Besides, the
Mal
believed her to be dead. Michael had managed to make her disappear after the death of her parents. While the
lucani
had needed to know that Cole still lived to lead them, Bella had been extraneous.
Sometimes, she believed that was part of her problem.
Three pairs of eyes continued to stare at her, all with varying degrees of raised eyebrows. She wasn’t going to win this one.
Taking a deep breath, she nodded, knowing that the sooner they got this out of their system, the sooner they could discuss the situation at hand. Besides, she wasn’t stupid. She knew Cole would worry about her if she didn’t cooperate. And he didn’t need to worry about her now.
“Fine, I’ll agree to a
temporary
guard. One, and only one. Now can we discuss what’s going on?”
Victory swept across Dorian’s expression before she wiped it away and leaned forward, hands on her knees, ready to listen. “Start at the beginning. Tell me everything you heard that night. I want to know every detail.”
So she told the tale again. How she had been walking home from dinner—
“With who?” Steven demanded.
She turned to give him a cool look. “With a group of friends, which I would have explained if you’d let me finish.”
“Do you go out with that same group at the same time every week?” Dorian asked.
She shook her head. “No, this was a spur-of-the-moment thing. One of the receptionists is getting married and—”
“Do you mean one of the workers at the veterinary clinic?” Dorian interrupted.
“Yes, her wedding’s in two weeks and we decided to take her out to dinner.”
“So this was totally unexpected?” Dorian asked.
“Well, no, a bunch of us had been planning to take her out for drinks after work one night and this just happened to work out.”
“And you’re sure no one at the clinic knows your real name?”
Bella sighed. This was another old fight. When she’d decided to take the job at the Philadelphia veterinary clinic run by
eteri
, both Cole and Dorian had had a fit. If she was going to work, they’d argued, why couldn’t she at least take a job with an Etruscan, preferably one of the
lucani
doctors working in Berks County. It had probably been one of the only times Cole and Dorian had ever been in agreement.
But she hadn’t wanted to work for an Etruscan. She’d wanted to cut herself off completely from the society that had cost her the love of her life.
When she’d refused, Cole had threatened to lock her away somewhere safe. Possibly in his basement. Dorian had actually left Cole’s side to visit her at school in Philadelphia and try to talk her out of it.
Bella had threatened to leave and never return. She didn’t want to be stuck in Berks County, she’d told him. She’d wanted to live in a big city. She’d actually considered New York City, but knew her brother would’ve had a heart attack. So she’d decided to stay in Philadelphia. It was close to Reading and southeastern Berks County, where the legion owned thousands of acres not far from her parents’ property.
She had laid out her plan and stuck to it. She’d made it through college and veterinary school without anyone learning her real identity. A job wouldn’t be much different. Not many people outside of the
lucani
community knew what she looked like. Those who did knew better than to identify her when there were others around who weren’t
lucani
.
“I’m positive,” she answered. “No one at the clinic knows who I am. And the night out was not planned. I had to hang out for a while after work, didn’t feel like running back to my apartment then heading back right away to meet up with everyone.”
Dorian’s eyes narrowed. “And they tried to grab you after you left the bar, so they either followed you there or they got lucky and saw your car parked on the street.”
Hmm. Which meant these guys had been watching her, following her. Both creeped her out.
“Either way,” Dorian continued, “the bad guys knew exactly what you looked like and where to find you.”
Well, when Dorian put it that way, it sounded much more…calculated.
She glanced at her brother and Steven just as they were exchanging
that
look. She remembered that look from her teen years. It meant she’d screwed up again and wasn’t that a shock.
Well, screw them. She wasn’t taking the rap for this one. She’d done everything she could—well, except for the bodyguard part—and someone had almost gotten to her.
With a huff, she held up one hand, partly in surrender. She wasn’t going to argue that point. Mostly because she couldn’t. “Yeah, they did. But I think we’re missing the bigger problem here. Jones knew I was the way to get to Steven. How?”
Now all eyes turned toward Steven.
Who never shifted his gaze from hers.
“I know I’m to blame for this.” His voice barely shook. “
I’ll
take care of it. But that—”
“No way,” Cole said. “Don’t even think about—”
“That’s definitely not the way to handle this—” Dorian said.
“—doesn’t change the fact that Bella needs a guard, preferably
grigorio
or
praetorian
,” Steven finished.
Bella couldn’t help but roll her eyes as they all talked over one another. And since none of them wanted to listen to her, she didn’t bother to interrupt again. She’d learned at an early age to let everyone else make plans and when they finished, she’d do what she wanted.
“Steven, there’s no way I’m gonna let you do this on your own.” Cole shook his head. “You think I want to lose anyone else—”
“Oh hell.” Steven sounded brusque but she could see he was touched. “Don’t be melodramatic. I’ve been taking care of myself for years.”
Cole snorted, his mouth twisting in a snarl. “Yeah, and look how well that turned out. You’re working for the fucking enemy and you didn’t even know it.”
She gasped as Steven’s face paled and even Dorian raised her eyebrows and stared at Cole in disbelief.
“
Shit
.” Cole bit out the curse, slamming his hands on his knees. “That didn’t come out right.
Vaffanculo
. I’ve been so fucking worried about you for so many years. You’re so damn stubborn, I don’t know—”
“Stubborn? I’m
stubborn
?” Steven’s voice sounded incredulous. “You told me to stay away. You
ordered
me to stay away.”
Uh oh. They’d started to gesture with their hands. When they’d been kids, that usually meant blows would follow.
“I was angry and you knew it.” Cole’s index finger came dangerously close to Steven’s chest. “You should have come back, you bastard.”
“Why the hell didn’t you ask me to?” Steven bit off each word.
“Because you broke her heart and she nearly killed herself!”
And that was her cue to put a stop to this. Leaning forward, she set one hand on either man’s chest and pushed them back into their seats. “That’s enough!”
They didn’t even glance at her.
“I was trying to protect her,” Steven shouted. “Do you think I wanted her to die? Don’t you know I would give my life for her? Or for you, you fucking idiot.”
Okay, that was nice but the choked sound of Steven’s voice ripped at her heart. “Steven! Cole!” She shoved at them again. “That’s it. Stop it. Right now. Or I’m heading back to Philly on the next plane.”
Ah, now she had their attention. Their faces held almost identical expressions of anger tinged with fear as they turned to look at her.
“You are going nowhere—”
“You’re not going anywhere—”
She whipped one hand in front of each man like a traffic cop. “I’ll go if I want to and neither of you will have a damn thing to say about it.”
That shut them up.
“You.” She pointed to Cole. “My accident wasn’t Steven’s fault. If you had listened to me when I talked to you afterward, you would’ve known that.” She turned to Steven. “And you…you should have known better than to think Cole wanted you gone. You should’ve stuck by us.”
Steven’s jaw clenched. She could tell he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure it wouldn’t dig him in deeper.
She took a deep breath. “Now, if you two are done, we’ve got things to discuss.”
Cole turned to Dorian. “I want Matt.”
Shit
. Cole had immediately returned to her situation about a bodyguard. And there was no
freaking
way she would put up with
grigorio
Matt Tedaldi. Not for all the chocolate in the world. She opened her mouth to protest but Dorian answered first. “He won’t come. He’s dealing with family issues. It’ll have to be someone else.”
Matt had family
?
“Who’s closest?” Stephen asked.
Dorian’s brows rose. “Luca. He came with me.”
Bella tried to hide her smile but couldn’t. “I can live with Luca.”
“Oh, no way in hell,” Cole said. “She’ll walk all over him. Shit, Dori, you know how he is.”
Just as she’d hoped, Dorian went to bat for her younger cousin. “He’s been training for this his whole life, Cole. Don’t you dare say anything—”
“Oh, please, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t twist this—”
“—about my cousin being unable to take care—”
“—into something it’s not.”
“—of his charges. He knows what he’s doing.”
While Dorian and Cole continued to face off across the car, Bella caught Steven staring at her, shaking his head, his expression grave.
“I’ll stay,” he said.
Elation lit her smile though she tried to hide it.
“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it, Steven. I don’t want you here if you don’t want to be here.”
And she meant that. She wanted him to want to be here. Wanted him to want to stay with her. She could manipulate him into staying, work on his guilt until he cried uncle and gave in. But it wouldn’t mean a damn thing if he didn’t
want
to be here.
His expression solemn, he gazed into her eyes. “You know damn well I’m exactly where I want to be and why this is the place I should be farthest from.” He held up his hand when she would have protested. “Don’t. Just don’t. I’ll stay. For now. And you’ll still have Luca stuck to you like glue. Got it?”
She nodded, her smile fading. “Thank you.”
* * *
The atmosphere in the car was so loaded with tension, Amy Jo swore she could feel it crawling over her skin like ants.
She sat in the front with Diego, needed to sit in the front because she got violently ill if she sat in the back. Motion sickness sucked.
Marco hadn’t given her a fight, had simply climbed into the backseat and turned his head to look out the window. Neither brother had said a word to the other since they’d left the hotel.
After an hour of trying to draw one or the other into conversation, she gave up and tried to take a nap.
That lasted all of about an hour, leaving another five hours of driving time, according to Diego’s calculations.
They could’ve cut down on that time if they’d flown, but of course, they couldn’t risk a commercial flight with her.
She sighed. Life sucked.
Although…last night certainly hadn’t.
She slid a look at Diego then couldn’t force herself to look away. The man seemed to have gotten more gorgeous in the hours between last night and right now.
Of course, the great sex might’ve had something to do with that.
“Amy Jo.”
Oh, hell, she even liked the way he said her name. His voice was husky and hinted at dark secrets.
“Amy Jo.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re staring.”
“So?”
His eyebrows rose into arches, so different from their normal straight slash. “Why?”
Her mouth tilted into a smile. She’d learned a little bit about this man in the past hours, enough to know he didn’t like to be the center of attention. He liked to be the one who watched. “Why shouldn’t I?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Why don’t you get some sleep?”
She shrugged. “Tried that already. I’m too wound.”
“Then find something else to stare at.”
“Y’know, you really are too masculine to be pretty, but I gotta say, your hair is much prettier than mine. Do you curl it or is it just natural?”
In the backseat, Marco snorted, exposing his sleep as a fraud. Diego shot her a look that was part embarrassment, part bemusement.
Lucky for her, she’d gotten used to that as one of the only kids in her high school who’d actually enjoyed learning and had been determined to go to college. All the others just wanted to get a job or find a man.
“No, I don’t curl my hair. Do you say everything that comes into your head?”
She nodded. “Yeah, mostly. Bad habit I’ve picked up since I gained fangs and a new fur coat.”
That sent the mood in the car plummeting again as Diego stiffened, his knuckles going white as he clenched the steering wheel, and Marco drew in a short, sharp breath.
Damn, she should’ve kept her mouth shut. Again. When the hell was she going to learn?
“Turning furry every month is a shock to the system, especially for those who don’t ask for it,” Marco said from the backseat. “Don’t beat yourself up over what you can’t control.”
She turned her head as much as she dared—the motion sickness was a real bitch—to look at Marco.
“I try not to, but it’s hard, ya know?”
Marco actually cracked a smile. “Yeah, I know.”
Amy Jo’s lips curved and she felt a short sharp tug in her middle that felt a hell of a lot like attraction.
Wow. Was it just because he looked so much like Diego?
Although, the more she time she spent with the brothers, the more different they looked.
Both were wildly attractive. So much so, Amy Jo found it hard to breathe.
She’d never been attracted to two men at the same time, especially not brothers. God, she could just imagine the mess that would make.
She’d slept with Diego last night, for Christ’s sake. How stupid was she to smile at Marco this morning?
Dropping her gaze, she turned around, catching Diego’s thoughtful expression.
Did he know what she was thinking? He’d probably be furious with her if he did. Marco and Diego had a rocky enough relationship without a woman getting in the middle of them.