“I swear, I must have looked away for a few seconds. I’ve looked everywhere, Enzo. She’s not here.”
“Is Rebel here?” Enzo asked, looking around the man in the doorway frantically. When he stared back at him blankly, Enzo barked, “The dog!”
“No. The dog is gone too,” he admitted, backing away slowly.
“Who is missing?” I asked, glancing back and forth between the men. My fingers twitched at my sides, eager to taste the violence that vibrated through the air. Monsters sensed blood on the horizon, and I was one of the worst nightmares I knew.
“My woman,” Enzo answered. “Murphy targeted her, so she’s been under Bellandi protection. It would be safe to say she’s not happy about it.” He shoved the man out of the way, making for the stairs. “I’ll deal with you later,” he warned as he shouldered past. “Call Matteo!” he yelled as Calix and I followed him out of the office.
“Call Matteo and tell him I’ve gone with Enzo,” I ordered, leaving Calix at the club and striding after Enzo as he made his way for the front doors. The cold air assaulted my face as we barreled through them and into the freezing wind, heading for an SUV parked at the front of the lot. He didn’t bat an eye when I climbed into the passenger seat alongside him, too focused on finding his woman before someone else did.
Santiago hurtled himself into the backseat just before Enzo hit the gas and pulled out of the lot.
Judging by the fury on his face, his woman would be lucky if he didn’t tan her ass for what she’d done.
Enzo pulled into the parking lot at a boxing gym, shoving his door open and racing inside without care for what I might do in the meantime. I watched him fling open the front doors in his desperation to find her as I slowly climbed out of the SUV to look around.
My gaze came to a halt across the road, my entire world narrowing down to the sight of the woman who walked down the sidewalk with her friend on the other side.
As pretty as she was, there was nothing about her that should have demanded my attention. Nothing that should have captivated me so much that I froze solidly in place and studied her, but something did all the same. She couldn’t have been over eighteen, fresh faced and smiling up at her much taller friend with the innocent smile of a child who’d lived a guarded and safe life. My eyes never left her, even as I sensed Enzo approaching; only his firm touch on my shoulder drawing me out of my stunned stare for just a moment before she captivated me once more when she turned toward us.
Her deep chocolate hair shone with notes of cherry undertones in the faint sunlight that emerged from behind the clouds, seeming to settle on her alone. Her skin was a bronzed olive, contrasting her sage eyes so vividly as she stared at me from across the street.
The coloring of the bottom corner of her left eye was different somehow, darker than the rest, though it was impossible to get a good look from so far away. I held her gaze without shame as she studied me, squinting to see me past the sun glare that must have interfered with her vision. It didn’t seem to stop her from sensing the predator lurking across the road, from wondering what kind of monster lurked in the shadows and watched a young girl he couldn’t touch.
I’d never touch a child.
It wasn’t desire that settled over me so much as an instinctive knowledge that one day, when she was older, she’d be a force to be reckoned with.
One day, when she was older, she’d be mine.
3 Isa
"What the fuck, Mom! She was out just as late as I was!" Odina yelled downstairs. Groaning, I dropped my forehead against the window and waited for Chloe's beat up old Toyota to show up in front of the house. I'd run out barefoot if it meant I didn't have to deal with Odina's crap for once.
Just once, it would be nice to go out and forget I had a twin sister who drove me up the wall.
"Language!" Mom snapped, and I could just imagine the finger she waved in Odina's face. My sister was a far braver woman than me for daring to swear at her in the first place. "We both know Isabel only went to that party to get your drunk ass home safe. You are grounded. That's the end of it."
"That's so fucking stupid. I'm sixteen! All my friends go to parties without their parents breathing down their necks. It's part of being a teenager!" Odina argued back.
"Your sister has made it through her teen years just fine so far without making poor decisions," Mom said, and I winced, knowing just how unhelpful the words were when speaking to Odina. There'd been a time when we were close, when the thought of not having her as my best friend felt like an agony that would tear me in two.
But something had changed between us as children. As she spiraled into her pit of rebellion and destructive behavior, I'd done everything I could to protect her and mitigate the damage she caused. Which of course only made her hate me more.
"Of course! The fucking golden girl can do no wrong. Selfless, perfect Isa," Odina snarled, her footsteps thudding through the house as she made her way into the backyard. She'd climb up into the treehouse we'd called our haven as children, look for the cigarettes she kept stashed there, then rage at me when she discovered I'd taken them again.
I watched through the window as she hurried up the ladder, her mouth running a mile a minute as she cursed Mom and me to Hell and back for the control we tried to
