Page 121 of Sixth Sin

And neither has Angel.

I pause at the top of the landing, putting those thoughts away for later. I can get her help. She hurt herself last night. This can’t continue.

Whether she wants to admit it or not, we’re tied together. Bound by something bigger than a ruse or a lie. No one can protect her like I can. No one ever has. I won’t let go this time. No matter how hard she pushes or how hard she falls, I’ll be there.

I’ll always catch her.

But to live in the future, I have to stop living in the past. And that starts with leaving Beyond the News behind. Gripping the door, I push my shoulder against it, the boxes slipping from my grip.

“Hey, rook, can you help me with—” The rest of my words get lost as a fist slams into my face, knocking my chin over my shoulder and me into the door. I come back ready to swing until I see Angel standing in front of me, red faced and shaking. “What the fuck?” I yell, rubbing my jaw, because, shit, she can throw a punch.

“How long?” she hisses, one arm hugging a folder against her chest.

Son of a bitch, I knew I shouldn’t have left her alone.

“Twenty minutes,” I sigh, wiping the blood off my lip with the back of my hand. “I was only gone twenty—”

Angel slams the folder down on the desk beside her, flinging it open. “No, asshole. How long have you known?”

Fuck.

I stare at the folder. I don’t have to read it to know what it is. The BioLink logo printed at the top of the page flashes like a hazard light. Only there’s no hazard. This is annihilation. “Where did you get this?”

“Answer the question, Dominic,” she grits out.

I sigh, pressing my thumb against my temple. “Since that night at Amalia.”

She flinches. “The night we…that we…”

She can’t get the words out, so I do it for her. “Fucked. Yes.”

As if my words flip a switch in her head, she lifts her chin, steel glittering in her green eyes. “Did you know before?”

“No. I found out the next morning.”

Silence stretches between us, and then Angel blinks. Her pupils dilate, and she sways as if suddenly knocked off balance by the truth. “Oh my God. I’m her. I’m really Alexandra Romanov. But how?”

“Angel…” I can see it coming, and the blood pumps faster through my veins. The door is opening wider, and the thread holding the past from the present is severing.

She glances up, blinking so rapidly she almost looks asleep. “Is this why I can’t remember anything before the group home? What, did I just block it out? Am I just going to wake up one morning and remember? I don’t want that, Dominic! I don’t want those images in my head.” Spinning around in a circle, she grimaces while slamming the heel of her palm against her temple harder and harder and harder. “It’s already too crowded in here. There’s no more room. No room!”

Jesus Christ.

Grabbing her wrist, I pull her against me. “Rook, just listen to me for a minute.”

I’ve heard of lightbulb moments. I always thought it was just shit people said. But it’s real, and when you see it, especially when it damns you to hell, it settles in the pit of your stomach like a rock.

“Oh my God,” Angel gasps, shoving her other arm into my chest, forcing me to release her as she stumbles backward. “You knew. That day in the bar. You knew who I was, didn’t you? That’s why you came for me.”

I scrub a hand down my face. “I didn’t. I swear. I knew there was something special about you, but even I’m not that good.”

“Then why hide it?” she demands, her emotions switching off like a faucet. “What aren’t you telling me, Dominic?”

“I know what I did was wrong. I’m not trying to justify it. But you have to believe me when I say there’s a reason why I didn’t tell you, and it’s not what you—”

“You want money?” she yells, and I can see by her riotous expression she didn’t hear a word I just said. “Here.” In a flurry of movement, she rips off her jewelry and starts hurling it at me. “Take it.”

“It has nothing to do with your goddamn money,” I shout, batting away a ruby necklace and barely dodging her diamond ring clocking me in the eye. “Will you fucking stop?”

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