Two hours and a pizza delivery later, and they hadn’t gotten any further. They still knew nothing about who those men were and what they wanted. Years ago, Ryan was in touch with some of the seedier parts of town, and Kat never thought she’d say this, but she wished he still had those connections.

It didn’t pay to be an upstanding citizen when the bad element forced itself into her life, leaving her with no way to fight back.

“Think, Kat,” Ryan prodded. “You have to know something.”

Kat crumpled up her napkin in disgust and tossed it onto her paper plate. “I already told you. We didn’t talk about him. We had an unspoken rule about that.”

“X was the only family she had besides you,” Ryan argued. “She had to have talked about him sometimes.”

“She only talked about him when she was having an episode, so anything she said isn’t relevant. Like she’d talk about picking him up early from school for a doctor’s appointment or something like that.”

Kat’s frustration matched Ryan’s, but unlike him, she was certain there was nothing she was missing. She’d had no interest in the man who’d fathered her—and still didn’t except for figuring out who those men at the funeral were. Aside from that, she’d be content to going back to pretending he didn’t exist.

Marco sat with his arms crossed, silent as he’d been for most of the past two hours. At first she’d thought he was staying quiet for her sake. That he knew his presence was irksome to her, so he was trying not to piss her off. Then she realized that unlike Ryan who talked way too much, Marco didn’t speak unless he had something to contribute. That probably came from his years of military service.

But now he spoke up. “I think we should talk to Knox. Wasn’t he involved with X at some point?”

Kat opened her mouth to reply but clamped it shut. She’d been about to mention Tony’s involvement with X, but she realized Marco must not know about it. Otherwise he would have made the suggestion to call his brother hours ago.

“I’d prefer not to involve him,” she replied.

“Why not?” Ryan asked.

“Because involving him would involve Natalie. I don’t exactly want her to know the man who abducted her is my father.”

Bringing in Knox would make things all kinds of complicated and she wasn’t about to be a hypocrite and spill Tony’s secret. If the media got wind of his involvement in an illegal fighting ring, she couldn’t even imagine the backlash he’d have to deal with. Because of his father, Adamo Enterprises had been in the news a lot lately and the last thing Tony needed was to add fuel to that fire.

And she was worried about what Natalie would think. Kat didn’t have many girlfriends and she wasn’t about to lose her best one because of some dickhead her mother had had an affair with.

The two men exchanged a look and some kind of unspoken man code passed between them. Kat almost rolled her eyes.

“We might not have a choice,” Ryan said. “That’s our only option.”

“Those men wanted X, not me. And I’m nothing to him. He doesn’t even know I exist.” She’d stated that before, so she didn’t know why she said it again. It was as if she hoped if she said it enough, it would matter.

But she knew all too well that when it came to criminal activity, the innocent often got hurt.

“He does now,” Marco said quietly. God, she wished that weren’t true. She wished she could jump in a time machine and clamp her hand around the nurse’s arm, stopping her from going to the podium.

“Regardless,” Kat said, “we might be making something out of nothing.” Even as she said the words, desperate for them to be true, they rang as naive to her ears. She was normally a realist, but this recent turn of events was bad enough that she’d adopted an optimist’s attitude. What was it that people said? If you put it out into the universe or some craziness like that, it would come true?

God, if that was the best she had, then things were really bad.

“You’re the only daughter of a notorious criminal with lots of enemies,” Marco said. “All three of those men had their guns aimed at you at some point this morning. That does not seem benign to me.”

“That’s it.” Ryan thumped his fist on the table like it was a gavel. “You’re officially on lockdown.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kat scoffed. She’d like to see him try to lock her down. The idea was preposterous.

“No, I’m serious,” Ryan insisted. “You’re tough, Kat, but you’re not tough enough to handle three men with guns.”

“I hate to say it, but he’s right,” Marco said, earning a narrow-eyed look from Kat. “But to be fair, not many can handle being outnumbered three to one, especially when the opponents are twice your size and have weapons.”

“Then it’s settled,” Ryan said. “You can stay here.”

Who the hell did he think he was, ordering her around? He might be the big brother, but she didn’t answer to him. More importantly, she wasn’t letting him get involved. She kind of wished she hadn’t told him, but they didn’t keep secrets from one another. At least, not ones like these.

She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “I’m not staying here.”

“Why not?”

“If those men are the threat you think they are, then I’m not putting you in harm’s way. Besides, my address is unlisted and I’m already difficult to find.”

After the Leo fiasco, she’d made sure of that. There was no trace of Katie Morton or Kat Delagrange on any public listings or social media. She lived like a ghost and so far it had served her well.

Another look passed between Ryan and Marco. Marco shook his head then sighed when Ryan gave him a pointed look.

This time, Kat did roll her eyes. Though they hadn’t spoken, it definitely felt like they were talking about her like wasn’t sitting right in front of them.

“Marco will stay with you,” Ryan said.

Kat blinked hard twice. “What?”

Surely she hadn’t heard him right.

“Until we know those men aren’t after you, you need a bodyguard. Marco is in the military. He can go all Rambo on their asses if they come around.”

Kat had no doubt Marco could handle himself. She saw that firsthand when he wrestled the gun away from that man. But the thought of sharing her small apartment with Marco was too much.

“No,” she said firmly.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Ryan shot back.

What she meant was sharing her space with Marco would put her over the edge. Her body wanted him desperately, but it was at war with her mind, which couldn’t let go of the fact that Marco was the man she’d hated for years on behalf of her brother. It didn’t matter that Ryan didn’t have any ill will against him. Her grudge was about more than just what had happened with Ryan. Marco had deceived her twice now, albeit the second time was unknowing. Regardless, she wasn’t going to let the third time be the one that did her in.

“Fine. Then I’m going to be stuck on you like white on rice,” Ryan said, smiling in the way he knew irritated her. “I’ll stay at your place. I’ll go to work with you. I’ll be so far up your ass you won’t even see me.”

“Be serious.”

“Oh, I am. I totally am. And since I’ll be your Siamese twin for the foreseeable future, I’ll probably lose my job because I can’t make telemarketing calls from your office. I’ll probably fail all my classes, too. The professors won’t want my sister attached to my hip when I’m taking exams.”

“What are you talking about?”

Ryan shoved a stack of papers aside, revealing a textbook. “I’m taking classes at the community college.”

Kat gasped and her mouth stretched into an involuntary grin. For a moment she didn’t even care that he was using his classes to blackmail her into agreeing to something she didn’t want to do. She’d been after him for years to take classes or do something to try to better his situation. Her heart soared at the fact that he’d taken the initiative himself.

But so much for not keeping secrets.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She didn’t know whether to hug him or hit him for keeping it from her. On second thought, definitely hug.

He shrugged. “I’m still not sure if it’s going to work out and I didn’t want you to get your hopes up. But I guess now that I’ll be failing my classes, that makes the decision easy.”

Kat scowled. On third thought, perhaps she should go with hitting him after all. Ryan had her in a corner and he knew it. She glanced over at Marco, who had his hand held over his mouth, covering a grin. Her scowl deepened.

She believed Ryan would make good on his threat. He was just enough of a stubborn asshole to do everything he’d said. And, she admitted, devoted enough to her to do whatever he thought was necessary to keep her safe.

Besides the possibility of Ryan losing his job and failing his classes, she didn’t want him anywhere near those men. Ever since he’d been in the wheelchair and unable to defend himself with his fists, Ryan had kept himself armed. It was a rough neighborhood he lived in. But he would be no match against those men and if they were as ruthless as she’d seen today, they’d think nothing of striking down a man in a wheelchair. Anyone was fair game.

“I don’t want to put you out,” Kat muttered to Marco, hoping he’d take the bait and excuse himself from bodyguard duty. He couldn’t be any happier about this than she was.

“There’s nothing pressing on my schedule.”

Kat looked over at him, her eyes meeting his. In them she saw loyalty and fierceness, and her heart softened.

God, this was a horrible idea. The list of why she shouldn’t get further intertwined with Marco grew longer every day. He was a complication she didn’t need in her life right now. Or ever, for that matter. When she’d left Leo and Florida, she’d left complicated behind.

But it seemed that complicated had a way of finding her.

* * *

Marco glanced over at Kat, who sat beside him in his truck. She was the only passenger he’d had since he bought the truck, and it seemed she’d ridden with him damn near half the time he’d driven.

“I need to get my car,” she said. “It’s at the cemetery.”

Marco shifted, bracing himself for the protests that were bound to come. “I don’t know if we should go by there just yet.”

“Why not? I need my car.”

“If those men know it’s your car, they might be waiting for you there.”

“That’s unlikely. Until I was outed as X’s daughter, they had no interest in me. They didn’t pay me any attention until Nurse Hewlitt’s grand announcement, so they wouldn’t have noticed me at my car before the funeral.” There was bitterness in her tone. Marco sympathized with her. It was such a fluke the way her secret had been revealed.

“You’d be surprised what people notice. It wouldn’t be hard for them to figure out it’s yours.”

Kat didn’t blend into the crowd as well as she thought she did, but it was not for lack of trying. She was gorgeous and any red-blooded male who laid eyes on her would notice her. There was no hiding the raw sensuality of her lips, her eyes, her everything.

“It’s not like they could have asked anyone who was at the funeral. Not after they’d run around with their guns out.” There was pain in her voice this time. Dealing with the death of a family member was hard enough as it was, but having the funeral disrupted like that had to make it that much harder.

He wanted to reach over and squeeze her hand, to let her know he was there for her. But it wouldn’t be welcome. So instead, he’d make good on his promise to keep her safe. It was the least he could do. Hell, it was the only thing he could do.

“No, but we don’t know if it was just the three of them,” Marco said. “They could easily have had more men who didn’t get involved in the fray. Besides, they had to park somewhere. Chances are it was in the cemetery parking lot. One of them could have parked right next to you.”

She furrowed her brow. “I barely remember parking.”

“That’s my point. If those men are any good at what they do, then they would have noticed who they parked near. Men like that tend to pay attention to their surroundings.”

“It sounds like you know a thing or two about that.”

He shrugged. “I’ve spent the last few years in a war zone. Paying attention to your surroundings can mean the difference between stepping on an IED or living another day. I imagine the life of a criminal is sort of like being at war. The ones who are smart and pay attention live to see another day. Those who don’t die young.”

“Okay,” Kat said, much to his surprise. He didn’t expect her to agree with him so quickly. “But can we drive by and check it out?”

“They may not have seen your car, but we know for a fact they’ve seen my truck,” he replied.

The thought had him looking in the rearview mirror, checking for a tail. He didn’t see anyone, but he wasn’t trained for that sort of thing. He switched lanes and took a right.

“Where are you going?” Kat asked.

“I’m going to circle around and take the long way,” he said. They were headed to his parents’ house so he could pack a bag for his stay at Kat’s. But now that the thought had occurred to him they might be looking for his truck, he wanted to stay off the main roads. He’d park his truck out of sight in the garage and borrow his mom’s car. It’s not like she would be using it.

When they arrived, Marco pulled around to the back of the house and stopped in front of the garage.

“So,” Kat said, peering out the window. “This is where you and Tony grew up.”

He tried to see the house through her eyes. To him, it had always just been home. The house was definitely large. Maybe not mansion size, but way more than a family of four needed. But houses like this weren’t uncommon on the north side. It wasn’t anywhere near the biggest. Natalie’s house claimed that superlative.

They got out of the truck and the normally confident Kat kept her arms wrapped around herself and her eyes trained on the ground. Her entire demeanor had changed.

Damn. If Marco had known this would make her uncomfortable, he wouldn’t have brought her here. He could have done without an overnight bag. And he would’ve figured out something to do with his truck.

The last thing he wanted to do was bring Kat more pain, even the minor kind. But they were here now, so they might as well go in.

Before he realized what he was doing, he put his hand on the small of Kat’s back to escort her inside. Her body stiffened, shying away from him. He dropped his hand.

Goddammit. Touching her had been automatic, an instinct. He’d only wanted to make her more comfortable, but he’d done the opposite. He should have known better.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t make the same mistake again. “This way.”

They entered using a side door near the kitchen. His mother and Nonna sat at the table with tea. Kat seemed to shrink next to him, positioning herself behind him so she wouldn’t be in their direct line of sight.

She was seriously intimidated. Damn. He hadn’t expected that, especially since his mother and Nonna weren’t formidable in the least. But mostly because nothing seemed to scare Kat.

It made his need to protect her even stronger.

“Mom, Nonna, this is Kat,” he said. Despite her earlier rebuttal of his touch, he put his hand on her back, wanting to show solidarity. This time, she didn’t flinch.

“Hello,” his mother said, her mouth forming into a smile that didn’t meet her tired eyes. Marco was a light sleeper and he’d heard her get up in the middle of the night almost every night since he’d been there.

Nonna pursed her lips and squinted at Kat. “Don’t I know you from somewhere, dear?”

“I worked at some of the events you’ve attended,” Kat said. “It’s good to see you again, Mrs. Adamo.”

It hadn’t occurred to Marco that Kat might know them from her former job. Though his family weren’t assholes—with the exception of his father—he’d witnessed how some of the social elite treated the waitstaff at these events. Like they were beneath them.

“Can I get you some tea?” his mother asked.

Kat’s eyes darted to him.

“We’re not staying long,” Marco said. “I just need to pack a bag.”

“Oh? Where are you going?”

He was a grown-ass man, so he had no problem telling his mother he was staying with a woman, but it wasn’t like that. Either way, it made Kat even more uncomfortable. But there was no way he could correct the situation without spilling Kat’s secret.

“I’m helping Kat out for a few days,” he said vaguely.

The two women nodded, polite enough not to ask for more information when the discussion was clearly making Kat squirm.

Marco walked over and leaned down to kiss first his mother and then Nonna on the cheek. “We’ll be out of your hair in a few minutes. Is it okay if I borrow your car for a few days?”

His mother nodded, once again not questioning why he needed it when he had a brand new truck. He had to wonder if she’d gotten used to accepting things without question having been married to his father all those years. The thought made him sick. Or perhaps she was simply too exhausted to care.

He led Kat to the spare bedroom he was occupying and she sat on the bed while he shoved some changes of clothes into a duffel bag.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.”

“No, it’s fine,” she said. Her eyes were cast downward and she fidgeted in her lap. “Your mom and grandma seem nice.”

“They are.” He wanted to say something to put her at ease, but he had nothing. “Dealing with the mess my father made is taking a toll on them, though.”

“I can see that.”

“I don’t get it. How did someone like my mother end up with a scumbag like my father?” Marco yanked on the zipper on his bag. He hadn’t meant to discuss his family’s problems with Kat, especially not while she was dealing with her own shit, but seeing his mother’s haggard appearance made him so angry. “She should’ve left his sorry ass years ago.”

“Sometimes it’s not as easy as that,” Kat said quietly. “Unless you’ve been in her situation, you shouldn’t judge her.”

“I’m not . . .” He trailed off, realizing Kat had him pegged correctly. He had been judging his mother. But dammit, he didn’t understand.

Kat’s eyes met his, and in them he saw knowledge and experience, leaving him to again wonder what the hell Kat had been through that made her understand his mother’s plight. It wasn’t something he could ask.

So instead he picked up his bag. “Let’s go.”