Page 54 of Hart of Vengeance
“You know about Jade? Of course you do. Dillon.” When I’d gotten home the night before, Dillon had been waiting up for me. I’d filled him in on every detail since he’d dropped me off at Jade’s office building, including getting shot at, the FBI, Savannah, my encounter with our brother, and Jade.
She’d been very clear the night before. She wanted nothing to do with me. I knew now how she had felt when I broke up with her—gutted, hurt, and angry—and I didn’t like it one bit.
“Dillon didn’t tell me everything.”
“It’s okay. Nothing really to tell anyway.”
Maggie knitted her pretty eyebrows. “You’re not giving up?”
I chuckled. “That’s a big, fat no. I just need her to make the first move.”
“The only way she’s going to do that is if you give her some signs.”
I had a major fucking sign in my boxer briefs. But I knew what she meant.
The topic of my love life went by the wayside when a voice I hadn’t heard in years trickled into the room, and my heart sputtered.
“Where is he?” my sister, Grace, asked.
Maggie smiled. “Someone has been dying to see you.”
Footsteps pounded on the stairs, and a tornado came whirling into my room and threw herself on the bed before she wrapped her arms around me. “Denim,” Grace squealed.
Oh my God.
I hugged her tightly. “Grace? Is that really you?”
The last time I’d seen my baby sister was just before she’d disappeared at sixteen. She’d been swept up in a human-trafficking ring only to escape. Thank God Dillon had been able to take down her kidnappers. Or rather Grace, some ex-military dude that Grace knew, Dillon, Duke, and Maggie had taken down her kidnappers.
Hell, it took Maggie getting snagged by the same people before justice had been served. Our lives weren’t the average big house, pristine lawn, and white picket fences. No, the Harts rivaled the Gallagher family from the showShameless. We were highly dysfunctional for sure. We had an alcoholic father, a nowhere-to-be-found mother, drugs, jail, crime, and each of us were just trying to find one spec of happiness wherever we could.
“See you guys later,” Maggie said. “Oh, and Denim, don’t go anywhere near Tito. He’s more lethal than you remember.”
Tito’s name didn’t belong in our conversation at the moment.
Grace tightened her hold on me before she edged back. “I heard he’s trying to kill you. Need a bodyguard?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Bodyguard? Who? You?”
She sat on her heels. “I’m tougher than you think.”
The last thing I wanted was for her to get involved in my shit. “Let me look at you.”
She preened. Her smile warmed my heart. Gone was her baby fat, the acne, and the innocence.
“How old are you now, baby sister?”
She was all woman for sure with curves, toned biceps, brown hair spilling down to her shoulders, and a tattoo of a colorful hummingbird on her neck.
“Can you believe I’m twenty-two?”
Fuck no.In my mind, she was still the little runt who’d bounced on my bed at five in the mornings, trying to get me up to fix her breakfast.
I took her hand. “You’re beautiful, and you seem happy.” Fuck, I prayed she was after being sold to some fucker who’d abused her.
“I am. I have good days and bad. And today is a great day. I’ve missed you. I’m sorry I didn’t come to visit you.”
“No worries. Prison sucks, and after what you’ve been through, you didn’t need to see the lowlifes I lived with. On another note, I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t there for you.” I kissed the back of her hand.
