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My parents don’t talk about my aunt much, but from the limited information I’ve managed to get from them over the years, it seems as if she went off the rails, got in with a bad crowd, and ended up owing Spade money. But maybe there’s more to it than that?
“I don’t understand what any of this has to do with me,” I finally whisper.
Bryant runs his hand down his face, and my father turns away from us. “As you know, my father was good friends with your dad. After your aunt was murdered, your dad went after Spade. He wanted to take him down, and although my father tried to talk him out of it, he couldn’t let it go.”
“You’d be the same if it was your sister,” Dad snaps, and my eyes widen.
Bryant nods his agreement. “I would be the same if it were any of my brothers. But although he couldn’t take down Spade, he did kill his brother.”
I turn to my dad, the man who has preached safety until the ends of the earth, who has basically kept me in a fucking cage for the last decade, but it all makes sense now. It wasn’t because he was worried I would meet the same fate as my aunt, it was because he was worried the manhewronged would find out about me.
“You killed someone?” I whisper-shout, careful not to wake Bree. This doesn’t feel like a conversation she needs to be a part of.
“And my father helped him cover it up.”
“Thus starting a war we haven’t been able to drag ourselves out of for over a decade,” Kai adds, and I’m way too shell-shocked to even acknowledge him right now.
What the fuck?
“I still don’t really understand what this has to do with me and why I have to go to Chicago.”
“Spade always suspected I was involved in his brother’s death,” my dad explains. “But up until a few years ago, he couldn’t prove it, and by that point, I’d changed our names, moved houses, distanced us from the Hayes family, and did just about everything else I could think of to stay off their radar short of packing us up and moving.”
I think back, trying to remember us changing our names. Surely I would remember something like that? But apparently there’s a whole lot of shit I had no idea about.
Kai looks between my father and Bryant with barely contained annoyance. “Can you two stop pussyfooting around and just tell her what all this has to do with her?”
Bryant glares at his brother but nods. “A few weeks ago, we got wind of some guys in the club asking about you. They only had your first name and your old last name, but I got worried and called my dad, who called yours. We were just monitoring the situation, making sure you were safe when you were at the club, but tonight changes things.”
“But they were only interested in me because they thought you were,” I point out.
This whole fucking situation is ridiculous. Surely there has to be someone in this room who can see that.
He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Isla. I wish that were the case, but I’m afraid it’s much more serious than that. Which is why your dad thinks it’s best to send you away.”
I open my mouth to respond, but no words come out. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to say because this is pure insanity.
“Do we know anyone in Chicago?” I finally ask.
“Doc’s there. That’s who you’ll be staying with,” my father tells me.
“Uncle Doc? The same Uncle Doc who you despise and blame for Aunt Clarissa’s death?” I snap. And here I was thinking this couldn’t get any more ridiculous.
“You won’t just be staying with him.” Kai smirks, getting clear enjoyment out of my misery. “You’ll be marrying the guy.”
CHAPTER THREE
DOC
Ifucking hate this city.
I swore I would never step foot back in Boston after my wife died, and I had every intention of keeping that promise to myself.
And yet here I am, standing on the doorstep of my ex-brother-in-law, with no more information than that his daughter is in trouble.
I don’t know what the fuck that has to do with me, but when he kindly reminded me that I’m the reason his sister was dead, I really didn’t have much of a choice but to get on the first flight out of Chicago.
I lift my hand to knock, but before my fist can make contact with the wooden door, it swings open. A face I never thought I’d see again stares back at me with so much hatred that I almost turn around and walk my ass back down the steps of the old brownstone they’re living in.
