“You wanted to speak to me?” Lucca asked, sitting back in his chair.

Angel looked at the city that was backdropped behind him, not speaking for several minutes, letting everything that had happened since coming here sink in. When he finally spoke, he looked the demon right in the eyes.

“How long are you going to keep me here, Lucca?”

“When I no longer have to worry about your family coming after mine, I will let you go, and not a moment sooner.”

Shaking his head, realization settled in. “As long as both our families exist, there will always be that possibility, Lucca.”

The underboss put a cigarette to his lips and lit the end with a quick flick of his wrist. “Then you better get comfortable.”

You didn’t think he’d actually let you go, did you?

That mocking voice rang through his ear as his blood began to boil. He could see it. The cage he was trapped in was being locked and the key was being thrown away … and there was nothing he could do about it.

Getting up, he needed to get away from him before he did something he would undoubtedly regret.

When he placed his hand on the doorknob, the voice came back. He wants you here, and he wants you with her.

Angel had already made the decision where she was concerned, but it was time to write it in stone.

Turning around, his low voice echoed in the room. “I am no longer capable of watching Adalyn. I want a different position. It doesn’t matter to me what it is as long as I never have to see her again.”

“Is that really what you want?” Smoke blew from his mouth with each word he spoke.

Nodding, he knew it was time for him to stay a step ahead of the boogieman.

“Fine.” Lucca got up, coming to stand in front of him. His blue-green eyes narrowed on him as he inhaled deeply on the stick. “Do you know why I picked you, Angel? Why, out of all the Lucianos, I picked you?”

It was a question he had asked himself every day. A question he was finally about to get the answer to.

“I thought you were different, smarter, stronger. I thought you brought more to the table than the rest of them. I knew you were the only one who could handle it, and now”—Lucca narrowed his eyes on him even more—“I’m not so sure if you’re going to make it.”

Angel could only stand there, watching him retake his seat behind the desk.

“I wanted the kid I saw that day at the train tracks, but I don’t see him anymore when I look at you. Prove me wrong, Angel, or you might as well jump out of your bedroom window.”

Opening the door, Angel had heard enough.

As he headed back to his hotel room, it seemed like every wall started to close in around him. Therefore, when he made it to the safety of his room, he went straight to the dark closet, closing the door on himself.

The dark, small space surrounded him as he placed his hands on the closet wall, closing his eyes…

…As the sound of the train in the distance got closer, he looked down at his feet. They were inside the metal train track.

He looked over at his sixteen-year-old twin brother, who stood right beside him.

“If you fucking move before I tell you to, you get the closet for five days,” Lucifer yelled at them from a few feet away. “But if you’re the first to move, you get it for four.”

The light of the train could now be seen as it barreled closer and closer, brightening the night sky surrounding them.

Angel looked over to see Matthias close, his eyes to the light.

“A Luciano fears nothing!” Lucifer’s corrupt voice matched the ferocity of the train heading toward them.

The light from the train now touched their skins, as the train’s horn began blaring for them to move out of the way.

“Not a train, not a bullet, not a man, not the darkness. We fear nothing!” the devil continued to yell, not giving the command to move.

Sliding his feet into position, he was ready to run first, not from fear, but from the thought of his brother not lasting four days in the closet alone.

The evil voice boomed the word, “Go!”

Angel took off, moving from the train tracks, only hoping he was the one to run first, but when he looked behind him, Matthias was still standing there with his eyes closed as the horn blared in their ears even louder.

It didn’t even take him a second to see that peaceful look on his brother’s face to know his brother had no plans of leaving that train track. The sweet release of death was the only thing that could save them from their father, and Matthias wanted it.

The power in which Angel took off, running toward his brother, shook the ground. Fear was something his father had made sure he didn’t have, but it wasn’t until he thought of his life without his brother that he realized he was capable of it.

The train speeding right at Matthias wasn’t going to reach him first, because that wasn’t an option. He was either going to save his brother, or they both were going to die the same way they had come into this world. Together.

As he ran straight into him, their whole lives flashed before his eyes in a single moment as he wrapped his arms around his brother and jumped.

When the force of the rushing wind passed them, he almost thought Matthias had gotten what he wanted, until he realized no pain or suffering had greeted them. Still, he held on to his brother tightly, not letting him go for several minutes while the long train passed.

The look on his brother’s face before he had saved him, a look he hadn’t seen on him for years, finally thinking he had found peace … But Angel had taken it away from him; therefore not saving him after all.

A hand on the back of his shirt pulled Angel off Matthias, and then he was forced to face his father.

Lucifer’s fist met his face with such a force that it sent Angel flying to the ground. Spitting on his fallen body, he then lifted his foot, bringing it down on his neck to choke his son. “You don’t deserve to bear the family name.”

Angel brought his hands to his father’s shoe, trying to release some pressure to breathe.

“Unlike you, Matthias is strong … waiting to jump until the very last second.” He dug his shoe in a little deeper. “You’re my weakest creation yet.”

Choking, he felt his life force begin to leave him.

“I’ll make a man out of you, or you’ll die trying.” Releasing his foot off his neck after digging harder, he spat on him one last time. “Seven days you get in the closet when you make it home.”

Angel breathed heavily, letting the air fill his lungs once again while he lay there on the gravel, watching his brother being helped up by their father before they walked away.

The blood that trickled into his eye blurred his vision as darkness started to sweep him away after losing too much air. It was only right before it claimed him that he heard footsteps come toward him and a pair of blue-green eyes stared down at him when everything … just … disappeared …