Three: B

o didn

oor slammed sh

hed like a loaded gun acros

e in his glass melte

taring at the photogra

car

uettes in the b

secr

nd something else he hadn't felt

't be a c

lieve in coincidence.

damn years,

il

hed for h

hing on Aria Castell. Full surveillance. I want eyes on her apartmen

, bo

nd poured an

ce hadn't cracked. But inside,

e kids

n't ne

eded

disappeared the next morning like a ghost in

ow...

burn dull compared to what

a De

kingdom bu

his name in th

woman had taken s

g irrepl

e if he was more

y that he had son

-

ss the

watercolor shades of dusk-peach, la

ship out of LEGO bricks while his twin brother, Nino, sat cross-l

n," Nino said, w

dramatic." Nico snapped a pie

no

e t

his tongue. N

storm-gray eyes that never missed a thing. But anyone who sp

was

was

born confidence, Nino lingered-quiet, thou

he's okay?" Nin

hen shrugged. "Ye

sing mid-build, fingers curlin

know much ab

anhattan. That she jumped at loud noises. That she'd once broken dow

never to ask a

dead?" Nino asked,

looke

t say

y n

dead, then he left

y. They were only five. But some t

nt door

their feet, rushin

and beautiful and try

they c

nd opened her arms just in

ke vines, tiny arms and st

Nino mumbled ag

" she whispere

breathing them in, holding

sn't sure she could protect the

-

me stories, and finally passed out tangled in one bed li

ed in hi

brother's shirt like he needed t

close everything ha

n't ready t

ot

and padded to her bedroom

onto the bed and st

ked at her l

cts. And those instincts had made him o

how long she cou

n he looked at her, like it was five years ago and they w

hadn't known sh

re-not the man who would eventually terrify

t

she had tried to s

ey looked j

ughed l

irked l

the same way-quiet,

were going to start

sn't sure she co

hone

ed at th

wn Nu

omach

n't ans

toni

her bones, that Luca was

h like a predator who'd

he knew f

op him from clai

even