Page 61 of Cruel Savior

"Hey."

"Well, holy shit. Look what the cat dragged in."

"You can't possibly be surprised to see us. You didn't really thing the probability of a Frank clone on the loose wouldn't bring me and Izzy running."

That made total sense, and he was right. I should have seen this coming. I stood back and directed both Houston and his now fiancée Izzy to enter. "To be honest, I hadn't really thought about it. We've been a little busy what with all the death and dismemberment going on."

Izzy winced, and I half regretted my words. It wasn't her fault she had a psychotic brother. She hadn't even known he existed. I just didn't think adding more people to the current mix seemed wise.

"Thanks, fucker." Houston growled.

I shrugged. "Last I checked, it's not my job to baby you." Yes, I was acting like an ass and no, I didn't care.

Since I could practically feel Mandy's disapproval at my back, I turned to her. "You remember Mandy, right?"

Houston stared blankly at her, while Izzy's eyes softened measurably. That was weird.

"Wait." Houston squinted his eyes and scrunched his face. "You don't mean Mandy. That's Kelly."

"Kelly is my middle name, and the one I chose to use professionally, but you might also remember me as Mandy Turner."

Houston's eyes went wide as I hung back and watched all of this go down. Izzy still hadn't said anything and that seemed odd. Houston now looked like he was going to have a heart attack. I guess memory lane would do that to you, if you didn't want to remember certain memories.

Like when you and your best friend fucked the hell out of your girlfriend—together — and what was an awesome night of fun turned into your worst nightmare when your best friend went home to his father killing his mother.

Well, that got dark fast. At least I'd had the foresight not to say any of that out loud.

"No fucking way." Houston moved further into the living room in her direction. "Of course, now that you say that, I don't understand how I didn't see it."

"Someone care to explain it to me? What's happening?" Izzy asked.

"Sure, babe. Agent Kelly Turner aka Amanda Turner is Axel's high school girlfriend."

Well, that was one way he could put it, I guess. He didn't know the rest. He hadn't stuck around long enough to find out that she'd also gotten pregnant and had nearly become my baby momma. And that I'd spent the next ten plus years fucking my way through the female population in an attempt to forget her.

"Ohhh. Really? What a small world." True story that. Tiny. Miniscule. "Although it makes plenty of sense when you think about how you were also the woman the club had been looking for. You're from here." Izzy approached Mandy with her hand outstretched and shook it. "I do remember you in Vegas. It’s nice to officially meet you?"

That had come out more like a question than a statement. I understood their hesitation. Mandy's involvement with Frank had nearly gotten Izzy killed and she and Houston weren't likely going to let that go.

Even I was still struggling with it. It just didn’t fit with the girl I knew from the past and the woman I’d been getting to know again. She didn’t want to talk about what went down with her and Frank and that still bugged me.

It didn’t seem quite right that I could be falling for her all over again without knowing more. Did that make me blind? Was our old history together a greater influence than the recent past? There were too many thoughts and questions swirling in my head to deal with this right now.

“Things didn’t quite turn out like I’d expected in Vegas,” Mandy said quietly. “I was relieved to hear that you recovered quickly.”

“Thank you.”

"Why are you here? This is the last placesheshould be." I pointed to Izzy, who shot me a dirty look.

“Shedoesn’t care what you think. If I have a brother out there and he’s going around killing people, I can’t stay out of it.” Izzy had her hands on her hips and I knew from experience that did not bode well for any of us.

“It’s too fucking dangerous,” I growled.

“I tried to tell her. In a variety of ways. In the end though, I opted to take control and let this happen. Otherwise, I was going to wake up to find her gone rogue. This way I control her security."

She rolled her eyes and I had to choke back my laughter. The memory of Izzy shoving a gun in my face popped into my mind. That felt like ages ago now. It wasn't that long ago, actually, but a lot had happened since then.

"JD isn't going to like this."

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