“My grandfather died.”
Suddenly, the burning anger I held over my two-day stint went up in smoke. I didn’t say anything as I placed Caylen carefully in his crib. Angel continued to stand unmoving just inside the door. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I’m sorry.” He buried his face in my neck, and I felt him nod. When he didn’t respond, I pulled back and stared until he lifted his eyes from the floor. “How did he die?”
“A gunshot to the heart.” I gasped and grabbed him again so I wouldn’t collapse.
Alon had died the same way his son had, and once again, Angel was left without a father.
Chapter Fifty-Five
When it rains, it pours.
ANGEL
I don’t know how I ended up here, but when she pressed her body against me and wrapped me in her arms, I knew there was nowhere else I would rather be.
I missed her, but I would never tell her.
When the police showed up at my door, I thought Anna ignored my threats and went to the police. Mian may have got to me through my dick, but I wasn’t stupid enough to set Anna free without putting the fear of God in her first.
As it turned out, my grandfather was murdered that morning, and the shooter fled. I spent the last forty-eight hours searching for him nonstop.
Until this morning.
Lucas received a phone call from Anna to warn him that some Joey kid had gone to the police when Mian disappeared. The police wrote her off when the landlord reported that she skipped rent. She had so little, leaving her apartment bare, that it was easy for them to deduce she took what she could and move. When Anna disappeared almost two weeks later and her mother showed no concern about her daughter’s disappearance, this Joey kid reported it to the police. Fortunately for me, her mother’s shitty parenting made her a primary suspect in her underage daughter’s disappearance. Anna, it seems, showed up just in time to offer the same story Brandi gave them about running away to spite her.
It was the phone call that reminded me that I had more than one problem. I promised to keep Mian and Caylen safe from the senator, but I left them alone for two days.
“Angel.” I didn’t realize I was hiding my gaze from her again until she lifted my chin. I didn’t want her to see my pain. When my father died, I broke down, and the only thing that pieced me back together was punishing Theo. I wanted to kill Theo for what he took from me, and because I spent the time sulking, I missed my opportunity. It was a mistake I wouldn’t make again, but it seemed all I did was make new ones.
“I’m sorry,” I found myself saying.
I was more surprised when I felt her press a gentle kiss to my lips as she whispered, “Me, too.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
It wasn’t lost. Only forgotten.
MIAN
I had no idea how large the Knight family was. Every member, no matter how far down the line, were spread out over the estate.
And Angel was the head of them all.
I also learned that day that the Knights had their own personal graveyard.
At the estate.
And now that Alon was dead, Angel inherited the estate and was expected to live with a bunch of dead people in his backyard. The estate was vast, I was told, which allowed them to keep the graveyard out of sight but definitely not out of mind.
I brushed my feelings about it aside since I wasn’t the one who had to live there. I’d definitely be afraid of waking up and finding one of Angel’s dead relatives watching me from the foot of my bed.
The funeral had been sad, even for me when my sole memory of Alon was him trying to kill me. That certainly had been memorable. Especially, the part when Angel stood up to his grandfather for me.
My gaze was drawn to him against my will. He stood across the room talking with two men. I noticed how he was never far away even though he never got too close either. He had been distant since he came to my room and announced his grandfather was killed.
“Mian?”
I turned at the sound of the familiar voice and was shocked to come face to face with a blast from the past. “Bea?” I asked with surprise blatant in my tone. There were too many emotions involved with seeing Bea again.
“Yes, dear. How are you? I didn’t expect to see you here. I didn’t even know you knew Alon.”
“Oh, um… I didn’t really. I only met him once.”
She stared, and I had the feeling Angel’s mother was reading me like a book. Someone should have warned her my ending was tragic.
“Recently?”
“Mian,” Lucas interrupted before I could answer. He was staring at Bea as he said, “Caylen’s awake.”
“Caylen?” Bea questioned.
“My son,” I simply said. I stuck around only long enough to see her surprise and hurried upstairs. I entered the room where he had been sleeping and found him still soundly sleeping.
“I want you to stay here.” I turned and found Angel in the doorway watching me from under his shell.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”