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“He had an errand to run with Vas and Andrei,” he told me. “Leon is having trouble with his father, and he went to give him some backup.”
I nodded and took another sip of my coffee.
Yep, heaven.
My gaze caught on someone sitting at the table, brown locks tied back in a braid, shoulders taut as she scraped her fork along the plate in front of her. I’d know her anywhere, even with our time spent apart.
“What is she doing here?” I hissed, keeping my voice low so she wouldn’t hear.
“Ava,” my father scolded gently. “She’s here because she is your sister.”
I gave an unladylike snort. “My sister is dead.”
“You can’t harbor anger about something that never happened,” he told me. Except, to me, it had happened. I’d watched her shoot the man I loved right in front of me and then taunt me about it. Saying that it should have been me. That she would make me pay. I had nightmares about that night for weeks.
“Did you invite her?” I asked.
My father shook his head. “No,” he sighed. “She wanted to be here for you. Kenzi is one of the reasons the raid on the McDonough mansion went so well. Without her, it would have been a lot harder.”
“Because she’s a killer,” I sneered.
“So are you.”
My eyes fell shut, and I bit my bottom lip anxiously. Whose side was he on anyway? Even if he was right, he was my father, and he should take my side.
And I’m five.
Or I’m right.
Nope, definitely acting like a child.
Fine.
“Ugh,” I groaned, stomping to the coffeepot to refill my cup. If I was going to confront Kenzi, I was definitely going to need more magic mojo. I took a deep, measured breath before making my way to the dining room table where my sister waited.
I sat in the chair to her right. She didn’t say anything or acknowledge me as I did. There was a brief beat of awkward silence before she pushed a plate of pancakes and a clean fork toward me. All right, then.
Picking up the fork, I dug into the fluffy pancakes. The sound of chewing and scraping forks filled the awkwardness. The only other sound came from the hushed voices of my family in the kitchen. We sat like that until the food on both of our plates was cleared and there was nothing else to distract from what was to come.
“I was so excited to go to London,” Kenzi murmured brokenly, her eyes cast down at her plate, refusing to look at me. “I remember getting off the plane and heading out toward the car Father had arranged to take me to the college.”
She took a shuddered breath, her bottom lip trembling. “There was a man waiting,” she continued. “It didn’t seem right. When I tried to turn away, he grabbed me. In broad daylight. And no one did a thing to stop him.”
I kept quiet, letting her work through her story at her own pace. I’d never been known for my patience, but for Kenzi, I would make the effort. She was different from what I remembered. Not that I expected her to be the same. Even in the barn, I noticed just how little of the Kenzi I knew remained. There was a cold, calculated look in her eyes she didn’t have before.
There wasn’t any innocence left, because the world had gone and stolen it. Like it had been stolen from Libby.
From me.
Elias Ward had ruined us. Taken everything special. I’d let Dante take care of Kendra, but Christian was still out there somewhere, and he was mine. For taking Libby from me, the one who kept me believing in fairy tales. The most innocent of us all.
“They drugged me,” she whispered after a few minutes, her gaze flitting to me. “I don’t remember a lot, but it wasn’t…” She paused. “They took me to a place—” She shook her head, trying to sort through the foggy memories. “A place where they trained us to seduce and kill. Cold-hearted assassins are what they tried to make us all into.”
“Tried?” I cocked my head to the side and stared at her for a moment, taking in her pale face and blue eyes. “You looked pretty assassin-y to me back in that barn with all your kung-fu.” Her lips twitched slightly.
“Not too bad yourself.” She praised me sadly before letting out a long sigh etched with pain. “We’re so screwed up.”
Picking up my coffee cup, I leaned back in my chair and cuddled the warmth of the cup with my hands. “Yeah,” I chuckled lightly. “But I think you’re more screwed up.”
