They left.

Raize took one look at me.

He was across the room the next second.

I was lifted up in his arms, and I gave in.

I, simply, just gave in.

My legs wouldn’t have been able to work anyways. I was done.

Just.

I was done.

He carried me from the room.

“We’re going to be the best sisters ever.”

Brooke was so happy.

“Yeah?” I was trying to smile, but this felt weird. I just didn’t know why it felt weird.

“Yeah! You and me. Sisters forever. Right?” She had her hands in the air. She was that excited, but she paused and frowned. “Wait. What’s your name again?”

66

Just Me

They charged my father. Child endangerment, neglect of a child. It was why he never reported me missing, or Ashley. On the day they charged him, Raize took me to see her. She wasn’t Brooke anymore.

We were told she was going by the name of Ashley again.

She was happy.

She had decent weight on her. She didn’t look gaunt in the face, which she had been before she left and she was smiling now.

I’d also gotten pictures from the guy Raize had watching her.

One was her leaving a counseling office.

Another of her at the grocery store.

A third where she was having coffee with an older lady. And others. They looked like her. There was a family resemblance. A man. A woman. A brother. A sister. Could’ve been a couple aunts, too.

She seemed happy, but how could that be? After everything? But she was smiling. They were smiling.

None of that made sense to me, but they were.

We were currently watching Brooke cooking dinner with a woman. Both were in their kitchen.

Raize stepped up behind me. His chest grazed my back. “Do you want to talk to her?”

I shook my head, my stomach dropping, but my chest lightening at the same time. It was a bittersweet feeling. “No.”

“She knows what you did. That you were the one who came forward. She knows that.” His hand moved to my front, resting against my stomach.

A bittersweet feeling twisted inside of my gut. “Maybe one day, but not today.”

A whole new wave of emotion surged up inside of me, this one making me bite my lip because I didn’t want to cry.

But damn. I wanted to cry.

He moved to stand in front of me, and he touched under my chin, tilting my head up. A soft expression came over him, one that was loving and it took my breath away. I was blinking back tears for a whole different reason. Seeing them, he got even softer. He reached up, a finger tracing down a strand of my hair and sliding behind my ear and then moving to the back of my head. He took a breath and moved even closer, his body brushing mine. His forehead lowered, not completely touching mine, but he was that close.

I felt everything from him. His heartbeat. His heat. His breathing.

I felt a slight tremor course through his body, too.

“You need to know something. Your sister’s case is getting a lot of attention, too much. Roman called today. He’s ready to offer you a proposition. He said you can be free. You don’t need to work for him. You can walk across the street and knock on that door. Ashley told the police that she’d like to see you, have a relationship with you. You could join that life. It’s as simple as that.”

I didn’t react. I couldn’t, and I think a part of me knew the other side. “What’s the other offer?”

“You continue working for him, with me, and we disappear right now. But, you could be free. You joined this world to find your sister—”

I touched his chest, stopping him. “I joined this life because Brooke Ashley was taken again. The first time was my fault. The second time was my chance at redemption. Save her, and maybe I could save myself.”

Oh man.

Oh boy.

I had no idea that’s what was going to come out of me.

No. Clue!

But, whoa. Wow.

Redemption.

And all the ‘lines.’

It made sense now.

But then I felt who was holding me.

I looked up.

Give up Raize for freedom. I knew that was the fine print for the first offer. It only made sense.

Roman wanted me to leave to help the spotlight fade away a bit, so it wouldn’t get connected to him, but he wasn’t going to give up Raize. There was no way.

That meant, freedom meant me giving up Raize.

I already knew my choice.

67

Unknown At The Moment

“Raize tells me that you’ve agreed to work with me.”

With me. Not for me.

This guy was good.

When I first met Roman Marakov, I hadn’t known what to expect, but going in and meeting this guy—he was in a whole other league. There’d been extraneous factors with the first meeting, so I was using this one as the official introduction. He wasn’t like Raize.

No one was like Raize.

Roman Marakov was a thinker. That’s what I meant.

He was the type of guy who not only played chess, won at chess, he was the guy who invented the board. That’s who Raize’s boss was and after the first three minutes, he started talking about Raize and I knew this guy also knew he was lucky to have who he had working for him. The admiration and respect wasn’t to be faked.

That helped affirm my decision.

We were shaking hands and I released his, just going to lay out my cards. “I have a problem with killing. And Brook—Ashley was trafficked. I have a problem with that, too.”

His eyes flared and the corner of his mouth twitched. “So I’m told.”

“Is that a problem?”

More deep amusement shone from him, but he kept a clear face. Nothing was twitching now. “It’ll be good to have someone like you in the room. I didn’t choose this life, but I’m going forth the best I can.”

“I did.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Hmm?”

“I chose this life.” Twice now. “Just so you know.”

There was a switch in his gaze, something deeper, darker shone there, but he only nodded. “I see.”

Well, I didn’t.

I had no clue why I wanted him to know that, but I did and he knew he did and now I felt an awkwardness between us, but it was also one that I wanted to be there. And again, I had no clue what was going on.

But he only grinned faintly before extending a hand toward the bar in his office. “I’m glad that everything is settling for Ashley, but I’m also glad that you’ve decided to stay on with us. Should we celebrate?”

I inclined my head, and as he made me a drink, he asked, “So, Ash. I have to ask, should I have killed Marco Estrada instead of deciding to enter into a business relationship with him? What’s that magical gut of yours saying?”

“You want to do what?!”

As part of our agreement to ‘join Roman’ we needed to disappear. One might think we’d go to Hawaii or Turks and Caicos… Nope. We went back to West Virginia, and since it came out that Roman somehow had sunk claws into a certain brother-in-law that was also a local parole officer, Jake brought Tracey around to meet us all.