“Kendall saw her once at some dinner, and he expressed his interest in her. My father needed a favor from the Desaltis, so he offered my sister in exchange.” James’ eyes were filled with fury. “She was only sixteen, and my father said he’d kill her if she didn’t agree to spend a night with that...” He shook his head. “I didn’t find out about it until recently when she told me, and I wished I could’ve done something about it. She was afraid that Kendall would come back for her or want to make her his wife. I promised her that I wouldn’t let that happen. That night, I planned to kill my father for letting Kendall anywhere near my sister, but he was away from home and his guards were everywhere, and then... Then you showed up.”

Maybe I should’ve made Desmond’s death slower, although wasting any more time on him than I’d already had would’ve probably only frustrated me more. “Your father and Kendall are dead. They’re not going to hurt anyone ever again.”

He nodded.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that?”

“I didn’t think you’d care.”

“Why would you think that?” I frowned.

“Because no one ever did,” he said softly. “When I confided in someone at my house, he told me that I should just accept it and move on. That life was sometimes like that, and especially when it came to people like us. I didn’t want to accept that. I couldn’t. I couldn’t be like my father.”

I placed my hand on his cheek. “And I’m really glad about that.”

He nuzzled my fingers.

My stomach rumbled. “Let’s go get something to eat. I’m starving.”

“Sure.” We headed down the hallway, although a tiny part somewhere inside me wondered if James had been using me to protect his sister from Kendall, and now that Kendall was gone, if he’d make a move against me to free himself from our deal.

Chapter 22

I WAS IN THE TRAINING room punching a bag when James walked in, and I hit the bag at the wrong angle, which made pain shoot up my arm. Shit. I’d had to deal with an issue at one of my stash houses and with some property documents that had gone missing, so I’d been away for almost a week and hadn’t had much time to think about what was really going on between James and me.