Kat didn’t have to wait long, although the five minutes since Marco disappeared felt like an eternity.

The door rattled and her heart jumped into her throat. A hand wrapped around the metal, followed by the tip of a gun. She shoved her hand into her purse, wrapping her fingers around the hilt of hers.

Who would it be—X or Roy’s men? Roy’s men were supposed to arrive first, but like she said, their word didn’t mean much.

X appeared and she let out a sigh of relief. Out of the two parties, she was more concerned he would be the one who didn’t show. But damn, he was early.

She was grateful to see he was wearing an eye patch today so she wouldn’t have to stomach looking at his mutilated eye socket. Other than that, he looked the same as yesterday—same sunken-in cheeks, same yellowness in his eye. The man had to be having liver problems.

His expression was menacing.

After looking out into the parking lot one last time, he closed the door behind him. He scanned the room, then shoved his gun in his pants, obviously satisfied she was alone.

“What the hell is this place?”

She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Neutral territory.” She kicked the business card under the desk, hoping there were no more laying about. Shit. So stupid!

“Where is it?” X’s gaze traveled to the box she’d set on the desk. He stalked over and grabbed it.

Shit, shit, shit! Roy wasn’t due to arrive for another twenty minutes. She’d have to stall him.

“Do you have any questions about your mother?” she asked.

He sneered at her and she crossed her arms, forcing herself to give him a fierce look when she really wanted to hightail it out of there. “Let me be clear,” she snarled. “I still don’t give a shit about you. But I cared about Gram and she’d want me to do this. So here I am.”

He let out a shaky breath. “How was she? At the end?” His voice wavered, breaking the tough guy façade. Here in front of her was a man mourning the death of his mother.

She decided to tell him the truth—whatever he wanted to know about his mother. Gram would have wanted that.

And it served the double purpose of keeping him here.

“The Alzheimer’s was bad at the end,” she said gently. “She had more bad days than good days. She wasn’t unhappy. Just stuck in the past.”

“Did she . . . did she talk about me?”

Kat hesitated. They’d had an unspoken rule that they didn’t talk about him, at least when Gram was having one of her better days. She certainly talked about him when she was having a bad day.

“She did when she was reminiscing,” Kat finally said. “She seemed to remember your younger days fondly.”

What she left unsaid was that Gram had also seemed to realize what a piece of shit her son had turned into.

Watching X’s reaction to her words was so odd. It was obvious he’d loved his mother and wanted to know more. It was like his hard exterior had been stripped away, leaving in its place a broken little boy.

X had certainly fallen. Though she’d never met him before, she’d known of him since before she learned her connection to him. He’d been at the top of the food chain, with minions to do his dirty work, similar to Roy.

Now he was alone—a sad, broken, sick man. But he’d brought that on himself. He wasn’t dragging her down with him.

* * *

Marco watched Kat and X, listening to the conversation between them from where he’d hidden himself in an upstairs storage area.

X was fucking pathetic.

He could tell from Kat’s softened features that she felt sorry for him. He just hoped she didn’t change her mind about handing him over to Roy. He didn’t think she would, but family—no matter what kind—had a weird way of messing people up sometimes.

The door rattled and Marco held his breath.

This is it.

The man who’d been at Ryan’s apartment came in first, followed by two other men. All three had guns drawn.

X whirled around. “What the fuck?”

Another man entered wearing a dark three-piece suit. He caught Marco’s attention because he was small—maybe a few inches over five feet with a birdlike physique. His hair was silver and his eyes were piercing blue. Even though he was small in stature, his presence commanded the respect of the men who were at least a head taller than him.

This must be Roy.

He was not what Marco was expecting.

Before anyone could speak, X backhanded Kat, and she crashed into the wall.

“Bitch! You set me up!”

Marco didn’t think—he just reacted. He sprung out of his hiding place, taking the top few stairs in record speed. Then he threw his legs over the handrail and jumped, landing a few feet from X. He lunged at him, his fist making contact with X’s face before X could put up a defense.

Behind him, Roy sighed. “Would someone please restrain Mr. Adamo?”

Two men descended on Marco, pulling him away from X, but not before he got another hit in.

The third man—the one from Ryan’s apartment—spoke. “Stop fighting. Don’t be a hero.”

Marco glanced over at him and the sight stopped his struggles. The man’s gun was pointed at Kat, who still sat on the ground with a hand on her cheek.

She looked defiantly up at X, like she hadn’t even noticed the gun pointed at her head. “You brought this on yourself.”

One of the men waved his gun, gesturing for Marco to move aside.

Fuck. This was going worse than he ever could have imagined. In less than a minute, Kat had been hit and had a gun pointed at her.

Marco raised his hands to show his compliance, but they shook with anger. His years in the army had taught him that sometimes patience was the best battle strategy—no sense rushing in until the right opportunity presented itself—but he was having a hard time holding himself back and not rushing over to Kat.

He felt so goddamn helpless.

But there was nothing he could have done differently, not without endangering Kat. He was a sharpshooter, but he couldn’t have taken out five men before one of them had gotten to her.

They’d lost the upper hand before they’d even had it.

* * *

Kat’s heart had nearly stopped when Marco came flying down the stairs. She’d hoped he’d be able to stay hidden for the entire meeting. She’d hoped it would be as simple as Roy coming in and them leaving. She’d hoped for a miracle.

And now, both she and Marco had guns pointed at them. Her heart clenched in fear, not for herself, but for Marco. She was a nobody—they could kill her and few would notice. But there would be hell to pay if a member of the Adamo family was murdered. She clung to that hope and pushed her fear aside. She needed to keep a clear head.

Her cheek stung—an old familiar hurt she’d experienced many times before. But she wasn’t going to let X know how much he’d hurt her. She got to her feet on shaking legs.

In front of her X seethed, taking huge heaving breaths with his hands fisted at his sides. The box with the blue ribbon lay abandoned at his feet. Kat fixated on it for a moment—the happy-looking box was so out of place.

The man who had his gun trained on her kept it that way, but shifted so he was closer to Roy, leaving just her and X on this side of the room.

She looked at Marco, who wore a grim expression. Desperation shone in his eyes.

“X, how nice of you to join us,” Roy said with a smile. “I wasn’t sure your daughter was going to manage it, but it seems she did.” He mimed applauding in her direction.

“Fuck you,” X said.

“And as eloquent as ever.”

Kat saw the twitch in X’s hand before anyone else, so she was prepared as he lunged toward Roy. For a few moments, she saw the great fighter he must have been as he easily took down one of Roy’s men, slamming his head against the concrete floor. He took the man’s gun, pointing it at Roy. As he pulled the trigger, another of Roy’s men was on him, and the shot went wide, grazing Roy’s shoulder.

The exertion tired him, though, and made him sluggish, so he was easily restrained.

Roy pulled a handkerchief out of his suit and pressed it to his wound. “You shed my blood,” he seethed. “So now I’ll shed yours.”

He pointed a gun at X for a moment, then swung wide and pointed it toward Kat. “She is your daughter, right?”

Kat gasped. Marco lunged forward with a yell until Roy pointed the gun at him.

The gun was an old-style revolver, and Roy cocked the hammer, the sound deafening.

“No!” Kat shrieked. She was too far away to help him.

Roy chuckled, looking over at her. “Relax. I’m just fucking with you. Believe it or not, I’m a fair man.”

“But I’m not,” the man closest to Kat snarled. “This bitch broke my nose.”

Time seemed to slow down as he applied pressure to the trigger of the gun that was now pointed at Kat. In the background, she heard Marco yell, heard the commotion as he fought to get to her.

X turned, his eye meeting hers. In one swift move she wouldn’t have thought the old man capable off, he dove in front of Kat.

A shot fired, hitting X in the stomach.

A second later, another shot fired, and the man who’d shot X fell to the ground, a bullet hole in his forehead. Roy held the gun.

“Goddammit,” he said. “Were my instructions not clear? I was to be the one who killed X.”

“I’m still alive, you fucker.” X panted, clutching his stomach. His face was pale and the effort to speak had obviously cost him. A pool of blood formed around him.

Kat held a hand over her open mouth, surveying the scene in front of her. She looked in horror at Marco, who was being restrained by Roy’s remaining two men.

Roy looked at X coldly, then knelt beside him. “You’ll bleed out shortly. And I bet it hurts like hell.” Then he stood. “We’re done here.”

He led the way to the door and his men followed him, not seeming bothered that their colleague had been killed in cold blood right in front of them.

Marco rushed over to Kat, taking her in his arms and shielding her body with his. Kat clung to him, inhaling his scent and thanking God he was okay. They were both okay.

For now.

“Wait,” she called. “Mr. Roy.”

He paused, looking over his shoulder at her.

“Are we straight?” she asked.

Roy eyed her for a moment. “My dear, killing X is worth more than the twelve and a half million he owes me. You won’t hear from me again.”

“I thought it was fifteen million.” The words were out of Kat’s mouth before she could stop herself. So stupid. Just let him go. Just let it be over.

Roy shrugged. “Fifteen includes interest.”

Then he and his men left.

Kat let out a breath, going weak in the knees. She may have collapsed had Marco not been supporting her.

Behind them, X groaned. Kat exchanged a torn look with Marco before dropping to her knees beside him. Marco pulled out his phone and called 911.

“You saved me,” she said quietly. “Thank you.”

X grimaced, tears streaming out of his eye. Kat couldn’t imagine the amount of pain he must be in.

“What’s . . . in . . . the box?” Every word was a struggle.

Kat quickly retrieved the box and unwrapped it, hoping like hell she’d chosen the right thing to wrap up. Pulling the wooden dog out of the box, she held it up so he could see it.

The edges of X’s mouth turned up in a small smile and he reached for it, but he wasn’t able to lift his arm high enough. Kat put it in his hand, helping him wrap his fingers around it.

“It was her . . . favorite.” With one final breath, X’s eye closed as he clutched the wooden dog to his chest.

Kat stared down at the man who was her father in name only, the man who’d given his life for her, and she wept.