His eyes narrowed slightly. “Jesus…” He looked away for a moment, sighing loudly as he prepared for whatever bomb I was about to drop on his shoulders. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose before he dragged his fingers to his lips.
“Damien.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re pregnant…”
I shot him a glare. “Damien, I’m being serious.”
“So, you aren’t pregnant?” he asked.
“No,” I snapped.
He released a sigh, like that was the thing he was most afraid of.
“Promise me.”
“You’re scaring me, sis.”
“Well…it’s not good news.”
He looked away again, taking a deep breath before he turned to me. After a few seconds, he was still, collected, ready. “Please tell me you aren’t sick—”
“Nothing like that.”
He relaxed further, his hands coming together in his lap as he regarded me. He gave me a slight nod, an invitation to speak.
Now, I had the floor.
Fuck, I had the floor. “Alright…I don’t know where to start.”
He stayed quiet, doing as I asked by staying calm and patient. His green eyes were glued to mine, still like a living statue.
“Well, I’m seeing someone.”
All he did was take a breath.
“And I really like him. We’ve been seeing each other for a while…and he makes me happy.”
Damien kept the same expression. “But I’m not going to like him, am I?”
I shook my head. “No…”
He curled his bottom lip into his mouth as he made a strained expression, like he was doing everything he could to follow my directions. “Who is he?”
I didn’t want to say. I knew Damien wouldn’t be able to keep his word once the name was in the air. “Heath…”
Damien had no reaction whatsoever—as if he were in shock.
“I know you have your differences. I know you have your reasons to dislike him. But as your sister…I’m asking you to let that go. This is the man I want to be with. I know you love me, and I love you…and I need you to do this for me. Please.”
Damien still didn’t react. Didn’t even take a breath. His eyes hadn’t blinked once, and he continued to stare at me, his green eyes like two probes looking into mine.
“I know he’s done terrible things. But he didn’t directly take Anna. He didn’t directly break in to your house. He was an accomplice to all that, and now that all of that is in the past…I’d like it if you could let it go. And the money you pay him… It’s just money.” As I heard myself speak, I realized how much I was asking of him, to release a year of vendettas.
He straightened in the chair, his hands moving to the surface of the table. His elbows planted, and his fingers interlocked in front of his lips, his eyes still on me, still not blinking. He stared for a long time, his hostility low but potent. He lowered his hands. “Last week, he came to collect his payment…and told me it was the last time he would do so.” He shook his head slightly. “I knew it was odd. I knew I was missing something. And now it all makes sense.” His fingers returned to his lips, and he stared at me again, the cogs in his brain working. “And the last time he came, everything went according to plan…until something changed. My snipers were ready to take him out, but on the camera feed, it showed he got a phone call…that was you who called. You eavesdropped on my conversation and told him everything.”
I refused to lie about it, but I didn’t confess to it either. I’d suspected he would piece everything together after I came clean, so I wasn’t surprised he came to that conclusion so quickly. He was a smart man.
“That was why he didn’t kill me.”
I had no idea that Heath had let my brother off the hook, that he stopped collecting payment. There was only one reason why he would do that. I just didn’t understand why Heath didn’t tell me. “If he’s stopped collecting payment from you and the past is in the past, I’d like it if you could let this go. I know it’s a lot to ask, Damien. But I wouldn’t be asking you to do this for me unless it was important to me.” I had to put faith in my brother’s love for me, to hope that love was stronger than his hate.
He leaned back in the chair, his gaze moving out the window while the same stoic expression was burned into his face. His green eyes reflected the sunlight, and the tightness of his jaw indicated the way he ground his teeth together.
“Damien…please.”
He eventually turned back to me, taking a deep breath. “No.”
I closed my eyes and felt utterly defeated.
“I can let go of most of the shit he’s done—but not all. But I despise a man who’s not honest about who he is, who doesn’t come clean to the woman he’s sleeping with about the shit he’s really done. I know you don’t know everything, because if you did, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now. You’d want nothing to do with him.”
Adrenaline dumped into my blood, and my chest started to rise higher, to suck in all the oxygen that my brain suddenly needed. I thought I was the one catching Damien off guard, but it was the other way around.
And I was scared.
His eyes narrowed, like he was disappointed in me. “He lied to you. He tricked you. Now, you’re sitting in front of me, fighting for a man you don’t even know. It’s fucking humiliating. I’m humiliated for you.”
My breathing continued to speed up. “What did he do?”
His furious eyes burned into mine. “When I refused to pay him, he took someone very special to me, took someone to execute. You know who that
