“Your family lives very well. Where are they now?”
She shook her head. She hadn’t spoken the words to anyone in all this time. She wasn’t even sure she could say them now.
Not without breaking down in front of him—or worse, revealing some of the burning hatred that had lived inside her ever since their murders by Opus Nostrum.
“I want you to go, Rafe. Please.”
Part of her worried that he would take his knowledge of her Darkhaven, and his questions about it, immediately back to Cruz. But a bigger part of her worried that his reason for coming here right now had nothing to do with the gang.
He was here for his own personal reasons. For his own personal gain somehow.
“I need you to tell me what’s really going on, Devony. I promise, everything will go a lot easier for you if you do.”
He sounded so reasonable, even concerned about her. But there was a dark resolve in his eyes that was pure warrior. She fisted her hands on her hips, her feet braced beneath her. “Easier for me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I tried to explain that to you earlier tonight. You’re in over your head. You’re dealing with some very dangerous people—”
“Yes, I remember. Dangerous people like you and your old friends in the Order.”
“And others,” he added grimly. “I don’t mean only Cruz and his ilk. I’m talking about people you never want to meet.”
She shrugged. “I’m not afraid of anything anyone can do to me.”
He gave her a dubious look. “Because you’re a daywalker who was born with a hell of a powerful gift?”
“No. Because there’s nothing anyone can take from me anymore,” she answered evenly. “I’ve already lost everything I care about.”
“What do you mean?”
She held his searching stare. “You need to leave now. This conversation is over.”
To drive home her point, she mentally threw open the front door behind him. Night air rushed inside, cold and damp.
Without as much as a blink of reaction, Rafe slammed the heavy oak panel shut with the power of his own mind.
“What have you lost, Devony?” He walked toward her, studying her face. “I want to understand. I need to understand before I can help you.”
“Help me?” She scoffed. “I don’t need anyone’s help, especially yours. I work alone. Iamalone, dammit.”
He frowned, processing the small admission she’d so carelessly let slip.
And he was still approaching her, moving closer to where she stood outside her father’s study. Her pulse kicked into a harder tempo as he ate up the space between them. He was close enough to reach out to her, but he kept his hands loosely fisted at his sides.
“Something happened to your family,” he said, not a question at all. “They’re dead?”
She swallowed. Hearing him say it reinforced the awful reality of her loss. “Rafe, please. Just go. Leave me alone.”
“Someone killed them. Is that what happened?” When she only stared at him, his gaze narrowed on her, zeroing in on the pain she couldn’t keep from showing on her face. “Does Cruz have anything to do with their deaths? Or is it someone else, someone the gang is connected to?”
Oh, God. He was getting too close to the truth.
She saw him attack Cruz tonight—partially on her behalf—but that didn’t mean she could trust him to keep this secret too. She had already given him one weapon to use against her. She couldn’t hand him another.
Most certainly not this one.
“I said I want you to leave.Now.” She punctuated the demand with a mental shove against his muscular bulk. He skated backward a pace on his heels.
At twice her size and girded in masculine sinew, Rafe was a formidable Breed male. But as a daywalking female, she was nearly an equal match for him. If he thought he could come in here and make her cower, he was going to be in for a fight.
