Page 3 of Broken Promises
I could only hope that no one ever found that dark part of myself I’d learned to keep hidden. Or the anger that accompanied the shame. Between the two, I felt like I was being ripped in half, and I feared that feeling would never go away.
Chapter 1
Rhys
Present Day
I’m not a good man, no matter what you may think. I’m selfish, stubborn, I’ve killed without remorse, and when it came to family, there’s only one person I gave a damn about—my sister, Regan. The rest could go fuck themselves, and I’ve told most of them that already.
But everything changed six months ago, when I discovered Rylee had been taken and thrust back into the dark world she’d barely escaped from almost fifteen years ago. Joining forces with James, Devlin, and Lucian tested my ability to not choke one of them out, and when we uncovered the rotten truth about where Rylee had been taken and by whom, I felt like everything I’d done over the years was in vain.
So, I became obsessive to the point Regan would poke her head in on me, observe my actions, shake her head, and leave again. She told me I was going to lose my mind watching over someone for days on end, and at points, I’d feared she might be right.
It didn’t change my actions, though. The monitor facing me was always on, and for as long as I could, I kept watch. Hannah had recently moved out of her granny’s house on the outskirts of Atlanta and into a townhouse closer to downtown. When she alerted me she was moving, I made sure her new home was fully equipped with the latest Callahan Cyber Security system. It took some arguing, but James, Lucian, and Devlin agreed to let me keep watch on her as they settled business closer to home.
So, that’s what I did whenever I was alerted that she was home. I’d watch her for hours, monitoring her computer activity and seeing the despair in her eyes. She was, for all intents and purposes, alone in the world. I knew she spent every free minute searching for answers to questions I wasn’t aware she had until a few weeks ago. I should have let James and the rest know what she was searching for, but until they decided whether to claim Hannah as a sibling or not, I would keep an eye on her.
How she’d uncovered the secret, I was still confused about. No one knew until we’d saved her and Rylee from the demented men that she was possibly Sergey’s illegitimate daughter. And seeing her pouring through everything she could find about him made me question how she found out.
Did the man who violated her tell her the supposed truth? Or was there something I was missing?
Every day, I feared she would uncover more than she was ready for, and every day, I did my best to hide some of the gorier details from her. People think the internet is a free place to search and learn when in reality, most of what you see was already censored. I just made sure to conceal information that could cause her problems.
What the problems were, and who they might have come from, was still a mystery, so I watched. I wasn’t as obsessive as Devlin, but I was starting to see why he’d kept such a close eye on Elise for so long. The more I watched, the more fascinated with her I became. There was something about Hannah that called to a part of me, but for the life of me, I didn’t know why.
For years, I’d maintained a hands-off approach with anyone I helped, making sure they had what they needed and ensuring they felt safe around me. I’d never done anything to play on their emotions or used information to gain an upper hand with them. But Hannah was causing me to question every rule I had in place.
Seeing her wipe her eyes as she read another transcript from the trials Sergey testified at was breaking what little good was left in my heart. From what I’d seen, Hannah had a good heart, and a large part of me hoped she wasn’t connected to Sergey in any way, though I feared she was.
A knock on the door to my office drew my attention away from the monitor, and I lifted my head to reply, “Come in.”
The door opened slightly and Regan poked her head around it. She offered me a smile as she spoke. “You’ve got company.”
I rolled my eyes at her statement, knowing it was one of the only three people who would just show up without an invitation. “Which one is it?” I asked, and it was her turn to roll her eyes.
“Why don’t you try being nice?” she inquired as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “I know you have it in you, but you’re always so moody.” She moved closer to the desk and settled a hip on the edge. Glancing at the monitor, she brought her eyes back to me and said, “Rhys, I know why you keep everyone at arm’s length, but eventually, you’ve got to let someone besides me in.” Her voice lowered and she continued softly. “You’re wonderful and deserve a life full of love.”
I didn’t want to snap at her, but I needed to be firm with her sometimes. Trying my best to soften my tone, I explained, “There is so much you don’t know about, and I promise, one day, I’ll tell you everything. Right now, I need to know who’s outside.”
Whoever was waiting was probably here to deliver some kind of fresh hell on my life, and I was running short on patience. Regan didn’t deserve my attitude, but I’d felt like I was slipping down a rope, grasping for a handhold before I fell off.
She sighed deeply and stood from the edge of the desk then began to walk toward the door. I knew that for the last few months I’d been pulling away from Regan and the other people in my life, if you could even say that James and the rest of them were even in my life. Since the night we’d burst into that roomand I’d witnessed a woman being attacked for no reason other than the DNA running through her veins, I felt something inside me snap.
Regan turned to look at me as she grasped the door handle and said, “It’s Lucian, so try not to be an asshole.”
I was just about to say something about her language when she opened the door and walked into the hallway. A moment later, Lucian walked into the office and closed the door behind him. He and Devlin resembled each other so much, it was disturbing, but their resemblance to Sergey was unnerving. His blue eyes locked onto me, and I gave the monitor a quick glance before turning my full attention to him.
He caught my eye movements as he leaned against a table by the door, and he crossed his arms over his chest. I leaned against the back of my chair and gave him a blank stare as I waited for him to explain why he was here. Eventually, he shook his head before walking across the room and taking a seat in the chair in front of my desk.
Lucian crossed his leg over his knee before he finally spoke. “How’ve you been, Rhys?”
“Did you really come all this way to see how my day was?” I asked. “I know Rylee’s only a few months from delivering the babies, so why don’t you just get on with the reason for your visit, so you can get back to Pierce Bluff and your happy life.”
The snark in my tone was crystal clear, and while we’d put some of our issues behind us, there were still some things we needed to work through. I knew he still felt betrayed by me disappearing on him, but I made the best decision I could at the time, based on what I’d seen and heard for myself. He was losing himself to the dark madness of the Syndicate, and after hearing Rylee’s story to the Bureau, I knew I had to walk away before I jumped into the darkness to save my best friend.
“How long have you been watching Rylee?” he inquired, and I shrugged at his question. I’m sure James had some way of knowing how much I watched her, but I wasn’t going to admit anything to him or Lucian. They couldn’t possibly understand my driving force behind wanting to keep her safe, so I remained silent. “Jesus, Rhys. Why do you have to make everything so damn complicated? I’m not trying to bust your balls, I’m just worried about you. We all are.”
I wasn’t expecting him to say that, and a small part of me felt like an asshole. Instead of apologizing, I questioned him. “Have you and your siblings made a decision?”
