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“Kacey was here last night.” Immediately my attention is captured and I perk up for the first time in days.
“Why?” I can hear the hope in my own voice.
“Royal found him and asked for his help to find you.”
“Did you tell them where I am?”
“No, I wouldn’t betray you like that, Chanel.” Relief washes over me. I may have been too quick to judge her in the beginning.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me, but I do have to tell you something.” I tense.
“What is it?”
“Royal let slip that you were the one to cover the costs of his brother's burial.”
“Fuck.”
“He left straight after that and said he would deal with you when you came to him.” A shiver runs down my spine but not in a bad way. “Your dad is pissed, Chanel.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe he should learn that he can’t fucking tell me what to do.” Headlights shine in the distance and I end the call before peering through my scope. At the sight of Kacey’s Camaro, excitement begins to brew inside me. He drives past his building slowly as if he knows I’m watching him, then speeds off. Smiling to myself, I pack up my rifle and all my things before rushing down the fire escape. I know exactly where he is going and it’s about time I claimed my fucking man.
* * *
Pulling up out front of Xavier’s warehouse home, I smile. I knew he would come here. I’ve taken out every Albanian that has tried to come after Kacey or his family and only one of them proved useful enough to get me those messages. We have tried to hack and find anything we can but thanks to the FBI covering his tracks, Halil is virtually being erased from existence so there is no trace of him.
Climbing out of the car, I head to the back door and find it slightly ajar. I let myself in and follow the sounds of laughter into the living room, where I find Romeo, Xavier and Benny sitting around drinking a beer. The three of them shoot me knowing smiles.
“He’s upstairs in his room,” Xav says.
“Hisroom?” I query.
“That apartment was just a front, Chanel.Thisis Kacey’s home.” My eyes widened in surprise.
“What?” I breathe out.
“Go talk to your man,” Ro says. Nodding, I head upstairs and go in the direction of the room I was in last time. I push the door open and come to a stop at the sight of Kacey sitting on the end of his bed, with his forearms draped over the tops of his thighs and his head hung low. He doesn’t lift it at the sound of my approach or even when I close the door quietly behind myself. I lean against the wall and wait for him to say something. The silence stretches and I begin to worry that I have misread things, maybe he didn’t mean what he said the other night and didn’t want me to fight for us.
“You paid for my brother's funeral,” he murmurs. It’s not a question, just a statement.
“I did.”
“Why?” He still won’t look at me!
“Because I can and I wanted to help in my own way,” I say, feeling slightly unsure if I did the right thing now. “If it helps, your parents think you paid for it. I made sure everything was in your name,” I tack on as an afterthought, not wanting him to think I did it for credit or to try to bribe him for forgiveness after the way he was treated by my family.
He slowly lifts his head and when I see the distraught look in his blue eyes I want to drop to my knees and weep. He looks so broken. It’s a strange feeling to feel my heart ache for another. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not that jaded to not love my family but I’ve never felt this feeling before. It has me wanting to do anything I can to remove the sadness from his life and be his happiness.
“I buried my brother yesterday.”
“I know,” I whisper.
“I wanted to blame you and your family for his death.” I inhale sharply and brace myself for him to lash out. “Truth is, Marcus died because of me—”
“Kacey, no–”
He leaps to his feet and shoots me a scathing look. “You don’t know, you weren’t there that night. I could have let him go but I didn’t because I wanted to prove to my parents that I was the better son. I’m a fucking agent because it was demanded of me.” He pounds his fist against his heart and I ache to hold him, tell him that none of this is his fault but I remain where I am. “I broke my own heart. My parents wouldn’t even allow me to be there for his service. I had to stay on the hill and watch. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing anymore.” He scrubs a hand down in his face.
