“She knows about the breakdowns.”
He smiled, actually looked relieved the worst hadn’t happened, because Juliana finding out our link in the past would ruin everything.
“I’m glad. Maybe the two of us can get you to buckle down and get help.”
“You can try.”
He shook his head as we continued walking down the busy street to the building that housed my office. Tyler was a silent partner with an active role in the company. He’d been the key to my taking down the Moretti family and building my own empire on their graves.
He was a kill or get killed type of guy. I was a survival of the fittest kind of guy. Either way, when we had enemies out to get us, we knew how to come out on top. We’d grown from a hate/hate relationship to a love/hate one, and ended with an ‘I’d die for you’ bond.
I’d gained a family I didn’t know about all those years ago, but the only person I really connected with was Tyler. There were people who entered your life who you wanted to kick out immediately. People who rubbed you the wrong way and annoyed the shit out of you. But when forced to live with that person and include them into your life, you started to see yourself in them. You started to break down walls in each other until you were basically looking into a mirror. Tyler was that person for me. If he hadn’t bulldozed his way into my life years ago, I knew I’d be long gone.
Tyler gave me a tour of his apartment with short, barked words. The place was small but had an extra room he was allowing me to crash in.
“You’re going to need to lay low. Those guys are going to be looking for you, and I’m not risking my ass to save yours again.”
“I never asked you to.” I was getting tired of his cocky attitude.
“Ungrateful prick,” he mumbled as he left the small room he’d told me I could use until he figured something else out.
Fuck him. I didn't care he wanted me gone, because I wanted out.
I had no clue who he was, why’d he saved me from the Morettis, and the fact that it was obvious he didn’t want to do it made me wonder if Damien had sent him after me.
I left the room ten minutes later in search of Tyler and found him in the kitchen chugging down orange juice from the container.
“Who the fuck are you, anyway? Did Damien send you?”
He laughed, half choking on his juice. “The only thing I’d ever do for that piece of shit you call a father is put a bullet through his head.”
“No love lost here either. So if you hate him so much, why save me?”
“For your mom and your grandmother.”
“What?” He’d caught me off guard. I never talked about my mom. Ever. And as far as I knew, I had no living grandparents.
“How’d you know my mom?” My heart raced, and I felt lightheaded. Maybe it had a lot to do with me being so malnourished the past month, but it also had a lot to do with the memories the thought of my mom brought to the surface. My stomach turned.
“Because she was my mother, too.”
I stared at him. His gaze locked with mine, his expression serious.
I approached him and shoved him against the fridge so hard it rocked. “Fuck you, asshole. If you think you’re going to brainwash me with some bullshit story, Damien already has the market cornered for that.”
He straightened up and shoved his finger into my face, and I wanted so badly to break it. “That’s going to be the last time you get to do that. But be clear, if you put your hands on me again, I’ll drop you.”
“Why the fuck are you such an asshole?”
“I’m usually not. You bring it out of me.” He winked at me with an annoyingly sarcastic smile on his face.
“If I’m such a pain in your ass, why not let me die in there?”
“Because my grandmother sent me to save you. She lost her daughter to Damien, and she wanted to save his little brat.” He started to walk away, but paused and glanced over his shoulder. “And no matter how I feel, you’re my brother, and I don’t leave any man behind, especially my brothers.”
I watched him retreat. I’d never met a military man, but everything about him screamed ‘trained to kill.’ And maybe we’d both been taught the same things, but for different purposes. If what he claimed were true, then my mother had given birth to two killers, but only one was a hero.
Chapter Seventeen
Juliana
“You don’t have to leave.” Devlin looked ridiculous trying to pull off a pout.
“My dad will be in town in a few hours, and he’ll expect me to be at my place.” I looped my overnight bag over my shoulder and leaned up to place a kiss on his lips. “After graduation, I’ll talk to him and let him know I’m staying here.”