He showed me how to open the entrance. When we stepped into the light, I turned to thank him, then stopped dead as I finally got the full picture of just how tall, broad, and overall fucking huge he was.
I mean, Jordan was a big guy, but I could have sworn that Fallen Angel looked even bigger tonight.
Then he turned those eyes on me, and I barely stopped the wordmotherfuckerfrom exiting my mouth.
Fallen Angel was not Jordan. I’d recognize those eyes any-fucking-where. It was Rafe. That deep blue color was not common, and despite the American accent he was faking, I knew I was right.
Bastard had pretended to be Jordan. Did he know who I was?
“See you later, Violet,” he said, turning and walking away.
Guess that answered that question.
For a moment, the dark hallway all but closed in on me as I tried to figure out what had happened tonight. It felt like a thousand years since I’d snuck out to follow Nolan.
Shit!Nolan!
Was he okay?
Sprinting through the halls, I made it to my room, unlocked it, and crept inside in case Mattie was still asleep.
She was, but her furious twin was camped out in my armchair, arms crossed over his chest as he waited.
He rose, and I ripped the mask off, finally feeling like I could breathe again as my hair tumbled down my back.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Nolan hissed, stalking toward me. His hands were rough as they wrapped around me, hauling me up into his chest. “I’ve been going out of my damned mind.”
An adrenaline crash had been coming, and when he held me tightly, a huge breath left me. Boneless, I sank against him, letting him hold me. I needed the comfort, and Nolan was a first-rate hugger.
“Sorry,” I murmured, well aware that Mattie was still sound asleep. “I got knocked into a tunnel and a guard followed me. Had to fight him off, but I made it back.”
Nolan’s chest rumbled, anger and concern in his gaze as he pulled back to see me better. “You fought a Swiss guard?”
Rolling my eyes, I snorted. “Don’t sound so surprised, dude. Just because I’m a chick doesn’t mean I’m useless.”
One of those “less” words I hated.
Nolan didn’t laugh, still looking dead serious. “It’s not that I think you’re useless, far from it. The guys on the team will probably talk about the hot chick who could pluck a seventy-kilometer-an-hour ball out of the air for the rest of their lives. But Rafe’s guards … they’re highly highly trained. It’s something that is a big deal in the Switzerlands.”
Yeah, I could tell that from the way the crown prince fought.
“What’s Jordan’s persona?” I asked, wanting confirmation.
Nolan jerked back at my sudden subject change. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I don’t know. None of us know each other’s.”
I could tell he was lying. Maybe not about everything, but I had a feeling he at least suspected the personas of his friends.
I let him get away with it though. I was too tired tonight to push, and I was certain that Fallen Angel was Rafe. I really didn’t need any confirmation.
Mattie started to stir on the bed, and Nolan jerked into action, shoving my mask into a drawer before pushing me to the bathroom. “Shower,” he said, “I’ll get you your room back.”
I ventured into my bathroom, realizing how much I actually did want a shower. Through the open door I heard murmuring, and then the twins called out their goodbyes. I replied as my front door closed.
Stripping, I turned the water on hot and waited for steam to fill the room. Stepping inside, I dropped my head back and let the spray wash over me. My hands pressed into the wall, and I left them there to stabilize, even though I wasn’t really that shaken. If anything, I felt a sense of relaxed relief that I’d gotten some fighting in tonight.
At one point my Sensei had warned me that I couldn’t let fighting take me over, that I needed balance, but I’d tried and there was nothing that gave me the same release.
I’d been weak and vulnerable at one point in my life, a point where everything had been taken from me, a point where I’d lived in fear.
