She stopped herself just in time before she rammed her foot into his groin next. "Rick?

"

The man straightened, overhead streetlight revealing her half brother's face. "Yeah, it's me. Goddamn, you hurt me!"

Her heart was still racing from thinking he was a potential mugger she had to fight off, making her voice sharp. "It's after midnight, and you're lurking around wearing a damn hoodie and jumping out at me. You're lucky I haven't gotten a new gun yet, or I might have shot you!"

"I was just trying to get your attention." He sounded more petulant than apologetic. "You almost walked right past me."

That was so like Rick; not thinking before doing something stupid. Kira heaved a sigh.

She didn't feel up to lecturing her little brother right now.

"What're you doing here this late?"

His gaze darted around the street. "I tried your cell for days, but you didn't answer. I couldn't remember your work number, so I thought I'd come by and just hang out until you got home. Didn't think it would take you this long."

Of course her cell didn't answer. Mencheres hadn't given it back to her when he dropped her off on the roof with only his blood and her apartment keys, and she hadn't gotten a new one yet. She assumed he still had her backpack, too, since that was where he would've gotten her keys. Unless he'd thrown everything away right after he unloaded her that night.

"Come on in," Kira muttered. So much for her plans of showering and going right to sleep once she got home.

Rick smiled, his dimples making him look younger than his twenty-five years. Despite knowing better, Kira felt some of her irritation lessening. Maybe Rick had just been worried about her when he couldn't reach her, and that's why he was here.

Bullshit, her inner voice whispered.

Kira hoped that was her tired cynicism talking and not her instinct. It would be nice to think Rick was here without ulterior motives.

"You hungry?" she asked, as he followed her inside the building. "I have some frozen pizzas you could heat up."

"Um, I don't think I'm going to stay that long," Rick hedged, glancing away.

Her hopes plummeted. Told you, that inner voice whispered.

Kira didn't go into the elevator even though the doors opened. She dropped her backpack and gave her brother a tired, hard stare.

"I told you, Rick, I'm not going to keep doing this."

"I just need a couple bucks," he said, meeting her gaze now. His green eyes, darker than hers, widened in that beseeching way he'd perfected. "It's been really hard trying to find work, and - "

"Maybe if you could pass a drug screen, you'd have an easier time getting a job," Kira said coolly.

Rick waved a hand. "I quit, I swear. I just smoke a little weed now and then, that's all.

Look, Joey says he's going to throw me out if I don't give him a hundred bucks by tomorrow. I've got an interview lined up in the morning, and it looks really good, but if I'm hired, I still won't get paid before Joey throws me out."

"bullshit," Kira said, echoing her inner voice. "It's after midnight already, no way you're going to an interview tomorrow morning. Even if you did have one set up, you'd just end up sleeping through it. You can't keep coming to me for money. I told you before, I don't have a lot of it, and - "

"And what you do have, you give to Tina for her bills," Rick interrupted bitterly. "You wouldn't think twice about handing over a check if this was her asking." Kira felt anger rising, covering her weariness. "Don't you dare. Tina's disease keeps her from working a regular job, not laziness like you, and she almost died last week. Not that you'd know because you hardly keep in touch with her anymore." Rick dropped his head, having the grace to look ashamed. "Sorry," he mumbled. "She better? still in the hospital?"

Thanks to Mencheres, Tina was even better than she knew. Out loud, Kira said, "She's home now. You should call her. She'd like to hear from you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll call her tomorrow," Rick said at once. "You know I'm not as close to her as I am to you, but I still care about Tina even if she's not my blood." Their parentage did make things more complicated. Kira's parents had been former flower children who were all about free love, even after they got married. Kira and Tina shared the same mother, but different fathers. Kira and Rick shared the same father, but different mothers. Technically, Rick and Tina weren't blood related, but Tina had always considered Rick to be her brother despite that, and despite their not growing up in the same house like she and Kira had.

"I swear, this'll be the last time I ask you for anything," Rick went on, giving her more of the puppy eyes. "And I'll pay you back, I promise."

If Kira had a dollar for every time she'd heard that, she might have been able to buy herself a car. But on the off chance that Rick really had kicked his habit and was trying to turn his life around . . .

"This is the last time," she told him, pulling out her checkbook. "I mean it." Rick smiled in the way that reminded her of when they were children, and she was so excited to have a little brother. It had almost taken away the sting of her parents splitting up and her dad moving to another state when he fell in love with someone else.

"You're the best, sis."

Kira wrote out of the check for a hundred dollars and gave it to Rick. He pocketed it immediately, then shuffled his feet while glancing away.

"You don't happen to have a twenty so I can catch a cab back to my place, do you? It's kinda late to walk it. You know that neighborhood. Besides, my ankle hurts. You kicked it pretty hard."

Kira gritted her teeth. If she hadn't seen where Rick lived, she would have flatly refused this second donation, but it was a scary neighborhood.

She handed over a twenty, which disappeared into Rick's pocket as fast as the check had.

"Love ya, sis," he said, giving her a quick kiss. Then he headed out of the building, whistling.

Kira pressed for the elevator, ignoring that inner voice telling her she'd been swindled by her brother yet again.

Mencheres quietly leapt onto the roof across from Kira's building, sitting down on the cool concrete floor. How close he'd come to murdering Kira's brother, neither of them would ever know. Perhaps now you'll cease this insanity of following her night after night, he berated himself.

When he saw the man reach out for Kira as she approached her building, he'd already jumped down from the roof, intending to tear the throat out of whoever threatened her, when her attacker called her by name. Kira and her brother were both oblivious to the dark form careering toward them from above, or how it had abruptly swooped to the left when Kira also addressed the boy by name. If either of them had been silent for just a few seconds longer . . .