At first, Brielle wasn’t sure Julian had even heard her. His dark eyes were locked on Kiara, a half-eaten ham and cheese sandwich held forgotten in his hand. Brielle had made him a whole stack of them, sure he must be starving after spending hours running through the New York City subway system. She’d made her brother a lot of sandwiches over the years, and putting these together a little while ago in the kitchen downstairs brought back a lot of memories. It felt like only yesterday when she was cutting the crusts off for him. He was high-maintenance, even when he was a little kid.
But since getting to the safe house, he’d barely eaten more than a few bites of the first sandwich. That wasn’t surprising. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was worried about Kiara. When he finally glanced Brielle’s way, she noticed for the first time how exhausted he looked. She was pretty sure he’d lost weight since she’d last seen him, and there were lines on his forehead and around his mouth that hadn’t been there a month ago. But the most noticeable difference was in his eyes—always twinkling like he was up to something, they seemed flatter than she’d ever seen them. Like he’d been through hell. Or seen it at least.
“I ran into her a few days after I arrived in New York,” he said slowly. “I was trying to get away. She was snooping around Xavier Harrington’s place. I had no idea she was his daughter when we first met. I just knew she sucked at the whole sneaking around thing, so I decided to stay and help her look for whatever she was searching for. After she found it, I finally got her out of there, but Harrington’s people chased us into the tunnels. She tried to get me to run, saying her father only wanted her, but I couldn’t leave her. That’s when I called you.”
Jaw dropping, Brielle stared, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Julian had always been selfish. It was the defining characteristic of his whole life. Her brother had never done anything for anyone but himself. Not even for his own sister. Now, Brielle was faced with the reality that he’d given up a chance to escape from people who would kill him without a second thought over a woman he’d only just met.
She turned her head and studied the woman in the bedroom again. There must be something extremely special about Kiara Harrington. Because, truthfully, Brielle barely recognized this version of her brother. That said, she had to admit she liked what she was seeing from him right now.
“When I got that call from one of my friends saying someone with a lot of money was putting together a crew in Turkey for a big job, I knew I should just hang up,” Julian said, looking down at the floor as he took another bite of the sandwich in his hand.
Brielle frowned. “If you knew you should hang up, why didn’t you? I mean, crap, Julian…nukes? Seriously?”
Julian winced. “In my defense, I didn’t know about the nukes at first.” Finishing the sandwich he’d been playing with, he drew up both legs and rested his arms on his knees, his gaze going to Kiara again. “But even if I had, I doubt it would have changed anything. We both know I have a long history of making stupid decisions when it comes to stuff like this. But this time, I’d like to think I redeemed myself. At least I got Kiara out.”
There was a time when Brielle would have been tempted to point out that getting one thing right by accident didn’t make up for the things he’d done wrong on purpose. But then she saw the unmistakable expression on her brother’s face—one she’d never expected to see there—and it was difficult to stay mad at him.
Julian was in love.
“Were those people after you tonight genuinely trying to kill Kiara?” she asked quietly.
He nodded, not taking his eyes off Kiara as she talked to Jake and McKay. “Yeah. At first it seemed like they were only trying to capture her—even the ghouls—which makes sense, considering Harrington is her father. But after I was able to get cell reception and got through to you, things changed. Harrington’s men became much more aggressive, like he’d told them that Kiara was expendable or something. Right after that, one of those jackasses hit Kiara in the head.” He swallowed hard. “I thought they were going to kill her.”
The fear in Julian’s voice was so real and so powerful that Brielle crouched down beside him and put her arms around him. She was prouder of her brother in that moment than she’d ever been in her life. “But you stopped them.”
Julian nodded. He opened his mouth to say something, but the thud of heavy boots on the stairs interrupted him. Brielle knew it was Caleb before he even reached the landing.
“How is she?” Caleb asked, bending down to snag one of the ham and cheese sandwiches as he walked over to stand beside Brielle. They both got to their feet. Caleb didn’t even look the least bit apologetic as he shoved half the sandwich in his mouth.
“I think she’s doing okay,” Brielle said. In the bedroom, the doctor seemed to have finished his examination of Kiara and was busy writing notes in a folder while Jake and McKay continued to talk to her. “We’ll probably be able to talk to her soon.”
She glanced over at her brother to see what he thought of her assessment, only to realize that he wasn’t listening to her at all. He wasn’t even paying attention to Kiara now. Instead, he was glaring at Caleb as he finished the rest of the sandwich he’d helped himself to. Crap. If looks could kill…
For reasons that defied explanation, Caleb didn’t seem to like her brother, and Julian didn’t like him, either. The two of them had been circling each other like a couple of tomcats since coming out of those subway tunnels. They looked like they were going to start fighting at any second.
Now that she thought about it, Brielle supposed Caleb disliked Julian because of all the negative things she’d told him about her brother and how difficult he’d made her life. As far as where Julian’s animosity was coming from, she had no idea. Unless Julian had somehow figured out that she and Caleb were sleeping together and decided Caleb wasn’t good enough for her. That was insane, though. Her brother had never once cared about what she did with her life. Hell, he probably assumed she didn’t have one.
She would have told both of them to grow up and stop acting like children, but she’d be wasting her breath. They were men, which meant they pretty muchwerechildren.
“I’m surprised you’re not in there getting checked out by the doc,” Caleb said, looking at Julian. “I know firsthand that those ghouls can be hard to handle. It isn’t your fault if they roughed you up some.”
Brielle rolled her eyes at the thinly veiled insult. There hadn’t been much conversation between Caleb and Julian since they’d gotten to the safe house, but what little there had been was exactly like this, all snarky hidden jabs and petty taunts.
Julian didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he gave Caleb the most fake smile she’d ever seen him bestow on anyone. Which was saying a lot, since her brother was full of crap nearly every minute of his life.
“Thanks for your concern,” Julian said. “But I got through the fight with those ghouls with nothing more than a few scratches. They aren’t all that hard to deal with.”
“Really?” Caleb lifted a brow, clearly curious despite himself. “I was wondering how you managed to kill one of them. Like I said, I’ve fought them before and found them damn near impossible to even damage.”
“Impossible to damage?” Julian snorted. “Maybe you didn’t hit them hard enough. It’s not your fault, of course. You don’t look that strong.”
Beside her, Caleb stiffened. Brielle immediately put herself between him and Julian even as Caleb’s eyes began to shimmer with a blue glow and a low growl erupted from deep in his chest. Oh, crap. The guy she was falling in love with was going to kill her brother.
Fortunately, Jake and McKay chose that moment to step out of the bedroom, forcing Julian and Caleb to step back from each other whether they wanted to or not.
“Good, you’re here already,” McKay said as he glanced at Caleb, completely ignoring the fact that his eyes were still glowing blue. “Get everyone together in the living room. Jake and I talked to Kiara Harrington enough to know that her father’s plan is worse than we even imagined. I want everyone to hear the details ASAP.”
Caleb threw one more glare at Julian before heading down the steps with another growl, giving Brielle a chance to let out a sigh of relief. They might be facing whatever nightmare Xavier Harrington had planned, but at least her brother and soul mate weren’t at each other’s throats—yet.
