Page 34 of Sin and Deception

"I love you too," they said in perfect harmony. My lips trembled as their words enveloped me, an intense desire to hold onto them forever swelling within me.

But I couldn't allow myself to hope. I wouldn't let myself hope. And yet, a small part of me couldn't help but wish to believe they could forgive me and that the hatred I expected would never come to be.

Perhaps, just perhaps, we could find a way to weather this storm together. They clung to me tightly as sleep gradually invaded my thoughts, intertwined with the persistent anxiety of the storm threatening our delicate reunion.

Eleven

THEO

“Shhh!” I warned Xander as his foot struck the leg of a chair tucked in a dark corner of Nerine’s bedroom.

He shot me the glare he reserved for scaring the hell out of idiots who interfered with our business. However, whenever he applied that tactic to me, I raised an eyebrow, silently telling him to back off.

“Then shine a damn light over here so I don’t knock anything over and wake Nerine up,” he hissed.

I glanced in her direction, tucked under a thick blanket and lost in deep sleep. The dark smudges under her eyes hinted at her exhaustion but couldn’t diminish her beauty. Even the silly disguise she thought could hide her identityfailed to mask the fact that she was a stunning woman. I’d love nothing more than to crawl back into bed with her and pry the answers I wanted out of her in more self-serving ways.

Plus, the intense fucking Xander and I had given her added to her need for sleep. It would surprise me if she could walk later tonight.

Hopefully, she wouldn’t wake until Xander and I thoroughly swept the apartment. We needed every piece of information possible to understand what had happened with Nerine and how to protect her.

Enemies were closing in, and unless we got ahead of them, there was no way to keep Nerine safe.

“No light. She’ll only get in the way if we wake her,” I said.

Xander sighed and nodded, accepting the truth of my words.

Xander and I searched through Nerine’s apartment for the next half hour. It was small yet cozy, adorned with luxurious blankets, pillows, and furnishings. Beautiful artwork decorated the walls, many created by local Boston artists. Outside the large windows was a clear view of the neon lights dotted the strip.

“I want to hate this place,” I whispered to Xander. “But it’s nice.”

“I wish it were ugly,” he agreed. “Even so, I can’t understand why Nerine chose this damn city.”

“None of this makes any sense.”

It seemed so out of character for Nerine to live here, not just in this apartment but in this god-forsaken city thatappeared not to have any natural trees or greenery occurring anywhere within its limits.

Nerine was a city girl, but she also loved being surrounded by nature, especially the parks and recreational areas around Boston.

Nerine’s influence was why lush greenery surrounded the Angelos estate. Peter Angelos wanted his eldest child to enjoy her home and created a space for her to do so.

This view—Las Vegas itself, a city of glass, neon, smoke, and mirrors, filled with mindless zombies shoving their money into flashing machines—wasn’t where I ever expected our Angel to find refuge.

Perhaps that’s why she’d chosen it. Nobody would have expected a woman like Nerine to hide in an unwelcoming environment.

Despite the coziness of the small space, the most advanced security systems protected every corner of the apartment. Nerine, or whoever had brought her here, spared no expense on cameras, locks, and alarms to ensure her safety.

This was something I couldn’t criticize.

However, this level of security made it painfully clear that she lived in fear.

I glanced at her sleeping figure, and the shield I had built around my heart began to crack. No matter how hard I tried, this woman had a way of infiltrating the smallest cracks and breaking through my defenses.

I wanted answers and intended to find them, but the deep-seated need to keep her safe overshadowed everything.

My anger no longer seemed important. I wouldn’t lie tomyself and say it wouldn’t resurface in the future, but it wasn’t a priority for now.

It was clear she hadn’t left because she didn’t love us.

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