Jamie stiffened.
“You’ve wrapped her in a cocoon of wealth,” Enzo pressed on. “Your jet. Your hotels. Your houses. Your security teams. You pulled her out of Witness Protection just to drop her into a gilded cage.” His jaw clenched. “She feels trapped. Like she can’t do anything spontaneous or fun or reckless because it’s ‘not safe.’”
“Be very careful what you say next Jamie warned coldly, stepping closer. “Stop talking about my sister. You don’t know shit about her.”
“I know her better than you think,” Enzo shot back.
Jamie’s fist came out of nowhere.
Pain exploded across Enzo’s mouth. He staggered a step, tasted blood, then straightened slowly.
“That one is free,” Enzo said evenly. “Try it again, and I’ll start hitting back.”
Jamie got right in his face, eyes blazing. “She’s my sister. I won’t have her hurt. She needs protection.”
“No,” Enzo said, shaking his head. “She needs a brother, not a warden.” His voice roughened despite himself. “She needs family. She needs laughter. Adventure. She needs to live. You’re smothering her, Jamie. It’s death by a thousand cuts.”
The muscles in Jamie’s jaw popped and flexed, but Enzo didn’t let up.
“You love her. I get that. You want her safe, I get that, too. But she hasn’t really lived in years, and you’re still holding her back.” He accentuated each word with a jab of his index finger on Jamie’s chest, eyes locked onto Jamie’s. “Don’t do that to her. Don’t clip her wings now that she’s finally finding them.”
Jamie glared at him, chest rising and falling hard. Then, a fraction of the heat bled out of his expression.
Enzo saw it. He knew he’d landed the blow that mattered.
Jamie’s eyes narrowed again, sharper this time. He leaned in, voice dropping. “Are you in love with my sister?”
Enzo didn’t answer.
He couldn’t. Kathleen deserved those words first, if he ever said them at all. If she’d ever let him say them
Jamie studied him for a long moment, then leaned back, exhaling a string of vicious curses under his breath.
Finally, unexpectedly, he pulled Enzo into a rough hug.
“If you hurt her,” Jamie said quietly into his ear, “I will kill you.”
Enzo grinned despite the split lip. “Deal.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Kathleen stood in front of the windows in her hotel room. Night had settled over the city, the lights below blurred and distant, and exhaustion pressed down on her bones. It had been hours since everything ended. Hours of questions, of repeating the same details until they lost meaning. Eventually, the police let her go.
She still hadn’t spoken to Enzo.
Jamie had stopped by not long ago, all brisk reassurance and big-brother efficiency. Everyone was fine. They were meeting downstairs for a meal if she felt up to it. If she didn’t, that was fine too.
She’d smiled and nodded, but the truth was she didn’t know what she felt up to anymore.
Kathleen tugged off her shirt and jeans and let out a soft moan as she stretched. Everything ached, bruised, battered, wrung out. The ache in her head was almost as bad as the one in her heart. Where was Enzo? There were things she needed to say. But the words, as she rehearsed them in her head, were nothing more than gibberish.
She pressed her forehead against the cool glass before her, staring at the landscape of Mallorca, trying to sort out her thoughts and feelings. Coming up empty, she decided a hot shower and a soft bed were the only things she could face right now. Her stomach growled.
Fine. Food too.
She turned on the shower and reached for the spray just as a knock sounded at the door.
“Damn it,” she muttered.
