Part 3 (1/2)

And how in h.e.l.l had she gotten that name?

f.u.c.k.

I stepped out onto the back porch. Clouds rolled in, swallowing up the sun, painting the sky a heavy grey. As if matching the storm of my thoughts, the wind picked up, but I stood there in T-s.h.i.+rt and jeans, no jacket, running my hands through my hair, staring out into the dense thicket of trees.

Was someone playing a sick game? She wouldn't be a target. She couldn't be.

But h.e.l.l, her mother shouldn't have been one either. Had Heather's murder been an accident? Wrong place, wrong time? Killing Bryan wouldn't have caused the war that started four years ago, but killing Heather? f.u.c.k. I'd been so caught up with my own sense of betrayal that when I'd run, I'd left it all behind. I hadn't allowed myself to think of it. Of the consequences. But now that Aria was here now that she thought she knew the name of the killer?

f.u.c.k.

Bryan's murder had been planned and calculated, that was a fact, but what I hadn't known was that it was the start of something bigger. It had to be because, after the murders, Aria had been protected. Hidden. I'd found her, but it hadn't been easy. And hunting people was what I did. I'd had no intention of going near her though. My presence in Heather and Bryan's lives was what had gotten them killed. But I'd wanted to see how well she'd been hidden and if she was protected.

Xander would have safeguarded his granddaughter. She was the last of his line. He had no more children or grandchildren. No more Alphas. With Xander aging, Rage, Savage Blood's fiercest enemy pack, would be up for grabs unless another within their ranks proved powerful enough to take over.

When I'd been sent to find the Hales and insert myself within the family, befriending Bryan, I'd been made to understand that it was with the intention of initiating Bryan into Savage Blood, my pack, blocking any attempt by Rage to initiate him into theirs.

Bryan belonged to both packs. He was the grandson of Rage's Alpha, Xander, and his father, Derek, was next in line as Alpha of Savage Blood. The union between Heather and Derek had begun the process of healing, of uniting the packs. But decades of war between them meant there was opposition to that union on all sides.

But then Derek had been ambushed and killed, ending any hopes for union, for peace. I'd been a kid then, but my suspicions as to who had ordered his killing made my stomach turn.

Heather had then taken Bryan and Aria and run, severing all ties with her family and with the pack. What I had done, the lies I had told to make her trust me, shamed me now. I was a monster who deserved to rot in h.e.l.l for what I had caused. I was just as guilty as the two who carried out the killings. The blood of Bryan and Heather Hale would forever stain my hands.

And now Aria had found me. She'd sought me out. If she learned what I'd done, she'd probably take that switchblade and push it into my chest.

And she'd be right to.

Yet, all I could think about when I was near her was sinking my f.u.c.king d.i.c.k inside her. The pull was irresistible.

”Where are my clothes?”

I turned to find Aria standing in the doorway holding up her towel with one hand and clutching her boots with the other, the knuckles of both hands white. She glared at me, still obviously p.i.s.sed. Wet hair hung around her and she s.h.i.+vered as the cold wind blew. I looked at her, at the parts of her the towel didn't cover, and it took effort to return my gaze to hers.

”Inside.” I'd been so wrapped up in my thoughts I hadn't even heard her coming up behind me.

She went in and I followed. It took all I had to focus on the floor and not her a.s.s. Sliding the door closed behind me, I went into the laundry room and grabbed her things from the dryer. But when I turned to hand them to her, she was standing so close I almost ran into her.

Aria Hale wasn't sixteen anymore, and everything about her appealed to the darker part of me. But she was innocent. Underneath that tough exterior she really wasn't pulling off, she was innocent and she deserved a life. A normal one. My gaze traveled to her shoulder and arm, to the tattoo of the black rose, of the graveyard there. It didn't belong on her body. Something so ugly shouldn't have ever touched her.

But it had.

It wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for you.

”I'm...I'm sorry if I scared you earlier.” It took two tries to say it, my throat had gone so dry.

Her eyes widened, searching mine, and I could see the hurt there, the confusion, all the f.u.c.king questions she had every right to ask. ”I just want to understand why.” Her face crumpled as she said it, her eyes filling with tears. She sniffled, lowering her lashes to hide those tears, wiping what had fallen with the back of her hand. ”I need to know, Zane.”

Seeing her now, having her here, it brought up all the things I'd been able to keep buried for six years, and I didn't like it. I wasn't ready for it. Probably never would be. When she faced me again and I saw the hardness that had replaced all the soft, it cut me. I was the cause of that. I was the cause of her suffering.

”Get dressed. You'll catch a cold.” That was all I could say.

”I'm not getting dressed in front of you.”

”Don't flatter yourself, Aria. Besides, I saw all I needed to see last night when you were pa.s.sed out drunk and I had to clean you up.” I was being an a.s.shole, words coming out of my mouth I didn't want to speak.

”Get a good eyeful, Zane?” She reddened as she said it.

”Sure did.” I grinned, making a point of scanning all the soft, pretty flesh the tiny towel didn't hide, hating myself for being a p.r.i.c.k. ”In there.” I pointed to the living room and made my way to the kitchen. Pouring a cup of lukewarm coffee I wouldn't drink, I waited. She came inside a few minutes later and stood on the other side of the counter. ”More coffee?”

”I don't get why you're so p.i.s.sed at me. I mean, really, did you think I would just pick up and go on without any thought as to what happened? Did you think I'd be okay not knowing why my mother and brother were killed? They were all I had.”

Guilt ate at me, but I had to push on. I had to be a callous jerk to keep her safe. She needed to drop this and she needed to be as far away from me as possible. People got killed around me, and I could not have her blood on my hands. Not hers.

”Case was closed, Aria. The killers were found.”

”Dead.”

”Isn't that the best way?”

”No, not for me. You were Bryan's best friend. I would think you'd want to know why.”

That twisted my heart because I already knew. It had been eating at me for six long years. ”I'm not the person you thought I was, Aria. Not the person Bryan thought I was.” I turned away. ”You need to go.”

”Why did you run away that night?”

I poured my coffee into the sink before facing her again. ”How did you get that name?”

”You don't answer any of my questions. Why should I answer yours?”

I advanced around the counter, moving into her s.p.a.ce. ”Consider it your thank you for saving your a.s.s last night.”

”Why do you care anyway? I mean, what was it you said? There's no power in understanding?”

”I'm not trying to understand anything. I'm asking you for a fact.” I wasn't afraid of her finding Obsidian. She wouldn't because he no longer existed.

”I got a letter on my last day of school.”

”From?” So someone had found her, and a new game was in play.

”I'm not sure. It was a typewritten, anonymous note. No return address. No nothing.”

”Where is it?”

”In my car.”

”Have you told anyone you were coming to find me?”

”Who would I tell?” She made an incredulous face.