Page 41 of Kilo's Edge

“He’s in charge of watching over my family,” she told me. I turned and stared down at her. “We’re in witness protection.”

Gritting my teeth, I ran a hand over my head. “Witness protection.”

“Yes,” she said, voice soft and uncertain. “I-”

“Does he need to be here for this?” I asked.

“No, I was just checking in with Lucia,” Dustin said, answering before Camila could. “I’ll come back tomorrow, Camila. Check in again. When it’s nice and bright out.” He said the last part to me before he stood and left.

I watched him until he shut the door, then turned back to Camila. She looked wrecked. I didn’t want her to be upset, but Dustin had been right, she had a lot of explaining to do. “What’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry. I never meant to drag you into this,” she said, choking on a sob.

Tears were my weakness. My sisters had learned that early on and used them often, but I could tell Camila wasn’t used to crying. It was destroying me to see her so fucking upset. I pulled her close and hugged her. “Don't cry.” My anger was fading since I knew Dustin was just some dirtbag fed and not her former boyfriend trying to rekindle shit or something. “Come on, Baby. Mercy. Your tears are killing me.”

She sniffled and nodded, trying to wipe away the tears. I helped her, wiping my thumbs over her cheeks. “I was going to tell you in the morning.”

“Come here.” I sat her down on the couch, then walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the glass of water. Sitting down next to her, I dragged her into my lap with one arm, then handed her the glass. “Drink that.” I waited while she took a few gulps. “Now tell me what’s going on. Why are you in witness protection?”

I’d suspected from the start they were hiding something. This wasn’t what I’d expected though. Witness protection was fucking serious. It meant that whatever was going on was no small matter. They didn’t put you in witness protection unless some bad shit was going down.

Camila let out a shaky breath. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to see me anymore. I can’t promise-”

“How about you tell me what’s going on before you start overanalyzing all the ways you think I’ll leave you.” We hadn’t officially said we were boyfriend and girlfriend. Mostly because I was a grown ass man and not a kid. I didn’t have girlfriends.I had a woman. An old lady. But there was no denying we were in a relationship. Especially after what happened earlier tonight. No way I was leaving her behind now. Whatever this was, we’d face it together. I just needed to know what she was involved in.

“Four years ago, my father was murdered right in front of me.” She started shaking in my arms.

Jesus fucking Christ. That’s a way to start a story.

This was going to be a shit show. I sighed and held her close. “Take your time, Baby.” I stroked a hand down her back. I wanted her to know she was safe, that I had her. I could tell this wasn’t going to be easy, but she needed to get it out as much as I needed to know what was coming for her.

CHAPTER 17

Camila

Memories were a strange thing. It’d been four years, and I knew that, but my mind liked to make me think it was just yesterday that Dad had died. Or worse, it liked to put me directly back into the memory when I slept and make me relive it again and again. It was torture. And I couldn’t talk to anyone about it.

The only time I’d told anyone what had happened had been when the cops showed up at our house, found us with Dad’s dead body, and it all went from there. I’d given my initial statement, then had to give it again once the FBI had taken over. Once they found out who was involved, they’d jumped in so fast my head had spun.

“I was getting ready to go out to a movie with a friend,” I told Kilo, the memories flashing through my mind. “I was going to meet her at the theater. Mama and Carmen had already gone out to get dinner.” I took another drink from the glass in my hand.My mouth was so dry from the nerves. Telling him could mean the end of this. Whatever this was.

And I didn’t want it to end. Kilo was the first thing in four years I’d allowed myself to have. I’d been living every day in survival mode, just trying to keep the rest of my family alive. I worked, I came home, I ate, and I slept. And worried. There were a lot of sleepless nights worrying that I was doing the wrong thing by agreeing to testify.

Of course, that was the only thing keeping me alive. Keeping my family safe. If I hadn’t agreed to testify, Kruzman’s men likely would have already found us and killed us. At least that’s what I assumed.

Dustin and the other Marshals were all that was standing between him and us. And considering Kruzman had found us twice before, that wasn’t a comforting thought.

“I forgot something so I turned around and went home to grab it.”

Kilo was stroking my back and I wasn’t sure how to verbalize how much his comfort was helping me. I knew I was safe there, sitting in his lap.

“I heard shouting. My dad was the only one home, so I followed the voices,” I whispered. “Dad had always just said he was an accountant when I asked what he did for work. It wasn’t until that night that I realized he did the books for a really bad man.”

Kilo was silent. He took the glass from my numb fingers and set it aside before I dropped it.

“There were four men in Dad’s office with him.” I took a shaky breath. “I almost called out to him, but I realized they had guns and stayed quiet.”

It wasn’t until his arms wrapped around me that I realized I was trembling. One hand smoothed over my bare leg, beneath my shorts.

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