Stepbrother Thief(74)

“He's her father, Cliff,” I say, exasperated, wishing suddenly that I was back in Paris, that I'd looked past those secrets in Gill's eyes, that quiet plea for help, and that I'd walked away. Because I'm just now realizing that no matter what he's hiding from me, whatever real life purpose this heist was supposed to serve for him, the real reason I went along with it all is because I saw it then just like I did a few nights ago at the hotel: Gill is slipping away and he wants to be saved.

And he wants me to do it.

“Yes,” Cliff says with a sigh, “he is, but he's also a coward, and that makes him a very scary person to be around.”

“Glad to see you've got so much faith in me, Dad,” Gill says from the entrance to the kitchen. I jump and slosh hot coffee all over my hands, hissing at the burn as I shove the mug on the counter and rush to the sink for cold water.

“I'm just trying to talk some sense into Regina, Gilleon,” Cliff says as I wash my hands and dry them on a paper towel. Only then do I turn around and look at him, hating the way my heart skips and jumps inside my chest. There's some fear there, yes, but there's also desire, and that horrible little L-word called love, that immortal beast that never dies.

I stare into his blue eyes and he stares right back into my brown ones.

“Somehow she's got it into her head that this could still work.”

“What?” I snap, breaking my concentration with Gilleon to stare at the side of his father's head. “I never said that, Cliff.”

“No, but I can see it in your face. You can't save him, Regina. He's beyond that now.”

“Goddamn it, Cliff,” Gill growls, curling his hands into fists. He looks dangerous right now, like his claws are sheathed but only with the utmost effort. A pale blue shirt and shoulder holster, gray army fatigues and a leg holster, and a thick ass pair of steel-toed work boots. Gill's armed and ready to kill right now, just like he was in the hotel. Hot desire, cold fear, all of it swirls around inside of me until I feel like I'm choking. “Are you really gonna sit here and talk shit about me after all you've done?”

“You mean like raise your daughter in your absence?” Cliff says, easy as pie, like the words are nothing to him. I can feel Gill's anger from here, a hot heat that charges the very molecules in the air around us. It's not me he blames for Solène and the decisions that were made, not himself, but his dad.

“You don't know the half of what I've been through,” Gill snarls, his face twisting into harsh lines of pain, his blue eyes darkening. Black hair falls across his forehead as he rakes his fingers through it. He's got that perfect five o'clock shadow that looks effortless, but takes a ton of work to keep looking nice. Even though I know that, that he groomed himself for some reason—probably me—it just looks like he's rough around the edges, wild. “You don't write off your family for reasons you don't understand, Cliff.”

“You know I love you, Gilleon, just as much as I love Solène and Regina, but as angry as you are with me, you must at least be able to grasp where I'm coming from here.”

“I left, I get it,” Gill says, his voice rising with each word. “I fucking left, and I fucked everything up.”

“Gilleon,” Cliff says, his voice a warning. Aveline peeks her head around the corner and raises her red brows at us. “Calm down, son.”

“Calm down?” Gill asks, his face cracking into a million pieces. “My father's sitting in my kitchen looking at me like I'm the scum of the earth while the love of my life stares at me like I'm a fucking monster. My daughter thinks I'm her goddamn brother, and everything I ever wanted is so far outside my grasp, I might as well be reaching for the moon.”

I swallow hard and shake my head. Seeing him break apart like this, drop the expressionless mask of ice, it's terrifying. I don't want Gilleon to come apart at the seams. Despite everything, I want to sew him back together again.

“I don't think you're a monster, Gill,” I say, but the words don't entirely ring with truth. I've thought that about him before, I have. “But if you won't tell us why you left, then how can we truly understand why you want to come back?”

Gill turns around and walks away without bothering to answer me, his boots hard against the wood floors as he takes the steps two at a time. I set my coffee down and go after him, even though I can hear Cliff behind me.

“Leave him be, Regi,” he says, but I can't. Not right now. I chase Gill up the stairs, my heels loud as I come up against his door and find it unlocked. An invitation that I shouldn't take.

“Gilleon?” I ask, stepping into the room and finding him right there waiting for me.