Page 18 of Fallen Roses

My heart crashes and burns as realization hits and cold reality punches me hard in the gut.

It’s over.

One night is done and now we must face the consequences of that and I groan as I attempt to move, my entire body burning from his rough attention.

“You never called your brother.”

My voice is weak and my breath labored and he says huskily, “I had nothing to say.”

“What do you mean?” I shift to the side and prop myself up as I stare into his handsome face, darkened by the stubble on his jaw.

“He knew what he was doing when he asked me to pay the money. He used it to stall for time, knowing itwouldn’t work, and involved me in his shit without any regard for my safety.”

“I get you’re angry, but he’s your brother. You did what was right.”

“Did I though?”

He turns and his eyes gleam with disappointment. “What if leaving him to figure things out on his own was the right thing to do? I mean, the guy who saved us, he made a lot of sense.”

“He did?”

I blink, hoping like hell my guilt isn’t showing right now.

“Dylan should have been taken in hand a long time ago and perhaps the military will succeed where I failed.”

“You never failed. It wasn’t your job to parent him, James.”

“I am all he has.”

James shakes his head and sadness creeps into his eyes as he says huskily, “We are not the product of a happy family, Ana. We worked our way through the foster system and when we were eighteen, we were on our own.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need your sympathy. It is what it is. Not everyone gets the apple pie mom and the house in the suburbs. We made it and that’s all that matters, but Dylan has chosen a difficult path and I’m not even sure I want to finish the journey with him.”

He sits up and stares at his watch.

“I should go. I’ll see you at the office. God knows what the day has planned for us.”

The hollow feeling inside me reminds me what this was. A fuck. A marathon fuck fest that was probably the best night of my life, but it’s morning now. One night was all we had, and we certainly made the most of that. But now it’s time to handle the aftermath, and I’m already coming up with excuses why James was still at my apartment this morning because Mikhail will definitely have something to say about that.

Fuck my life and fuck my family.

CHAPTER 10

JAMES

It’s as if I’ve left my body behind and I’m an interested observer watching what happens next. How can my life have unraveled in the space of twenty-four hours? It doesn’t make sense.

When I walk into the office, it’s as a new man. The old one no longer exists and I say goodbye forever to the man I was beforeshecame.

I’m not even thinking about my brother. He was a car crash waiting to happen, and I knew it would lead to breaking point one day. But somehow Ana Starling happened and I’m still working out what that means for me.

There is something about her I can’t figure out. On the one hand, she’s the woman I met in the bar. A woman of secrets, with so much passion burning inside her, it spills over and like a tornado pulls everything in its path and carries them away. Then there’s the womanwho works here. Cold, calculating, dismissive and hungry for information that tests my own sanity.

Her questions yesterday made me think—a lot. I never thought twice about the regular donations we receive, but I must admit there is something strange about them. Now, unraveling the mystery is my top priority because I don’t enjoy having a man I’ve never met before, storm into my life and call me out on my choices and my professionalism.

I still don’t know who the fuck he is, but Ana appears to. She hasn’t said much, but she is obviously expected to report to him and something is happening here I need to understand without alerting the man himself.

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