Eight

Vale

It was late when I pulled into my driveway after the club's family dinner. The gathering had gone longer than I'd thought it would, until suddenly, Kale had lurched to his feet and announced he'd walk me out to my car.

The club's lot was secure, with fencing, cameras and motion sensors. One couldn't get in or out without a digital key in or on their vehicle and certainly no one was undetected by Planny and his systems. But my brother never let me go to my car alone. Even in broad daylight.

And tonight, he'd stayed there watching until I'd turned onto the road. I couldn't help but noticing, Biter, his second in command, stood a short distance away, scanning the area and watching Kale's back. Strangely, it was only when they went into uber protective mode that I ever felt endangered by who Kale was and what he did. But I knew he'd do whatever was necessary to keep me safe. He'd said as much before, and I believed him.

I wished he was watching out for me now as I turned off my car, but that would defeat the point of me declaring I was a big girl who could take care of herself away from his fortress. I didn't need to live on the compound to be safe.

Still, a shiver ran through me and settled like a stream of ice water along my spine. Unsettled by the sensation, I glanced around. Nothing. Still, I reached between my feet and under my seat to retrieve the gun Kale insisted I keep there—insisted I have and made sure I could shoot.

There were no trees or bushes nearby that could hide someone, no strange cars parked on that street.

That's when I saw it, and the trickle of icy fear morphed into a gush of terror. That car. That curly, blond hair. The form of the person who'd been the last thing Melonie had seen five years ago.

Unable to wrench away my stare, I watched Dayton open his door, then both of them disappear inside his house. Pain erupted in my chest while I struggled to breathe, feeling every gunshot again. Hide. I had to hide and get away.

Moving as fast as I could, I darted into my house, locking the door and throwing the deadbolt. I didn't turn on lights, just ran, fully immersed in the past.

"What are you doing here? What are you…?" A gun! That was a gun pointed at me. I should have told Dayton about the letters. I should have take them seriously. I'd thought I was safe. That I was keeping him safe.

Never thought it was…real. This was…too real. I'd made a mistake.

The laugh scraped over me like claws. "I told you I'd come for you if you didn't leave him. You ignored me."

Dayton. Oh, God, Dayton. This would…kill him. Us. I couldn't leave him.

Everything turned to a garble, me pleading, the laughter…then the report of the gunfire. Falling, screaming with no voice. My body below me, blood everywhere, while I struggled to cling to my mortal being.

"Vale! Vale! Goddammit, Vale!"

My body rattled, a bruising grip on my biceps while my brother crouched in front of me, shaking me back to the present. A tingling, white glow seemed to surround his hands where he grasped me, but when I blinked hard, the illusion faded. I stared at him, panting, before my gaze flitted around to look for the gunman who'd seemed so real.

We were in the corner of my walk-in closet where I must have been huddled, trying to hide. I didn't even remember running there.

"What are you doing here?" I rasped, my throat aching, and I wondered if I'd been screaming or if it was from struggling to breathe. I didn't ask. Kale looked genuinely freaked out, and I'd never seen him anything less then fully composed, even when pissed.

"What am I doing here?" he scoffed. "What the fuck just happened?"

My head shook. I couldn't tell him.

"Vale…" he started, his voice full of warning.

"I don't know what happened. I… I was fine, and then, I…um…" I couldn't catch my breath through the panic strangling me, and my words were panted bursts akin to gunshots, sending ripples of phantom pain over my limbs. "I was…five years ago. I…"

"Oh, sweetheart," he whispered, drawing me into his embrace and seeming to breathe just as heavily as me. As his arms tightened, I remembered he'd lost his fiancée in the accident that had switched me with his sister—something he could never know. "I felt something was wrong—I knew. Then you wouldn't answer the door and I heard you screaming. I don't know that I've ever been more scared in my life—except once."

He didn't have to say what the time was. I knew. I'd never bring it up.

"I'm sorry." I was sorry for so many things. His losses. My loss. That I hadn't taken the threats against me seriously. Because who would threaten a mousy translator for an international brokerage firm?

"No." His hand cupped the back of my head, holding me to his chest, comforting me, comforting his sister, and rocking. "It wasn't your fault. None of it was your fault."

He thought he was talking about the accident. Angelina had been driving and Before-Vale had been the passenger. But he was right. While I, as Melonie, had some blame for ignoring the threats, thinking they weren't real and that I was protecting Dayton by not worrying him, the fault lay on the murderer and not me.

"I'm sorry I interrupted church," I whispered into his shirt then pulled away, composing myself. He let go and sank back on his heels.

"Pfft. It's okay. Biter took over. Some things are more important. You know, if you were—"

"Don't," I moaned.

"I'm just saying…"

"The same thing as usual. I don't know what happened just now, and I'm…sorry. It's never happened before, and…" I wanted to say that being at the club wouldn't change things, but had I not been here, I never would have been triggered by Dayton's visitor.

"I just want you safe," Kale insisted. "You're too far away when I'm at the club. Maybe, I should…move in with you?"

"Kale, you can't move in with me. You have your life at the club…with the guys and what you all do. Things I don't want to know about. They need you there. I have my life here. We might be twins, but we're not conjoined." I ended on a tease to soften my refusal.

"I just want you to be safe," he repeated.

I just wanted that, too, but I needed to reconnect with Dayton more. I knew being with him might put me in the sights of the murderer again, but I stayed on this plane of existence for Dayton, for what we had together, for our soul connection. If I kept hiding, what was the point?