“Is that why Z and I couldn’t come around anymore?”

I nodded. “My orders were to keep her protected but mostly isolated. Her mother never wanted her involved in his other life. I guess it was his way of keeping his promise to her.”

“Damn. Why didn’t you at least say something?”

“We both know my father. One fuck up and that was it. I wasn’t taking chances.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

I swallowed back pain. “Three years ago. It was a couple of months before her father murdered mine.”

On my fucking birthday.

“Shit,” he mumbled.

I decided not to share that our brief separation was mostly due to what an asshole I had been to her. We had a falling out after I stomped all over her feelings for good. I could still remember the look on her face when I walked away…

“So, you haven’t seen or spoken to her since then?”

I shook my head. “I called so she could wish me a happy birthday.” His eyebrows bunched, and I could tell he was about to dig deeper in shit I didn’t care to share so I quickly changed the subject.

“The book is gone.”

“Gone? What do you mean gone?” Alarm and disbelief wiped away any confusion he’d had about my past.

I shrugged as if she hadn’t run away with the past, present, and future of the Knights. “She got in the safe.”

“Fuck!” He rubbed at his forehead and pulled his phone from his pocket. “I have a man on her. He can grab her and have her here in less than two hours.”

“No.”

“No? What do you meanno?”

“I mean we do this my way.”As we always do.

He stared at me for a beat before exploding. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“Deadly.”

“She could—”

“I want her to make her next move, and we’re going to be there when she does. Even if her father didn’t send her, which I highly doubt, I don’t think she’s working alone.”

“She could be.”

I shook my head sharply. “She had information that only a Knight should know. She’s not a fucking Knight.”

“Your father is dead. Who else could it have been?”

“Theo.”

“You said only a Knight—”

“My father trusted Theo with more than just his life. It was a mistakethat cost him his life.”

A mistake I had no intention of repeating.

I saw Lucas flinch and knew he knew exactly what I left unsaid.

I didn’t have the patience to assuage his feelings or sense of security regarding our friendship right now. He was my brother. I’d die for him but not by his hand. Not like my father.

He trusted the wrong man.

History would not repeat itself.

He sighed and locked his gaze with mine. “So, this is your plan?”

“We make her think she’s safe and then we take it all away.”

“What about her father?”

“He’s in prison. He can’t protect her.” He’d already done a shit job at it anyway if he was behind last night.

“Do you think she knows why Theo killed pops?”

“Her presence here last night gave me a pretty good clue.”

Lucas’s nostrils flared. “Art’s death by Theo’s hand never added up. When we take her, I have no intention of letting her keep secrets,” he warned. I stroked the light scruff on my chin and considered his threat.

He wanted Theo dead.

I wanted him to suffer.

My father taught me that gratification was appreciated more when taken slowly.

“Trust me, brother. Theo’s kid won’t be taking anything to her grave but her corpse.”

He still didn’t look convinced, and I was quickly losing my patience. Mian had no power over me anymore. “You two have history. You practically raised her. You think you can put her down when it’s time?”

“There’s nothing left protecting her except for mercy, and I have none when it comes to her.”

Lucas’s lips twisted. “Are you’re sure nothing happened between you two?”

“She was a fucking kid.”

“She still is.” His grin was slow. “Then again with that body, I’m not so sure.”

The appreciation in his gaze twisted my gut, and I didn’t like it one bit.

“You saying you want to fuck her?” A switch flipped in my brain giving me the okay to kill this motherfucker if he tried.

“I know at least one of us in this room does, and it’s not just me,” he shot back. “You want her so bad, brother—you’re practically shaking with it. It’s been three years since you’ve seen her. That’s some serious backed up tension. When the two of you are finally in the same room again, you just might spontaneously combust.”

“Are you done yet?”

“You may kill her, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with her first.”

“She couldn’t handle me.”

“That’s because you remember a kid. I,” he pointed to his chest,“saw a woman.”

“I don’t want her.”

Lie.

“Maaaan,” he drawled. “Who are you trying to fool? Yourself or me? Because you’d have better luck fooling me than yourself.”