No, no, no, no, no.

I can’t formulate any coherent thought beyond that. Beyond a primal litany of denial.

When I press Liam for details, he shakes his head and leaves the room. I don’t follow. There’s more to the story, more he’s not telling me. But I can’t even wrap my head around everything he did say.

A mob prince who fled his father, but even an ocean between them wasn’t enough. What other sacrifices has he made to keep his mother safe? To keep me safe? He was so young… Six years old when he saw his grandparents murdered. I can’t fathom it. I just can’t.

More than ever before, I want to run away.

I’ve killed for my father.

“He was a boy,” I whisper in the dark. “Just a boy.”

I always knew Liam had a past, that he wasn’t exactly innocent. But for the first time, I wonder about his sadism. He’s never hurt me—not really—but nothing arouses him more than playing along the boundaries of pleasure and pain.

Is it because of his childhood? The torture he mentioned? What did they do to him? His body is perfect, no scars that I’ve seen. But I know well that the deepest scars are the ones beneath the skin.

The price of your freedom.

Am I willing to pay it? To walk away from Liam, to let him marry my twin, to be sucked back into the life he ran from? Unbidden, a memory rises of the doorman at Crossroads and his words, “You look familiar.” He thought I was Alexis. Which means Alexis has been to the club at least once.

I’ve known her a long time.

A sick feeling takes ahold of me. Rolling over, I reach for my phone where it rests on the nightstand, my other hand yanking open the drawer below. My fingers close around a folded piece of paper. By the light of my screen, I reread Alexis’s note and the phone number at the bottom.

Then I text her.

are you available to talk? - Eden

Three little dots undulate at the bottom of the screen.

OMG! Is this my SISTER?!?! I’m calling right now! You’d better answer!!!

I’m still wincing at the abundance of exclamation points when my phone starts vibrating. With an aimless prayer, I answer.

“Alexis?”

“OhmyGod, OhmyGod, is it really you? Eden?”

For a pregnant moment, I sit frozen and blank, trying to reconcile the oddest experience of my life. Even with the innate difference in our speech, she sounds exactly like me.

“Eden?”

I clear my throat. “Hi, yes, it’s me.”

Wherever she is, there’s a fair amount of background noise. A car door slams. Men’s voices rise and fade.

“I can’t believe this,” squeals Alexis. “I need to see you! Where are you?”

With your fiancé.

“I’m, uh, staying with a friend in the Hollywood Hills.”

“Sweet! We’re headed that way in a few, right, Chris?”

I hear a familiar, accented voice. “Aye. Tell her we’ll be there in fifteen.”

My heart stumbles and trips. “Um, I don’t think—”

But Alexis isn’t listening. “You know where she is?” she demands. I hear a thud like she just smacked his chest or shoulder. “What’s wrong with you! Why didn’t you tell me? Whatever, you suck. Eden?”

“Yeah, um, here’s the thing—”

“I can’t wait to see you! Get ready for the biggest hug of your life!”

She squeals and hangs up.

From the doorway, Liam growls, “What the fuck have you done?”

* * *

Five minutes later, I’m sitting mannequin-still on the living room couch while Liam paces before me. He’s been alternately cursing me and muttering to himself. Anger rolls off him in waves. The switchblade in his right hand clicks open and closed.

Snick. Open. Snap. Closed.

But I won’t apologize.

“Did you think I’d just walk away and forget about her?”

The eyes that swing to me are turbulent seas. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

I throw up my hands. “Get what? That this whole situation is fucked? Yeah, I get it.”

He laughs; it’s not a pleasant sound. “Things are a bit more than fucked, dove.”

“Does Alexis know?” I ask mutedly. “About the arrangement you made with Maddoc?”

“Yes,” he snaps.

Breath leaves my lungs in a whoosh. “And she agreed?”

“She doesn’t have a choice. Neither of us do, thanks to you.”

I jerk to my feet. “Are you seriously blaming me for this? I suppose you blame me for wanting to go to UCLA, too? For showing up in this city in the first place?”

He rounds on me, pointing at my chest with the closed switchblade. “Horrible fucking luck, it was. And you’re welcome, by the way, for making certain Maddoc didn’t know you were in his backyard the last four years!”

I swallow my shock, package it for another day. “How long, exactly, have you known about me?” I ask carefully.

His gaze falls from mine and he says gruffly, “Since your picture showed up in an Oregon newspaper after you won a speech competition.”

My vision brightens. “That was sophomore year of high school,” I whisper. “You’ve kept my identity a secret all these years?”

He nods. “And I would have continued doing so, but Maddoc was getting too close. One of his goons spotted you shopping on Melrose shortly before your graduation. My initial plan was to somehow frighten you enough that you ran back to Oregon. But once I had you, I didn’t want to let you go.”

“Do you regret it? Regret me?”

With a noise of frustration, Liam pockets his knife and closes the distance between us. He takes my face gently in his hands.

“Even though it makes me a complete bastard, no, I don’t regret a second. Promise me something, dove. Promise me that when you go, you won’t look back. Forget me, forget Alexis, forget it all.”

I shake my head, eyes burning with tears. “I can’t do that. You know I can’t.” Grabbing his wrists, I squeeze tightly. “Liam, come with me. Let’s run together. Somewhere they’ll never find us.”

I’m hardly aware of what I’m saying, only that it comes from a fragile, hopeful part of my heart. Liam presses his forehead to mine; his sigh whispers across my lips.

“I can’t.”

When the cold shock of his words passes, I remember. “Your mother?”

He nods. “She remarried some years ago. I have a half brother and sister back home.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I release his wrists. “I understand.”

“Promise me you won’t look back.”

My heart breaking, I nod. “I promise.”