“Hi.” Nervously, I stared at Suria. I wasn’t entirely certain about this. Nicco had assured me that Suria wanted to talk to me, so I’d given in to his comments and come along with him.

I still wasn’t sure what we were going to accomplished.

With Gabriel Marks living a few hours away, he was more than a little out of my jurisdiction.

But we had to do something, and the people who were most likely to have some idea on what or how to handle him was going to be his kids.

Suria stared at me, her eyes dark and unreadable. After a moment, a bit of a smile cracked her face and she gave a short nod. “We want the same thing, don’t we?”

“I want Gabriel Mark behind bars.”

She cocked a brow. “I want him where he can’t cause problems for my sister,” she said softly.

It was telling, the way she said my sister. But I didn’t ask her for details. “If he’s behind bars, he can’t cause problems for anybody. Not her, or you.”

Suria curled her lip. “I can take care of myself, but she’s…”

A sound behind Suria had her turning.

I’d already caught sight of the girl who’d slid into the hallway, but apparently, Suria hadn’t been aware of her until that telltale noise.

“Joelle.”

“I’m what?” Joelle looked from her sister to me, then back. When we’d met, she’d watched me with a hesitant gaze, but her expression had been open, easy to read.

Not so much now. She didn’t have the hard-edged glare that her sister had managed, but it was a more serious look than I’d expected to see from her with that fresh-faced innocent thing she had going on.

Suria looked a little caught off-guard, I thought, but if she was, she hid it fast enough.

“Joelle, can you go make some coffee? I’ve got to talk to…” She looked at me, her eyes guarded. “Officer Sinclair and Nicco for a while.”

“If it’s about Dad, then I need to be in there too.” She folded her arms and leaned against the wall, bracing herself on her shoulder. “This all involves me too.”

Suria’s lips pressed down tight.

She blew out a sigh and stepped back. “We’ll talk about this in a minute, Jo.” Her gaze slid back to me. Nicco and I were still standing on the stoop, and she gestured. “We can’t do this out here.”

Once we were inside, she led us into a large, formal sitting area. “This isn’t my place,” she said, waving a hand around to encompass the area. “We’ve been staying with Nicco’s mom since…” She stopped and sighed, passing a hand over her eyes. “Man, this is complicated.”

She looked frustrated and pissed, but I got a feeling it wasn’t directed at me. Looking around, I gestured to a chair. “Mind if I sit?”

Nicco was still standing behind me, silent.

“Go ahead.” She took the seat opposite mine and met my gaze levelly. “I have no love for my father. You should know that up front. I’ve heard you got issues with him, and I get it. But trust me, I’ve got more than a few issues with him too. Me and Joelle.”

“I can speak for myself,” Joelle piped up from the doorway.

“Joelle…” Suria slid her a look.

The younger girl shook her head and stepped into the room, pushing her long hair back from her face. She looked young but determined. “He did just as much to me. Hell, Suri, he did more,” Joelle said, shaking her head.

Curiosity pricked at me, and I slid Nicco a look. He wasn’t looking at me, though. He was staring at Suria with a closed expression.

Joelle’s support came from a different direction though.

I looked over at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and spied a tall, lean blond standing in the door. “This concerns her too,” he said.

“She’s a kid,” Suria said.

“I’m not saying you have to let her lead the charge, but you should at least listen to the things she has to say.” His longish hair flopped into his eyes, and he shoved it back, a negligent, almost second-hand gesture. “You’re right. You both have issues with him. But she’s right too. She can speak for herself. You should let her.”

Suria opened her mouth like she wanted to argue, but then she deflated. She slanted a look at Joelle and waved at her. “Come on, Jo. You’re right.”

As Joelle came in, she looked at me and waggled her fingers. “How are you doing?” she asked, a friendly expression on her face.

It was nice, seeing a friendly expression around here.

Granted, I could look at Nicco and see more than friendliness, but the easy warmth on Joelle’s face was welcome.

She sat down on the couch angling toward me, half-turned toward me. “What’s the deal with you and my father?” she asked softly.

“It’s complicated,” I said, hesitant.

“If it involves him, it’s going to be.” She rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch, crossing her legs. She wore an outfit of jeans and knee boots, a cute pink sweater topping it off. The sweater played up her golden skin. She was a beautiful girl. Really. “You probably wouldn’t believe some of the shit he’s done.”

Leaning forward, I braced my elbows on my knees. Linking my fingers together, I met her eyes. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me what kind of shit, do you?”

Her eyes held mine for a long moment, then she flicked a look at her sister.

After a few seconds, she said, “You have to understand…our life was…hell. It’s all we knew. There were things he taught us, things he had us doing, that just…well, it wasn’t cool.”

Something told me that she was putting it lightly when she said, it wasn’t cool. Was that paraphrasing, it wasn’t legal?

Shooting Suria a look, I took in the carefully blank expression on her face and wondered.

But my gut was telling me the answer was yes.

“We need to figure out a way to get your dad to admit to some of the illegal things he’s done,” I said softly, looking between the two sisters. “The more recent, the better. And…evidence or witnesses would be nice.”

Suria grimaced. She reached up and rubbed between her eyebrows where a thin line had formed. “I guess it was too much to hope you all had already built a case against him,” she murmured.

“I don’t have a case,” I admitted. Frustrated, I got up and paced over to the window. “What I have is a friend whose family was defrauded by him, and her father ended up committing suicide.”

I looked back at them as I delivered those words and watched varying expressions of horror and shock flit across their faces. From the doorway where he still stood, the blond said, “Son of a bitch.”

Suria got up and went to him, leaning against him with her arms wrapped around his waist. “Every time I think I’ve heard the worst,” she said.

He kissed her hair. “You’re away from him now, babe. Remember that.”

“I know, Kian.”

I tucked that name away in the back of my head as I pulled my gaze away from them. They were a unit. It was written all over them, from the way he skimmed a hand down her back to the way she straightened up and brushed a hand across his cheek.

Something close to envy slid through me.

But then Nicco came over and passed a hand across the back of my shoulder. I looked up at him as he sat down on the arm of the chair and took my hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes intent on my face.

I nodded, pulling my eyes away from him so I didn’t get lost in them.

“I’m sorry,” Joelle said, meeting my eyes. “That’s just…lousy…”

“Yeah.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Lousy was one way to put it. “Yeah, it’s pretty lousy.” I drew in a deep breath and let it out. “It’s been years, but…lousy is still a good if short way of putting it.”

“I’m sorry too.” Suria took her seat again, meeting my eyes. “That’s… rough. My dad’s always been an asshole.”

That made me break out into an outright laugh.

“That, too, is a good way of putting it.” I managed to smile.

Nicco cupped the back of my neck in his hand and rubbed his thumb in a small circle over the base of my neck. “You need evidence of his crimes. Witnesses. What if there are witnesses who might have been involved in some the crimes themselves?”

Nobody looked at Suria, but I could feel the tension gathering in the air.

“Would he admit to the crimes?” I asked.

“Admit to the cops?” Suria laughed. “Hell, no. But would he brag? Depends on who it’s to.”

A few seconds of silence passed, then Nicco said calmly, “Me.”

I whipped my head to look at him.

He glanced down at me before rising. He circled around the room, looking restless. He rotated his neck, left, then right, turning back to look at us. “I can talk to him.”

“After what we did?” Suria asked, her gaze incredulous.

Curiosity piqued again.

“What did you do?” I asked, keeping a flat voice.

Joelle was the first one to look at me.

The glance didn’t last more than a second before she shifted her attention to her sister. “She should know.” With a shrug, she added, “Who knows, maybe it will make it easier for her to…you know. I mean, we talked about me going to the police if I had to.”

Now it was more than curiosity. “I think maybe you two should tell me whatever this is,” I said, trying to keep the edge out of my voice.

I didn’t think I entirely succeeded, judging by the way Suria turned her eyes on me, an appraising look on her face. But she focused on the man standing in the doorway. He made a move with his shoulders and said, “It’s up to you two. He screwed you two over, not me.”

Suria rubbed her brow, then looked back at me. “Do you know that we’re Romany?”

I flicked a look from her to her sister, then glanced over at the man next to me. “You mean like…what…Gypsies?”

“Not exactly the PC term.” Joelle made a face. “But yeah, that’s what she means. Dad belongs to a clan near Los Angeles. We grew up there. To outsiders, there are things in the clan that will seem…odd.”

“Odd. Like what?”

Joelle and Suria exchanged another look, then Joelle looked back at me. “He tried to make me get married a few weeks ago.”

I blinked at her.

She just stared right back.

“You’re sixteen.”

“Yes. The man he wanted me to marry was in his forties. He was from one of the clan families that were better off – a strong, powerful family. Our family is…” She shrugged and made a face. “We’re kinda down on the bottom rung. Dad always wanted more power. Marrying into a better family was his way of getting it.”

“But you’re sixteen,” I said again.

“Romany families used to frequently arrange marriages between their children. Fourteen, sixteen…” She lifted a shoulder. “Most have become a little more progressive. But not ours.” Her mouth firmed out. “No. We aren’t part of that anymore. But the clan isn’t progressive. They were all going to happily stand by while Dad made me marry this guy. They didn’t care what happened, if I wanted to marry him, if he’d hurt me…” Her breathing hitched.

There was a part of me that was appalled, that wanted to ask if she was serious, but I could see it in her eyes. She was deadly serious.

I wanted to pace, but Nicco was already doing that, his restless, caged energy filling the room. “I take it this all plays into whatever it was that you all did.”

Joelle glanced at Suria, and she took over. “Jo and I ran away. We were hiding out in a hotel.” She nodded at her brother. “We’d just found out about Nicco – I found a picture of him and his mother, and I tracked him down, went to talk to them. They offered help.” She sighed sadly. “I should have accepted it.”

Nicco passed by her, behind the chair where she sat and rubbed her shoulder. “You haven’t had a lot of experience in trusting people. Don’t beat yourself up over this, Suri.”

She nodded and continued. “But I wasn’t ready to trust him. We were at the hotel. Jo was swimming, and my dad showed up. She’d called our cousin – wanted to let her know she was okay and Dad overheard the phone call, heard her tell my cousin where we were. He came after her. He made her leave with him and…” She glanced at Kian next. A faint smile curled her lips. “Man, talk about complicated. Anyway, we went after her. Nicco helped. He talked to Dad, kept him distracted while Kian and I helped Jo sneak out of the house. The wedding was set to happen two days after we got her out.”

Joelle’s lips twitched. “I kept telling myself I should go to the police, call them…just run. But I didn’t. I didn’t know what to do.”

Her sister went to her, wedging into the narrow space in the seat and wrapped her arms around her.

Silence spread over the room, weighted, taut.

After a few moments of it, I looked at Nicco. “Does he know you were helping them?”

“Seeing as how I took off out of there like my ass was on fire? Probably.” He shrugged. But there was a funny little smile on his face. “He’s an arrogant bastard, though. Kept talking about how he always knew his boy would be looking for him. ‘Romany blood,’ he said. ‘It’s too strong to ignore. Your bloodline is showing through.’ He kept saying shit like that.”

“We could use that,” Suria said from where she sat wrapped around her sister.

“Use it how?” Kian asked.

All eyes turned to me.