Alone in his study, Grey listened to the predawn quiet of the city he’d come to love and admire. When he and Irelyn had arrived in Dallas, they’d possessed little more than their dreams and the clothes on their backs. They’d both worked their asses off to create their empire. Even though the Grey Justice name was the recognizable brand, he would not have been as successful without Irelyn. She was a combination of intelligence, wisdom, and incredible strength of will. Through sheer perseverance, she had overcome so much.

He remembered their first meeting as if it were yesterday. He’d been all of seventeen, a little on the shy side, with a head full of so many dreams he could scarcely contain them. His parents had been the finest people he’d ever known, but they hadn’t understood his need to break away from tradition. Generations before him had stood for justice and equality. To have their only son want to do something different not only bewildered them, it also frightened them. Breaking away from what they’d always known—duty, honor, and service—was foreign to them.

Looking back, he could understand their reservations, and he wished he’d been able to ease their concerns. He hadn’t wanted to reject their core beliefs, he’d just wanted to go about them in another way.

If he had listened to his parents, followed their lead, they might still be alive. That hurt more than anyone could fathom. But he had wanted to go his own way, do good in different ways. In the end, they’d all paid a terrible price.

Irelyn, with her uncanny talent, had read him like the proverbial book. Even at fifteen, she had been a beauty. He had fallen hard, as had been the plan. He had been so easily manipulated, so transparent. So damn naïve. He had seen a lovely young woman who needed help and had been ensnared in her trap as effortlessly and quickly as a mouse.

His parents had fallen for her, too. Two people who had seen every trap and had survived the unimaginable had been duped by a fifteen-year-old con artist. Irelyn was just that good.

“Did you get any sleep?”

She stood in the doorway, an apparition and a dream. So many things had changed since that first meeting, but his fascination and need for her had never wavered.

“Some.” He held out his hand. “How are you feeling?”

Not moving from the door, she shrugged. “Fine. A little tired, a lot sore. Nothing that a few days of rest can’t fix.”

She was back to being wary again. Last night, need and desire had consumed them, reuniting them in a tender reunion of both body and mind. He’d woken this morning, not physically sated, but optimistic that they were headed in the right direction. Apparently, she wasn’t of the same mind.

And she was far from fine. Both the cut on her side and leg had required several stitches. The bruise on her face had darkened, as had the marks around her neck, indicating someone had tried to choke her. She had to be hurting. That pain was likely nothing, though, compared to the emotional trauma from last night.

He knew she had slept some, but she was still too pale. The ugly bruise on her jaw was a stark contrast against her ghost-white skin. Shadows lurked beneath her eyes, and her mouth drooped at the corners. He wanted to go to her, take her in his arms, and assure her everything was going to be okay. But platitudes were not his thing, nor were they hers. They dealt in reality. And the reality was, they had a huge chasm between them. The next few minutes were not going to be easy ones.

Wishing things could be different, he said, “We need to talk.”

“I know. Mind if I have some coffee first?”

He stood and went to the coffee bar. “Want anything to eat?”

“No. Coffee’s fine.”

He’d make sure they both had something substantial later. For now, caffeine would have to see them through this.

She went to the sofa and eased down onto the cushion. Handing her a cup of coffee, fixed the way she liked it, he waited until she’d taken a few sips. In his opinion, springing hard questions on anyone without the benefit of caffeine in their system was barbaric.

When her eyes were a bit more clear, he said, his tone gentle but resolute, “All right, Irelyn. Let’s talk. Why didn’t you tell me about your brother?”

Irelyn took another bracing swallow of coffee, a delaying tactic while her mind raced to pull herself out of the grief she’d woken with this morning. Grey would understandably give her only so much leeway.

Though her body still ached, her heart ached even more. She had learned that some things take years to overcome. This would be one of those things. Not remembering that she had a brother was excruciatingly painful. Killing him was far worse. There had been no choice for her. Grey would always be her first priority. She only wished she had been able to save Kevin as well. But she’d seen his eyes. They had been as empty as those of Hill Reed, the man who made him into a killer.

Grey deserved answers to all his questions, but for the life of her, she was having trouble finding the right starting place.

“I’m waiting.”

That icy tone helped. “Very well. What I did to Hill that night. What you insisted I do…I just…I couldn’t deal with it.”

“We’ve had this discussion before. I thought you said I couldn’t force you to do anything.”

Not a flicker of regret appeared on his face. She hadn’t really expected one. Why would he regret something that should have happened years ago? Still, the knowledge that he wasn’t the least bit sorry fueled her anger and her words.

“That doesn’t mean I wasn’t hurt or damaged by it, Grey. For heaven’s sake, he was like a father to me.”

“Bollocks,” he snapped. “A father doesn’t torture and cause pain, Irelyn. A father doesn’t rape his child. A father does not make her kill.”

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” She sprang to her feet, started pacing. How could she explain something to him when she barely understood it herself?

“Hill Reed deserved to die. I, more than anyone, should have wanted him dead. And I did want him dead. I just—”

“What? Dammit, just spit it out, Irelyn.”

She whirled around, intending to shout the truth at him, but her words came out as a hoarse whisper. “For the first time ever, you treated me like the killer he trained me to be.”

Grey closed his eyes, and she saw the regret he hadn’t revealed before. “I’m sorry for that. More than you’ll ever know. It’s definitely not what I intended. You have never and will never be the killer he tried to make you.

“I can only say this so many times, Irelyn. The man needed to die. And there’s no one who deserved to do the killing more than you did.”

“You knew all along that Reed had nothing to do with Jonah’s supposed death. You knew he was still alive.”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me. Why?”

“Because I knew you would find excuses to not go through with it.” Before she could respond, he said, “Let me ask you this. Do you think the killing would have stopped if we had tried to have him arrested, tried the legal route?”

Of course it wouldn’t have stopped him. They both knew that. Even if a prosecutor had been able to stay alive long enough to prove Hill Reed’s guilt, the man would have continued to wreak havoc on the innocent. He had the money and influence to run a full-fledged kill factory out of a prison. Killing him had been the only way to stop him.

Apparently seeing the answer in her face, Grey continued, “The bastard needed to die before he could destroy more lives.”

“You’re right. I just…” She took a breath, continued pacing. “I had to get away from you. To mourn, grieve. To deal with the fact that I was so incredibly grateful that he was dead. And that I had been the one to kill him.” She threw him a twisted smile. “Sorrow and elation are a tough combination to deal with.”

“Did you talk to Dr. Tobin about it?”

She took a moment to be thankful that he didn’t know that she had visited her therapist before she left Dallas that day. Sheila Tobin knew the truth of everything—the past and the present. Irelyn trusted her almost as much as she trusted Grey. That meant nothing when it came to Grey’s need to know something. She’d often thought that Dr. Tobin saw her and Grey as one patient. They were that connected.

“Yes, I did. It helped to be able to articulate what I was feeling.”

“You could have talked to me.”

No, she couldn’t have. She’d been too messed up at that time, and Grey would have been as implacable as he was now.

“I needed to deal with it on my own, in my own way.”

“When did you decide you were going to find your brother?”

“From the moment Reed told me about him, I knew I had to find him.”

“And you never thought to come to me? To let me help?”

“Help with what, Grey?”

“Finding your brother without risking your life. That’s what.”

“I didn’t want to involve you.”

“Did you think I would kill him?”

“I didn’t know. I didn’t want you to have to make that choice.”

“You said last night that you wanted to try to save him, change him.”

“It wouldn’t have been impossible. You saved me. I changed.”

“You changed yourself. Not me. You were never what Reed tried to make you. He might’ve damaged you, but he never corrupted your soul.”

She wasn’t so sure about that, but there was no point in going down that rabbit hole again.

“Kevin was—”

“Empty. You saw it, Irelyn. Don’t tell me you didn’t. His eyes were as blank and soulless as a robot’s. He would’ve killed you without hesitation.”

She couldn’t argue. She had seen that emptiness—and something else, too…something evil. He would have enjoyed killing her.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t save him.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. Despite our past, I would have liked for you to have family.”

She knew that was true. Yet, she had doubted him all the same. Grey had a right to want everyone she cared about dead. How odd was it that he was the one she cared about the most?

“I shouldn’t have doubted you. I just—”

“You stopped trusting me.”

He said the words so matter-of-factly that anyone else would have thought it meant nothing to him. But she wasn’t anyone else. She knew this man too well not to recognize his pain. Her distrust hurt him.

“Yes.”

“What can I do to regain your trust?”

She wanted to say he already had. She wanted to take that grim look off his face, remove the darkness from his eyes. Lying to him, even to make him feel better, would be worse.

“I don’t know.”

He nodded. “Very well. While we work that out, I’d like to ask a favor. Stay with me, work with me to find out who’s behind the attempts on my life.”

That should be an easy promise to make. There was nowhere in the world she wanted to be more than with Grey. Whether she was here or somewhere else, her total focus would be on finding the person who wanted Grey dead. Still, she couldn’t make the promise completely. Depending on what they found out, she might need to leave again.

“All right. I’ll stay…for now.”

Based on the relief on his face, he hadn’t been sure of her answer. It hurt that there was this awkwardness and uncertainty in their relationship now. Even as much as they often warred with each other, they’d always communicated with ease. But their connection was damaged. They’d been struggling before that last painful break, when she’d ended Reed’s life. Killing him had been the catalyst, but their troubles were brewing long before that.

She knew when it happened, remembered the day well. The saddest part was that he wouldn’t remember. Out of the thousand things Grey did each day, this one hadn’t even registered. To Irelyn, that one moment had defined who they were together and what their future looked like. Things had spiraled downhill after that.

Grey had no idea she was such a coward. If she had the courage he often attributed to her, she would have told him the truth and got it out there once and for all. Problem was, she knew he would confirm her deepest fear. So she had created this distance between them, and she saw no way out.

Pushing that pain aside, she asked, “So, what’s the plan?”

“There’s a meeting here at noon today.”

“All right.”

“Why don’t you stick around the apartment this morning?”

“I will if you will.”

The smile he gave her told her that had been his plan all along.

“Do you have a list of suspects you’ve been working with? I’d like to take a look at it, be prepared.”

“I’ll send it to you. But first, how about some breakfast? We both missed dinner last night.”

“Sounds good.”

Standing, he held out his hand. “Let’s make it together, like we used to.”

She accepted his hand and followed him into the kitchen. Nothing would ever be the way it used to be, but for now she would take what she could get.