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Swallowing, I made my way to him. “Good morning, Arkane,” I said, softly taking in the color of his eyes in the rare morning sunlight.

“Morning, Bella.” He smiled at me and nodded toward the coffee table. “I had Georgie send some food for you. Should still be warm.”

“Georgie?” I asked, taking in the table filled with all possible food.

“She used to be my mother’s cook. Until the great Cassandra decided that her son needed Georgie more.”

“She’s right,” I told him, taking a big bite of the buttery French toast. “This is amazing.” I didn’t even wait to swallow my toast before I sipped on the black coffee, which did wonders for my slight headache.

“Eat slowly.” Arkane chuckled. “It’s not going anywhere.”

I nodded, gesturing to the massive makeshift board he was standing by. “What’s all this?”

“Everything we have so far,” he muttered, making some pointers that I didn’t understand.

It was almost like a crime scene board straight out of the detective’s office, with every possible detail we knew so far on the Covent, Heath Glen, and his associations. Arkane Stormhold was a meticulous planner. That much was obvious.

“Tell me about Heath Glen,” I asked the question I’d been holding back for days. Maybe if I knew everything about him, I’d get a bigger picture of my past.

“Heath Glen.” Arkane huffed, meeting my eyes. “What about him do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

He flicked a brow as he went back to making notes on his board and explained, “Well, his family moved from Bulgaria to the States in the ’90s. Initially set foot in NYC but soon struck a business deal with my father, which granted them entry into the Twins. Things were good at first, more than good. They called it the golden time during my father’s reign. Only for it to fuck him up later. Girls soon went missing in the Lowers in an odd escalation. That’s when we realized the Glen family was involved in skin trade and was earning millions right under our noses. But thankfully, grandfather was still alive at that time and decided to put an end to them and burn the entire family down. Heath Glen was about nineteen at that time, the eldest son of Senior Glen. I’ve heard people say, from time to time, that he was far too intelligent for his age. There wasn’t much he loved except for his little sister, Ana. And you know how the whole Kenny and Ana story went. He was supposed to die in that fire that night, but somehow he managed to escape. The same couldn’t be said for his sister. And when Kenny left, he simply stayed with him and became his most trusted associate.”

“What about Killian? When did Ana have a child?”

“We don’t know for sure; it was only years later we learned they shared a child.”

“Do you have any idea why he invaded our home?” I leaned forward with a frown. “I remember him asking my mother for something, not sure what. But she handed him her laptop.”

Arkane brought his steely eyes back to me. “I don’t know,” he said.

I nodded, frowning. “If you ever capture him alive, will you let me take his life?” I asked in a low tone.

Arkane paused, a thin line forming on his jaw as understanding crossed his features. “I will,” he promised with a certain conviction in his tone. We didn’t have to speak to know that Heath Glen took more than my family’s lives that night. He also took a sixteen-year-old girl’s hopes and dreams and sanity.

Suddenly feeling somewhat exposed, I averted my gaze, whispering, “Thank you.”

We spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out some answers, but soon, it was time for Arkane to leave for whatever it was that he did during his day, and I decided to finally take a shift at the library.

Only this time, we parted with a promise of seeing each other again at the end of the day.

Something about it unfurled an exciting feeling in my chest.

A feeling that I didn’t ever want to go away.

CHAPTER 21

BELLE

The following two weeks passed like minutes spent staring at the ocean waves crashing as you enjoyed the softest breeze dancing on your bare skin. It was the kind of timeless days that I wanted to spend forever in.

Every night, I found myself at Arkane’s place, claiming to discuss important matters, but that was far from the truth. We did talk about important matters, but we also did something else altogether, building a routine of sorts that didn’t really fit our narrative but felt right. While I mostly read a book I brought along, curled on his couch, Arkane worked diligently on his tech, which he even had me test at times. I loved how his eyes sparkled when he showed me that side of him. And every night we ate together, having endless conversations on random topics that most of the world wouldn’t care for.

To him, this place was an escape, and to me it was peace. The kind that comforts you like a soft bed and a warm blanket. We both found ourselves shedding the skin we put on for the outside world and becoming something together. It was hard to describe what it was that we were, but when it was just us, it felt like home.

With him, it felt like the outside world vanished altogether. These days, I’m swallowed only by the thoughts of him, wondering if he felt the same, or if this time with me was simply a temporary glitch in his life.