Devil You Know(Lost Boys Book 1)(96)

In a whisper, I said, “I thought you were married and I can’t even describe how it…”

“I didn’t need words, your expression said it all.” He touched my chin. “It has always been you.”

“For me too.”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “I know.”

“You had a sister?”

“Half sister. She lived for a time with my dad growing up, but sought me out when she learned of me.”

“Your father never told her she had a brother?”

Pain moved over his face, like an old wound that never healed. “No.”

“They didn’t deserve you, neither of them. Why didn’t you tell me about Amelia?”

“She died around the time you lost your dad. You had enough to deal with.”

“And now?”

“You didn’t even know I had a sister and I’m going to tell you she’s dead. I know you, Thea. You would have mourned her, a woman you didn’t know because of her link to me.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“I didn’t want to put that on you with everything else going on.”

“And Janice?”

A dark look swept his face. “Janice now owns the bar. She worked for Amelia, managing the bar, and now she owns the place.”

“Wait? You think she…”

“Conned my dying sister out of it? Yeah. She didn’t know about me so she was very surprised to see me at the reading of the will. That’s where I learned she had been given power of attorney over Amelia’s interests and the addendum to her will.”

“An addendum?”

“Leaving Janice the bar.”

“Holy shit.”

“I didn’t think much of it at the time, it made sense that Amelia would leave the bar to her manager who was also her friend.”

“So what made you suspicious?”

“When I was making arrangements for Amelia’s funeral, I reviewed her will for her wishes regarding her burial, and it was reviewing the will that I learned I originally had been left everything, including the bar. Janice was in the will. She was left money and her position as manager was hers for as long as she wanted it. And then an addendum is added to the will leaving the bar to Janice right after Janice is given power of attorney, but it was the timing of Janice being given power of attorney that raised a flag. Amelia would have been highly medicated.”

“You would have thought the lawyer would have been suspicious of the addendum and Janice’s gain from it, given the circumstances.”

“He was a neon sign over the door kind of lawyer. He didn’t know Amelia or Janice only that they were close enough that Amelia had her in her will, so trusting her with her estate wasn’t a leap. There was no one else but me to question it. I suspected Janice had abused her position, but she was keeping Amelia’s dream alive. Underhanded and illegal, yes, but Amelia’s went on.”

“But it’s not Amelia’s anymore.”

“And not just in name. It’s time to shake it up.”

“That’s why you wanted me to work there.”

“Two birds.”

It all started to make sense. They hadn’t introduced themselves that day at the bar and his expression hadn’t been interest, it had been contempt. “So it wasn’t lust I saw in your eyes, it was hatred.” Talk about a twist on the expression a fine line between love and hate.

“I’ve only ever felt this emotion toward one other woman, but yeah to manipulate a dying woman for personal gain, I fucking hate her.”

Janice was a lot like Damian’s mother, I understood the hatred, but we weren’t going down that dark road. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Don’t ever run from me.” He spoke the words so softly but it wasn’t anger that fueled them, it was pain.

“I promise.”

“And I won’t keep anything from you.”

I touched his chin to hold his gaze on me. “Not ever.”

“Promise.”



Damian was on a run when I woke. He had lost his sister. That news was more devastating than believing he was married. He had family who had wanted him, had loved him, who had sought him out, and he lost her. I had to believe that everything happened for a reason. I had to believe watching someone like Damian constantly getting knocked down and kicked in the gut, that there was some cosmic scale that would balance so that he would know love and happiness to the same degree he had known heartache and pain. Maybe I was his scale, because I loved him to the very deepest part of my soul.

I was putting on the coffee when Damian came back from his run. He was on the phone that he handed to me on his way to the shower. “Anton.”