“I sent it to you.”
“You tricked me.”
I step with her and place my hands on her hips, making her tip her head back. “No, it wasn’t a trick. I wanted to get something for you and I knew you would like the horseshoe, so I had one special made with the tracker set behind the diamond.”
“The figurine?”
The horse figurine I sent with the necklace I saw at a specialty shop when I was walking in Prague not long after I first met her, I was thinking of her, like I usually do, when I saw it in a window. I bought it on the spot. “I got that on a whim. I saw it when I was on a job in Europe and it made me think of you.”
Her face softens, and she smiles up at me. “Thank you. It’s one of my favorite belongings.” But then the smile falls away, and she is serious again. “The tracker?”
“Pleasedon’t be mad. There is a reason for it. It’s a deep-seated disturbing reason, but there is a reason.”
“I’m listening.”
Looking over her head, realizing I’m about to walk down a memory lane that I usually keep locked in a place where I don’t have to look at it. I take a deep breath and look back down at her.
“I already told you that I lost my mother and sister to the same type of men who hurt you, right?”
Her eyes soften and she nods.
“Well, there’s more to the story. My mother, sister, me, and my cousin Vasilei were taken during a raid on our house in Serbia. The organized crime group my father and uncles were part of ended up splitting after some disagreements. My family was caught up in it.”
She is looking at me expectantly, and I have to steel myself to say the next part out loud. “We were held for two weeks before my uncles found us.” I take another deep breath. “I watched terrible things happen to my mother before she died and then they killed my little sister.”
Her fingers go to her lips as she sucks in a gasp. “Oh, Brana.”
Giving her hips a reassuring squeeze, I go on. “If any of us had been equipped with a tracker, they would have found us sooner and my mother and sister would still be here.”
She is quiet for a moment before she cups my face in her hands. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
Her eyes start to glass over, and I shake my head. “I didn’t tell you that to upset you or make you feel sorry for me.”
“I know.” She clears her throat. “But that doesn’t make it any less tragic or sad. Thank you for sharing that with me.”
A small piece of hair falls across her forehead, and I reach up to push it aside. “The day I walked into this house and sawyou in front of the Christmas tree, I knew you were so much more than my best friend’s sister. Not a day has gone by between then and now that I don’t think about you.” I suck in a breath through my nose. “I don’t want to lose someone else I love.”
Her hands fall to my chest, her palms warm against my t-shirt. This time her eyes fill with tears. “I love you, too.”
I pull her into a hug and kiss her temple. “You’re the most important person in this world to me, I had to be able to see you when I couldn’t be around you.”
“Even if there wasn’t a threat?” Her voice is soft against my chest.
“That’s the thing about threats, they are usually unexpected. Even the guys on the team wear trackers when we are out on a job, its just a precaution. It’s safe.”
“I’ll wear your tracker. I just wish you would have told me.” Her hands slide around my ribs and up the middle of my back. Her voice is muffled in my t-shirt when she says, “No more secrets, okay?”
Setting my lips on top of her head, I say, “No more secrets.”
Her body is molded to mine and she lifts the back of my shirt, sliding her palms up my back, enjoying the warmth.
Feeling her hands on me like this is sending blood below my waist, but I put out that fire when I remind myself that I have to tell her my other good news.
With a deep breath, I squeeze her to me. “There’s something else I have to tell you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MARLEY
