Years ago, my father insisted my mother learn to shoot if an enemy were ever bold enough to knock down his front door. To my father’s pleasure, my mother had been a natural shot. I’m sure it made his many days away free of guilt. He’d gotten her a revolver since they were easiest to operate, and made sure she stayed in practice. It was because of his insistence that my mother’s aim for his heart was true, and laying a couple of feet from the door was my mother’s revolver.
My next move should be to avenge my father’s death, but killing my mother would never be an option. I could only protect her from what happens next. My father’s death wouldn’t be an insignificant event overlooked by the police.
There were too many of them in his pocket.
“Sir, I’ve called the cops,” an unfamiliar voice called. I turned and found a short African American woman in a white dress shirt and black tie. She looked scared as her eyes nervously shifted from me to the corpse behind me. “They’re on their way.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Tanya. I’m filling in for Milly while she’s on vacation.” I shut my eyes tight to hide the internal war inside my head. If she was just a temp, then my father likely hadn’t bothered to pay her off, which made her a witness. “I saw a man leave—”
She stopped speaking with a squeak when my eyes opened. “What man?”
“I’m sorry. I—I don’t know.” Her voice carried a desperate note now. “He was tall, light brown hair, green eyes…” Her frown deepened as she described Theo. “He was the one who shot Mr. Knight. He left in such a hurry after I heard the gunshot. Your poor mother was so hysterical. She must have witnessed the entire thing.”
I wasn’t sure if it was shock or betrayal responsible for the pain assaulting every cell in my body, but I recognized rage. Theo had run off rather than stand by my father’s side, and I planned to find out why. “Thank you, Tanya.” Her eyes had glistened with sympathy before she hurried back downstairs.
I was remodeling the pieces of the puzzle as I calmly raided my father’s stash of sedatives he used when he needed a job done quietly and headed back downstairs. My mother was still on the couch crying quietly. Tanya was kneeling as she rubbed my mother’s back consolingly. As politely and unassuming as I could muster, I asked her to return to her duties until the police arrived. Once she was gone, I took the unknown woman’s place, but I didn’t offer my mother comfort. I lifted her head and gently stuck the needle in her neck. As I injected my mother with the sedative, I whispered three words in her ear.
Theo killed him.
Three months later, we sent an innocent man to jail.
I didn’t feel the pain of my father’s death until Theo was safe behind bars, and I was forced to accept that I wouldn’t be able to avenge my father for a long time. I didn’t feel guilt for what I’d done until three years later when I looked into the broken eyes of little Mian Ross.Chapter SevenANGEL
Present“WHERE IS SHE?” I watched my brothers, men with the heart of a lion, fidget under my interrogation. I’d woken up to an empty hospital room and no memory of how I made it here alive. Lucas and Z had been MIA, but I’d learned half my men were on guard and now I knew why.
“We don’t know,” Z mumbled.
“She fucking ran,” Lucas snarled. The phantom fist around my heart loosened. She wasn’t dead.
“Why?” Because she tried to kill you. I waited for one of them to answer, but neither of them spoke a word. Z looked uncertain, and Lucas looked ready to explode, which meant they both knew something, but they were holding back.
“What do you know?” My attention focused on Lucas, targeting him first. “What are you hiding from me?”
“I could ask you the same,” he shot back as he crossed his arms.
“Excuse me?”
“Who stabbed you, Angel?”
“Eliana.” The lie quickly fell from my lips, but it was obvious they didn’t believe me when Z’s gaze narrowed, and Lucas scoffed.
“Why are you lying?” Lucas accused.
“Who are you to tell me I’m lying?”
“Your brother!” he roared. “She tried to kill you, and you’re still protecting her.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Angel,” Z called with less hostility. “We found Eliana dead ten feet from where you were with a perfect shot to the head.”
“And it was your knife that had been used on you. It’s also funny that the tape had been sliced clean through. Only a knife could have done that.”
They watched me, waiting for me to trust them with the truth that would condemn her. I couldn’t do it. They were my brothers, but Mian was… complicated.