Halo (K19 Security Solutions 8)

She was the only one of the four who I looked up at. When my eyes met hers, I didn’t see any sign that she was making fun of me. All I saw was love.

“Yeah.”

Of the five of us, Ava and Aine were closest just because they were sisters. Quinn had always been closer to Aine than to the rest of us, and Pen and I, we were as close to sisters as it got, without the biology. We fought like sisters, but we had each other’s back in the same way Ava and Aine always had. That’s why it had hurt so much when it was Pen who called to accuse me of stealing from them.

“Can you come with me for a minute?” she asked.

I stood and followed her up the stairs. “This is the room I was staying in,” I said when she walked past it.

“That’s the room your stuff is in.” She walked straight into the master bedroom and sat on the end of the bed. “Come here, girlfriend.”

When I sat down, she put her arm around my shoulders.

“Pen…”

“Cry it out, Tara.”

I rested my head on her shoulder and cried as hard as I had when Knox held me in the SUV. This time, though, it was him I was sobbing over.

“Why don’t you try to get some rest?” she said a few minutes later as I wiped my tears. “I’ll stay.”

I scooted up the bed and rested my head on the pillow Knox used. I fell asleep with my arms wrapped around it.

I woke when I heard Pen talking to someone. When I opened my eyes, I saw her and Knox standing in the doorway. I watched as she eased around him.

I sat up. “I was just leaving.”

“Stay where you are,” he said, coming over to sit beside me. “Look, earlier you stopped me from saying this, but I need to. I’m sorry, Tara.”

“What for?”

“Doubting you. Among other things.”

“You more than doubted me, Knox. What you accused me of was way beyond that. You thought I was an art forger.” When he started to speak, I held up my hand. “You said you couldn’t believe I thought you were so stupid, I did it right in front of you. Not only that, when I said I wanted to leave, you accused me of being with another man. I don’t think there’s much you didn’t blame me for.”

He hung his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”

“Nothing else is necessary. You didn’t—don’t—know me well enough to believe otherwise. You were out to catch a criminal, and you did. Eventually. And just so you know, I was blindsided by all of this. All I knew was that my father had disappeared, and I wanted to find him.”

“Is that why you came to Italy?”

“Is this another interrogation?”

Knox’s eyes opened wide. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “No. And I’m sorry. Again. I’m trying to piece it all together, and I have no reason to.”

“Because you still think I’m guilty of something.”

“No. Not at all.”

“Right.”

When I walked out of the room, the front door opened and my father walked in. “Daddy?” I flew down the steps, stopping just short of throwing my arms around him.

“Tara!” He held out one hand, I took it, and he pulled me in to hug him.

He looked like he’d been to hell and back, and to a certain extent, he had.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”