Page 77 of Home Team Advantage
“The night they came for my family, my brother and I escaped, though we made it look as if we’d been taken. We went our separate ways shortly after, knowing it was safer for us both that way. I don’t know where he went. I roamed around, working odd jobs under the table, staying out of sight, until I was able to get a new ID. That was when Anna Black was created.”
Matt wasn’t saying anything. He didn’t look shocked. He didn’t look angry or hurt. She had to make him understand.
“So, you see, I can’t stay in one place for any length of time. If the other family discovers my brother and I are alive, they’ll come for us, and they’ll stop at nothing. No one around us would be safe.”
Matt remained silent. She could see his mind working.
Finally, he said, “Did Manny Falco discover the truth? Is that why he kidnapped you?”
She felt a small measure of relief that he’d asked a question she could answer. She nodded. “Yes. He was a beat cop in Chicago when everything went down, and he recognized me. He was going to sell me back to the family that had wiped out mine.” She huffed a humorless laugh. “He wasn’t very bright if he thought he could extort the mob. They would have made a deal, taken me, and given him a double-tap in the back of his head as payment.”
She stilled as Matt’s words echoed in the back of her mind. “It’s the strangest thing. Apparently, he stole a vehicle from the DOC and drove off the road and right into the Tawannock River.”
“But you ended up doing that anyway, didn’t you?”
Matt shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “He hurt you.”
He hurt you. A warm feeling wrapped around her. Through her.
“Does that bother you?” he asked.
“No,” she whispered. And it didn’t. It made her feel cherished and safe and protected.
If she was a normal human being, the idea that Matt had killed a man on her behalf would have raised a lot of red flags, but she wasn’t normal. She’d grown up in a family for whom killing was an everyday part of life. Hell, her brother had killed a man and basically engineered the annihilation of their horrible family, and she couldn’t love him more for it.
She didn’t realize she was crying until Matt was wiping the tears away. “Don’t cry, Anna. I don’t care who you were or where you came from. The only thing I care about is who you are now. You’re safe with me, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you stay that way.”
She believed him. His words resonated like the ring of fine crystal amid a sea of white noise. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m falling in love with you,” he said, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Do you remember when I told you about croies?”
She nodded.
“My heart tells me that you are mine.”
She felt as if she were dreaming. That the whole night had been some sort of fantasy her mind had conjured. Matt’s attention. The most romantic date ever. Incredible sex. Someone who knew her true identity, her past baggage, and still wanted her.
“There is one thing though,” he said.
Immediately, those dreamy feelings began to retract. “What?”
“The thing with croies is, it has to work both ways to be legit. So, I have to ask, what is your heart telling you?”
She grinned so wide that she thought her face might split, and she didn’t care if it did.
“It tells me, Matt O’Connell, that you are mine as well.”
Epilogue—One Year Later
ANNA
Life was good. Anna and Matt’s relationship was strong and growing stronger every day. She couldn’t imagine life without him.
Mrs. Campbell was as feisty as ever and doing well. She was already planning her big centennial blowout, even though that was two years off. Anna didn’t have a doubt in her mind that Elsa would cruise right past one hundred and keep going.
But life had a way of shaking things up. The bomb that Mrs. Campbell dropped at dinner was proof of that.
“But—”
