Page 37 of Twisted Kings

“Oh my god, you’re finally here!” She flung her arms around me so tight I could barely breathe.

“Eden!” Kyril snapped. “Thea has a concussion!”

“Concussion?” Blue eyes shone with concern. “Are you OK?”

“I’ll be fine,” I reassured her. A concussion was the least of my worries.

“I’m so sorry about…everything.” She looked on the verge of tears for a moment, so I patted her arm awkwardly. Comforting someone didn’t come naturally to me.

“Honestly, I’m fine. A good night’s sleep and I’ll be back to my usual happy self,” I joked.

“You better be! I need help to wrap all my Christmas gifts.”

“What?” Christmas wasn’t something I usually celebrated. Dad had never bought us anything or suggested we sit down for a festive family meal. He didn’t even allow us to attend Midnight Mass, not that I would have. Father Raphael was usually drunk and rambling by 10 PM.

A fleeting recollection of the priest guzzling from his hip flask while cowering under a table flickered in my mind. Was it an actual memory?

I struggled to focus on Eden as she chattered away, spewing word-vomit in my face.

“It’s Christmas in six days. I have sooomuch to do!”

“Is this place your family’s home?” Behind me, Kyril talked in a low voice to the guys who’d arrived with us. They all looked like hired mercs.

“No, it’s a recent acquisition. Declan has a massive property portfolio. He’s been diversifying into new areas,” she said while her fingers tapped away on her smartphone. “Probably laundering some of the family cash.”

That made sense. Paying cash for properties was a good way of cleaning dirty money. The Russians had been doing it for years in London. Oligarchs owned many of the prestige properties in the city, all paid for with money of dubious origin.

“I think he intends to use this one as a holiday home, but for now, it’s your safe house.”

“You’re not staying with us?” The thought of Eden leaving me all alone with the guys made me nervous. If she wasn’t here, acting as an emotional buffer, I’d have to talk to them. Difficult conversations gave me heartburn.

“Only for three days, then one of Declan’s men is picking me up.” She bounced on the seat with excitement. “Michael’s flying over to visit me on Boxing Day, so he’ll get to meet all my family.”

“Are you two a couple now?” Last I remembered she’d claimed she didn’t want to ‘put a label on it’.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “I told him who my family was, and he’s OK with it.”

“He’s not met Declan yet then.”

Eden laughed at my dry observation. “No, but it will be OK. Declan can be nice when he wants to be. I warned Michael my cousins are super protective, and he said he understood, as he has a younger sister.”

I’m not sure he knew what he was in for. Declan’s overbearing protectiveness was on a whole other level. Frankly, I didn’t get why he’d let Eden stay at the safe house. She must have blackmailed him. The man I met had made it more than clear he was willing to do anything to ensure his cousin’s safety.

She looped her arm through mine and then stared over my shoulder in surprise.

“Who’s the girl?”

Two of the men from the plane carried my sister inside the house. She still hadn’t woken up, which worried me, but the medic assured me everything would be fine.

“My sister, Verity.”

“Oh my god, what happened to her?”

“My father happened to her.”

Eden’s eyes welled up with tears, and I turned away, picking at a loose thread on my sweater. Then a familiar figure climbed out of the last SUV and I froze. I’d not seen him since the night of the Christmas Gala. He’d stayed out of the way when we disembarked from the plane. I stupidly assumed he’d disappear shortly after, but no, it looked like I was stuck with him for the time being. Unless he planned to leave now.

But as I watched through narrowed eyes, he reached into the trunk of the SUV and pulled a bag out, looping it over his shoulder.

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