s apartment was smaller than mine, the assistant who had quickly become my right hand and confidante when I started at Fresh Start sacrificing just as much as I had to be a part of it. She spent more time at the center than she did in her home, meaning that she didn’t require a big space.
She had no children, dedicating her life to the kids we both loved more than anything.
Ryker waited alongside another man, standing inside her front door with their arms crossed over their chests in matching stances. “Speaking of psychopaths,” Calix said, grinning at the man. He was tall, though not as tall as Scar, his dark hair styled flawlessly and his suit perfectly unwrinkled despite the late hour.
He looked more fit for a boardroom, class and sophistication stamped all over his aristocratic features. Something dark lingered in the multi-colored gaze he leveled at me, dragging his eyes from my head to my toes and back again and seeming to find me lacking when he turned a disinterested look the other way.
“This is Rafael Ibarra,” Calix said, introducing the man. The name rang a bell, resounding off the part of me that followed the Bellandi business as carefully as I cared to. “I lived with him in Ibiza after they banished my family from Philadelphia.”
I cleared my throat, shoving through the awkwardness of the situation. Scar made a warning noise low in his throat, capturing Rafael’s interest with an amused smirk.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Ryan,” he said, that darkness in his eyes gleaming when he turned it back to me. The different colors shone vividly in the dim lighting, reminding me of a creature staring back through the bushes in some kind of horror movie.
“You too. Thank you for giving Calix shelter,” I said.
“Even though you had no idea he existed?” Rafael finished, taking the words from my mouth.
“Yes,” I said, shuffling further into Scar’s side. He wrapped an arm around me, touching his chin to the top of my head. His silence since Calix had revealed himself to be my cousin grated on me, making me feel as if there was something I was missing.
Another part of him that he kept distant, when I’d begun to believe that something real and honest between the two of us might be possible.
“Where is she?” I asked, ignoring the pang in my chest that there might still be secrets I didn’t know. I wasn’t naïve enough to truly believe Scar was a good man, that he hadn’t done things that I could never even imagine.
That didn’t mean he could keep secrets that concerned me.