Page 52 of The Sinners Touch

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Angel glanced at her watch. 10:21 a.m. Kade had dumped all that in her lap last night a little after one in the morning, and she hadn’t seen him since. He’d holed himself up in the office. She knew it was related to the case, but still, some discussion was merited.

He couldn’t just waltz back into her life—no, force himself back into her life—using his badge and her status as a witness and tell her everything she believed all these years wasn’t true. Did he expect her to forgive him and carry on where they left off like nothing had happened?

And to say he’d looked for her? Sure, he might not have been an FBI agent yet, but he had been a police officer. He could have found her if he really wanted to.

The real question was whether she would have listened to him back then. As raw and new as the pain of losing her baby and her brother within hours of each other was, she seriously doubted it. The honest truth was she would have spit in his face and walked away.

She wasn’t that same young girl. She’d grown up a lot, and she understood there were mitigating circumstances. The cartel Peter worked for was vicious. Everyone in Miami knew who theywere. Angel had no doubt they would have come after her just to spite Peter and Kade. Could she fault Kade for doing what he’d done? Would she have done the same thing if their roles had been reversed? To protect him? Yes. She’d have done exactly that.

But what she wouldn’t have done was give up on trying to find him once the danger passed. She’d have searched and used every resource available to her until she’d tracked him down. That was what she couldn’t reconcile herself with. He’d given up, stopped looking for her.

And now he expected her to forgive and forget? He was fucked if that was what he thought.

She scrubbed harder at the orange-red stain on Nikoli’s couch, taking her anger out on the poor cushion. How could he assume he could drop the bomb of the century in her lap, kiss her senseless, and then just disappear? This deserved a conversation, dammit.

Bastard.

The key turned in the lock, and she looked up to see Lily come through the door followed by Nikoli and who she could only assume was Dimitri. Kade said he was coming. Tall, dark, and broody, just like Kade. He had the Kincaids’ signature onyx eyes too. Why the hell did they all have to be gorgeous?

“Angel?” Nik took his jacket off and tossed it on the back of the couch. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning up Kade’s mess,” she grouched and scrubbed harder.

Nikoli squatted beside her and put his hand over hers. “I think it’s as clean as it’s going to get.”

“He ruined it.” She let Nikoli take the sponge. “I was trying to fix it, but why should I fix what he ruined? He’s always screwing up, and then he expects me to forgive him.”

“Okay.” Nikoli glanced behind him. “I take it my brother did something to upset you?”

“When doesn’t he do something to upset me?” Angel stood and stalked over to the kitchen and found a dish towel to dry her hands.

“Where is Kade?” Nikoli’s voice was calm, almost soothing. Angel narrowed her eyes. She got the feeling Nikoli was trying to manage her, like she was some crazy person making no sense.

“In the office. He got a call from that detective last night, and he’s been in there ever since.”

“I’m going to go tell him Viktor’s here.”

“Viktor?” Angel frowned. “He said Dimitri was coming. He never said anything about Viktor.”

“Dimitri?” Nikoli sounded surprised. He probably didn’t know, but then Kade did seem to have a bad habit of forgetting to mention important details to people. She tossed the dish towel on the counter with more force than necessary. It went skidding across the island to land at Nikoli’s feet.

“Damn, girl, he’s really pissed you off, hasn’t he?” Viktor asked, coming to stand beside Nikoli. “I hope you didn’t let him get away with shit.”

Her lips pursed. “He’s hiding in the office.”

“Hiding?” Viktor quirked an eyebrow in question. “What makes you think he’s hiding?”

“He got the call from Bailey at one-ish last night. It’s now after ten in the morning. What would you call that?”

“Did you two have a fight or something?” Lily asked, coming into the kitchen.

“We talked.” Her tone grew darker. “Then he barricaded himself in the office under the guise of work.”

“I’m just gonna go get him, then.” Nikoli made a face and retreated to the hallway.

“I’m Viktor.” The man’s Russian accent was much thicker than Kade’s or Nikoli’s. She remembered he said something yesterday about having just returned from Russia. Maybe his accent thickened after spending time in the country where he grew up.

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