“That’s all we can really ask for, isn’t it?” He nodded slowly. “To have a family that truly loves and accepts us.”

“That’s all that matters.” I agreed. “You made a good pick with Lucky, she’s amazing and I already love her like she’s a part of the family.”

“Yeah, I’ve been blessed.” His eyes shone with emotion. “I’m glad you love her; she’s already the central part of our family. She loves you like a brother, you know. She really loves and cares about you. It’s funny that you’re not even related, but she always talks and worries about you.”

“I guess you don’t have to be related by blood to love someone as a family member.” I stared at him, my eyes blazing. “Sometimes they worm their way into your heart and they become a part of you. And when someone becomes a part of you, they automatically become your family.”

Chapter 3

“You can’t tell anyone.”

“I just need to tell my brother.” I made a face. “He’s a hothead, but he’s trustworthy. He won’t tell anyone. Not even our dad.”

“No.” Special Agent Waldron shook his head. “If we go forward with this, you can’t tell anyone.”

“I can’t just leave and not tell him.” My heart stilled. “It would kill him. I’m all he has.”

“That’s what we’re counting on.” He stared at me with blank eyes. “You cannot tell him.”

“You don’t understand. It’s always been us. We don’t have a mother, our father doesn’t care about us. And Zane, well, he’s already closed off. I can’t just leave and not have him know. He won’t stop searching for me.”

“Then you’ll die.” He nodded and took out a pad. “That’s probably the better idea anyway.”

“Die?” I shrunk back and shivered. “I don’t think Braydon knows that I heard anything. Do you think they’re going to put a hit out on me?”

“I don’t mean that Sanchez is going to kill you.” He looked up at me and sighed. “I mean we’ll fake your death. It should motivate your brother to help us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s in that crowd as well. He knows Braydon, Angelique, and the others. I’ll approach him at the funeral and see if he can help me.”

“I don’t want him involved.” I shook my head. “If you need help, I can do it.”

“No.” He shook his head vehemently. “They’ll suspect you too easily. We need someone else.”

“I don’t want Zane involved in this.” I stood up. “Sorry, but I’m not interested in helping anymore.”

“Stop.” His voice was commanding, and I paused as I walked to the door. “It’s not safe for you or anyone else. We need to get these guys, Noah. I know that you know how dangerous they are. That’s why you came to us.”

“I can’t just disappear, though.”

“It won’t be forever.” He sighed. “We’ll have you disappear in a small town I know. Stay low and you’ll be safe. Unless you change your mind about witness protection.”

“No, I’m not going forever.” I bit my lip. “I don’t understand why you can’t call Zane and ask him to come in now. We can tell him the plan. He can still help us.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t risk him slipping up. If he thinks you’re dead, and he thinks Braydon is responsible, he’ll do more. He’ll go looking for the truth. We need that.”

“You don’t know what he’ll do.”

“We’re pretty sure.” He smiled at me, tight-lipped, and I looked at the folders on his desk. I saw one with my name and underneath it I saw a label that said “Zane Beaumont.” I shivered as I realized that they must have been investigating both of us.

“So what’s in the files?” I nodded towards his desk with a frown.

“Everything that exists outside of your minds.” He shrugged. “I like to know who I’m dealing with.”

“That explains the file about me, but not about Zane.”

“What can I say? I had a feeling he was going to be helpful.”

“I don’t want to go away without telling my brother.” I shook my head. “I can’t that to him. I can’t involve him in something this deep without him knowing the truth.”

“You don’t have a choice, Noah. Sometimes when you love someone, the best thing you can do is keep them in the dark. Loving someone doesn’t always mean telling them everything. It means knowing when it’s best to keep your mouth shut and when it’s best to open it. And this is the time to keep it shut—that is, if you love your brother as much as you say you do.”

“I still want to know about Mom.” Zane cleared his throat. “I’m not going to push it right now, but I still want to know.” His voice was light.

“You’ve changed.” I cocked my head and studied him. “You’re calmer than you were before. I was expecting you to put me in a headlock to get an answer.”

“That’s coming if you don’t give me an answer tomorrow.” He grinned at me.

“I’m not keeping it to myself because I want to. Trust me.” I made a face. “Just like I didn’t leave and not tell you because I wanted to keep you in the dark.”

“How could you do it?” He peered at me with hurt eyes. “I would never do that to you. I could never just leave and have you think I’m dead.”

“I didn’t want to just leave.” I sighed. “It’s always just been us. I begged to be able to tell you. But Special Agent Waldron convinced me that it was in your best interest for me to not tell you.”

“I know you didn’t do it to hurt me.” He sat on my bed and played with his fingers. “Don’t hate me, but I am kind of glad that you didn’t tell me. I know it sounds twisted. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if it wasn’t for you going away, I would never have met Lucky. And I don’t know what my life would be like if I didn’t have her in my life. Do I sound like a complete asshole?” He looked up at me with a twisted smile. “Am I the world’s worst brother?”

“No.” I laughed lightheartedly. “In fact, it makes you human and very honest.”

“I love her so much, you know.” He made a face. “It hurts me to be away from her. Like I feel a physical pain. It’s crazy.”

“That’s love. It provides as much joy as it does pain.”

“She really hurt you, didn’t she?”

“Not in the way that you think.” I paced in front of the bed. “It’s funny, our roles are reversed now. I used to be the one that believed in happy endings, and you were the one with the tortured soul.”

“You have a tortured soul? What happened to the rainbows and shit you spouted about when we were growing up?”

“I was living in a daydream. Love isn’t always wonderful and flowery. It can be deep, dark, and persevering. It’s about accepting the bad with the good. It’s about everything we give, get, and forget. We all know the bright side of love as it shines luminously for all to see. But the other side of love, the other side can be a lonely, solitary place. I know that now.”

“You ever going to tell me what she did to make you so bitter?”

“Who?” I looked up at him with a bleak smile. “Which she?”

“There’s more than one woman who has broken your heart?”

“There’s more than one woman who has made me doubt the human race.” I walked over to the closet so that Zane couldn’t see my face. “But let’s not focus on that. I’d rather hear how Lucky has made you believe in love. And then I want to go and hold her tight and ask her if she can introduce me to her God.”

“Her God?” Zane’s voice sounded confused and I turned around and gave him a smile.

“The God that allowed the two of you to experience the beauty of life and love.”

“I’m worried about you, Noah.” He jumped up and walked to me slowly before stopping and running his hands through his hair. “You sound like you’ve turned into Plato or Aristotle or something.”

“I prefer to think of myself as Camus.” I grinned.

“Camus?”

“Albert Camus.” I shook my head. “Oh, big brother of mine. I knew I was smarter than you.”

“I can still beat you up, you know.” Zane laughed and walked towards the door. “You come talk to me when you’re ready to talk.” He paused by the door and looked back at me. “About anything. I’m not going to push you about Mom. I’ve learned how to be patient this last year.”

“Thanks.” I nodded gratefully. “I will.”

“I’ll tell Lucky to hold back as well.”

“That’s okay.” I shook my head. “I know she just cares about you. I don’t want her to think I’m some sort of asshole. It was really hard, you know, to walk away from you and not be able to tell you. Everything in my life seems to be insignificant up until that point. I just want a fresh start now. I want to start a new life, one that isn’t haunted with memories of what has happened since I left.”

“I will do what I can to help.” He paused and looked back at me. “She cares about you, as well you know. If she asks or holds back, it’s because she wants to be a part of your life.”

“I know. I wish I’d met her first.” I joked, and he came back and punched me lightly in the shoulder.

“I’m glad you didn’t.” He laughed, his eyes sparkling. “I’m not sure I would have gotten her if I had to compete with you.”

“We should go jam.” I said, feeling lighthearted. I had missed Zane, really missed him, and I just wanted to be around him and enjoy his company without the pressure of having to have a serious talk.

“You want to?” Zane’s eyes looked up and he grinned. “No Beatles, though.”

“That’s a deal.” I nodded and turned my face away from him. A jab of pain shot through me as I remembered always trying to get him to play and listen to The Beatles. It was one of our only links to our mother, and I wanted to remember every little thing about her. I had tried so hard to get Zane to get rid of his bitterness and hurt. As a child, I knew that one day she would come back to us. I had known it in my heart. She loved us more than life itself. What mother doesn’t love her sons? Something bad had to have happened for her to desert us.

“That was easy.” He looked at me with a question in his eyes. I knew what he wanted to know. He had so many questions and I didn’t really have any satisfactory answers. I was in a tough spot, one I didn’t know how to get out of. I either kept the truth to myself or told him everything I knew. He would eventually resent me and hate me either way. But I’d rather have him hate me than have him hate himself.

I knew what it was like to hate yourself and I didn’t want him to suffer from the same self-inflicted pain that I was. Not if he didn’t have to.

Chapter 4

“I wish that I could see you every day.” Skylar played with my fingers. “And that we lived in the same house.”

“That would be nice.” I nodded and stroked her hair, a feeling of love washing over me. I stared at her face and wondered at the feeling that filled me when I saw her. I’d never experienced this feeling of protectiveness before. It scared me and I was worried that we were getting too close.

“You could move into my house.” She looked up at me hopefully and I shook my head.

“I don’t think so.” I laughed.

“Why not?”

“Because I have to live in my apartment.”

“But you sleep over at my house. You can just always sleep over and never leave.”

“I’m not sure that would work out well.” I smiled at her sadly. I didn’t want to tell her that it was getting harder and harder for me to go over to her house. That in fact, some days I dreaded going over, but I wanted to make sure that she was okay, so I sucked it up.

“One day we can live together.” She nodded to herself. “And you can take care of me.”

“You’d like that would you?” I laughed at her eager expression.

“I’d love that.” She jumped up and down. “I’d be the happiest girl in the world. The very happiest. There would be no other girl in the world as happy as me.”

“Do you want to play a game?” I nodded at the board games on the table. I needed to change the subject. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with emotion and I couldn’t continue the conversation anymore. I felt like I was leading her on to think that her dreams were a possibility. I didn’t know how to explain to her that it would never happen. It could never happen. No matter how much I wanted it as well. She had her own family and they were going to make sure that that never happened. They didn’t care how much they hurt her. And I couldn’t do anything about it because I’d already revealed too much information. I’d been stupid and said too much and I knew that if I reported what was going on, I would be putting Zane in jeopardy.

“I guess so.” She sat back and played with her hair. Her eyes moved away from me and she stared at the floor with a vacant stare. I had no idea what she was thinking about but I had a couple of ideas and it broke my heart to see her in so much pain. But there was nothing I could do to take it away. And that broke my heart into a million pieces.