Page 29 of Thirst Trap (Carter Brothers)

“She’s mine, man,” I said quietly. “I’ll destroy anyone, anywhere, who tries to make it into her life. I don’t care if you’re a friend.”

I’d been fighting to keep my head above water with her for so long, I didn’t even know what it felt like not to struggle anymore.

I’d backed off recently, though.

I’d thought, well, maybe Shayne and I weren’t in the cards anymore.

That had to be why this had slipped past me.

Why I didn’t know that her Nonna was bad.

Did Ande even know?

Probably not, based on how protective Shayne was of Ande now.

She was on the road to recovery, though.

Hell, she even had a second kid on the way.

She was fantastic now. But the way Shayne acted, she was still just as helpless as the day all Ande’s drama had started.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t even know this had I not heard Ande venting to my mom about how Shayne was so careful with her now. How, since they left the last job they were on together, she’d tried and failed to get Shayne to join her at the local Angel Transport place that her boss had owned.

The only thing Shayne had been willing to help on were the dangerous missions that they’d get her to fly saving trafficking victims from the clutches of the sick fucks who’d taken them.

My mom had told her to allow Shayne to protect her, but now that I’d realized all that’d been going on, I knew it was the wrong thing to do.

Now, no one had a line in her life, and I’d thought, falsely, that she was doing okay.

And I’d been horribly wrong.

So, so horribly wrong.

Standing up, I looked up the times for the crematorium, and found that it was a twenty-four-seven place that was about two hours away.

My next step was catching my phone and calling Ande.

“Hey,” I said to her the moment she answered. “You heard from Shayne lately?”

There was a pause, and then, “Does you asking about her mean you’re finally going to get her back?”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat before saying, “I’ve tried, sis. She wants nothing to do with me.”

She snorted. “She wants nothing to do with you, but when have you ever given up?”

Since Shayne.

I closed my eyes and said, “Her brother’s still an issue.”

“Her brother is a non-issue, because Shayne has nothing to do with that business, and you know it. It’s something you’ve known for years.”

That was true.

I’d always known.

But at the time of our breakup, I’d been convinced that any association with a fucking gang, one that had recently shot a police officer and killed him, would ruin my chances to do what I wanted in life. It was a calling I’d felt in the depths of my soul.

I hadn’t realized by doing that, I’d be taking away a different part of my soul.

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