He ran his hand through my hair and rested his forehead on mine. “You just have to,” he whispered softly.
“What is going on here?” I unconsciously pulled Angel closer at the sound of Alon’s voice. Unfortunately, Angel chose to set me on my feet just before facing off with his grandfather. It didn’t escape my notice that he moved his body to block me from Alon’s view. I felt Lucas’s presence close in behind me. I didn’t notice Z until he moved to stand close by my side. I was completely surrounded by them.
What was happening?
“You went behind my back?” Angel spoke calmly, but I could hear the chill in his tone. Men also dressed in suits surrounded Alon with their guns pointed. There were too many of them for even Angel to outmatch.
“Of course, I did. I couldn’t trust you to pull the plug given your feelings for the girl.”
I stiffened. Angel didn’t have feelings for me. In the place where his heart should have been was an organ that only understood power and revenge.
“That wasn’t your call.” He didn’t bother to correct his grandfather regarding his feelings.
“It is my job to protect this family.”
“No, old man. I respect you because you are my grandfather, but I am the Knight. Your reign has ended.”
“And yours will too if you let this girl come between your senses of duty.”
“She didn’t do it,” he growled. I gasped and felt my fingers tremble against my lips.
“Ten minutes ago, you weren’t so sure.”
“Some information was recently brought to my attention. I’ll bring you up to speed, but regardless of what I decide, you will fall back in line.”
The authority in Angel’s tone caused the heat in my belly to spread to my legs. More words were exchanged, but I didn’t catch any of it.
Angel believed me.
Did this mean he would finally let us go?
*
The bedroom door opening woke me from my sleep. Even with my newfound innocence, finding sleep hadn’t come easy. Maybe it was the strange house I was forced to sleep in or my near death experience. Angel had Lucas lock me in one of the many bedrooms while Angel, Z, and Alon disappeared to discuss my life. I remember being angry before I fell asleep. My fate would be decided in a meeting between men who should have never had that power.
“I know you’re awake.”
“And the award for the creepiest moment goes to…” I could feel him standing over me, so I sat up. My dress shifted and tangled around my legs as I moved.
“Almost dying hasn’t affected your mouth.” His gaze sexily dropped to my lips. I picked at the silk and tried to guess why he was here. When I couldn’t stand the silence anymore, I just asked.
“Why are you here?”
He sat on the side of the bed, and I noticed he was still dressed in his tux. He ran his fingers through his hair, and I wanted, at least once, to follow the tracks he made with my own fingers.
“Don’t you want to know what happened?” I was too busy staring at his stupid, gorgeous hair to notice he was staring.
“What happened?”
“Z saved your life.” His frown was troubled as he stared deep into my eyes. Did he not like the idea of not having a reason to kill me?
“Sorry to spoil your fun,” I mumbled. The look he gave me was impatient even though he had done nothing but assure me I would die. I cleared my throat when his stare became uncomfortable. “So what changed?”
“I never considered that I had been outsmarted.”
“I’m not following.”
“There’s a silent alarm that’s routed to Lucas, Z, or myself whenever triggered. You tripped that alarm the day you broke in.”
“And?”
“The alarm was disarmed and reactivated the day before you broke in.”
Which meant he’d been betrayed.
“Why didn’t you pick this up before?”
“We missed it.”
“And so you kidnapped my son.”
He rolled his eyes. “Well, you did break into my house.”
I decided to ignore that. “Even so… what makes you so sure that I’m innocent?”
“Because whoever deactivated the alarm wouldn’t take the time to reactivate it unless they were trying to hide something… and whoever knew about the alarm had to know about the book.”
“So does this mean you’re going to let us go?” He avoided my gaze when he didn’t answer. “Angel?”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
I was caught off guard. “Pardon?”
“When you were in trouble. Why didn’t you come to me?” My mouth opened to speak, but words didn’t come. “I wouldn’t have abandoned you like your aunt and uncle did.”
“But isn’t that what you did long before I got pregnant?”
“My father had just been murdered by your father. What did you expect?”
“Friendship.” He flinched. I knew he didn’t expect my answer, but it was the truth. “I know you were hurt, but I wasn’t the one to pull the trigger.”
“I know.”
“Then how could you expect me to run to you at the first sign of trouble?”
“Because you should have known me better than that,” he gritted.