She couldn't look at him. "Our lives were h.e.l.l, especially Elijah's life.

Armando wanted Elijah to be mired in so deep, with so much blood on his hands neither of us could ever go the police." Her eyes filled with tears, "I knew Elijah did it for me, to keep me alive, but it wasn't right. It was never right.

He should have let me go. I should have had the courage to save him."

"By doing what? Killing yourself?" He turned her arms over to run the pad of his thumb over the scars on her wrists, scars he'd never mentioned. "He couldn't let you do that. So he joined the man who murdered your parents."

"And he learned from him. And he grew stronger and more powerful and more cold and distant every day."

Rio felt tears, rain-wet, against his skin. Her body trembled. "It was always us against everyone else, but suddenly we began to have terrible fights. Elijah became very secretive. He wouldn't let me leave the compound. He had someone with me all the time and drove away every friend I had."

"He was splitting with your uncle. Starting a war." "I had a friend, Tony, the brother of my girlfriend. We hardly knew each other. I met Tony at her house.

He'd recently moved back to town. I had dated a couple of times and it always ended in disaster. Once it turned out to be an undercover cop, and another time I found out the man I was dating had been paid by Elijah to take me out." Utter humiliation clogged her throat. "I don't think I can remember a man having an interest in me as a woman. The police wanted information to convict Elijah, and I guess they thought they could send in an undercover man to romance

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me. Armando wanted a way to get close to Elijah again to be able to kill him. He was so furious, so absolutely furious with Elijah. He's done everything he can to try to kill him."

"Tell me about this man." She was avoiding it. Rio knew her now, knew her every little sign of agitation and distress. She was burrowing deeper into his body, trembling, her breath coming in hard gasps of despair.

"I didn't tell Elijah about Tony because I knew he would never allow me to go out alone with him. I couldn't go anywhere alone. He seemed a nice man. Marcia, his sister, and I were good friends. He moved in with her and when I went to visit, he was there. At first we just talked, played Scrabble, that sort of thing. I just wanted a few ordinary hours, a place I could go where I wasn't Elijah Lospostos's sister. Where no one carried a gun and plotted to kill each other."

She dragged her hands through her hair. "I wasn't in love with Tony. I wasn't sleeping with him and telling secrets. I would never sell Elijah out. I'd never give him up. I saw all those years when he was forced to do terrible things. I can't tell you how often Armando threatened me. How many times he would shove a gun in my mouth and scream at Elijah, how often I wanted him to pull the trigger just to take the pain and rage off Elijah's face. It was a h.e.l.lish existence until Elijah was strong enough to move against him. But Armando got away. And then the war started, and it was h.e.l.l all over again."

"Why would Elijah object to your friend's brother?"

"I don't know, but I didn't want Tony to know about that part of my life. Marcia didn't know. We met at the library one day, ended up having coffee and became good friends. She didn't know who I was and I didn't want to tell her. She was a nice woman from a nice family."

"What does she do?"

"She teaches school, for heaven's sake. She teaches sixth-grade science. I went to see her as often as I could. Her home was like a sanctuary to me. Elijah always sent 276.

someone with me but they waited outside, in the car. Mar-cia thought they were my chauffeurs. She joked about it a couple of times. And then her brother moved back home. I got to know him and he was just as nice. One day he asked if I wanted to go to see an opening at an art museum. He was really into art." She hung her head. "I said yes."

A chill went through Rio's body. He knew what was coming. Death had a feeling to it, a presence. It was in the room. It was in her eyes. That stricken look she carried that never quite went away. He tightened his hold on her and rocked her back and forth gently, trying to give her a sense of peace, of comfort. There was neither in betrayal. "And your brother found you."16.RACHAEL took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I went to Marcia's house and had the guards stay outside. Tony and I got into Marcia's car and drove away. I bent down as if I were looking for something when we drove out so the guards wouldn't see me. For a few miles I thought it was safe. The next thing I knew, we were in a high-speed chase with cars on either side of us. They were Elijah's men, not Armando's. I knew them all. They forced the car to the side of the road. Elijah opened the door and yanked me out. There was shouting back and forth and then suddenly Elijah emptied a gun into Tony." She covered her face with her hands.

Her sobs were heart-wrenching, dragged from a woman with tremendous courage and control and all the more terrible because of it. Rio rested his head over hers as he rocked her, his mind racing, trying to figure out why her brother would want her dead after trading his honor to keep her alive.

"I couldn't believe what he'd done. It was too many 278.

blood. Everyone I touched. Everything Elijah had done was because of me. He was so angry. He shook me over and Over and said he should have put the gun to my head."

So many emotions ate at him that Rio didn't know what he was feeling. Part of him wanted to weep for her. Part of him was so angry he wanted to hunt her brother and uncle down. "Rachael, sestrilla. It's good you came here, to me, to your home where you belong." He caught her wrists and brought the scars to his mouth. "Here, with me. Every morning the birds will sing to you. The rain has beautiful songs and it will play them for us. This is our world." He felt a d.a.m.n fool for uttering the words to her, yet so humbled that she'd accepted his own violent past. That she could look on what he did and not judge him harshly after all she'd been through. He would have quoted her a poem had he known one, just to ease her suffering.

"Elijah will never stop looking for me." She caught his face in her hands. "You should have known him all those years ago. He struggled so hard to work behind Armando's back to get us free. It was such a terrible life, always poised on the brink of death. He walked that fine line every day. We whispered together, pa.s.sed notes we burned so no one would know what we were planning. He stood between me and our uncle all the time."

"It must have been difficult."

"We had no life. We were still in school but we couldn't bring home friends. We couldn't have any friends. We couldn't trust anyone, only each other. There were no dates, no dances. We lived in constant fear. Sometimes, if Armando didn't think Elijah was taking care of business, he and his men would break into our rooms in the middle of the night. They'd drag me into Elijah's room and put a knife to my throat or a gun to my head. Elijah was so calm. He never wept. He never panicked. He looked at them and he looked at me and he would say to Armando, 'What do you want me to do?' That was all. And he did whatever it

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"Why do you feel ashamed?"

"He sold drugs. I'm certain he killed people. He was so beautiful, so full of laughter. He never smiles. He has nothing in his life. All for me. All in payment for my Me. He would have been better off if they had killed me too. He would have been free. He could have broken away. He has skills like a chameleon.

They never would have found him if he was alone."

"He must have been extraordinary, even as a teenager. I would like to meet him.

It may be that we can work something out."

"But don't you see why I don't want you near him? He's not my Elijah anymore.

He's turned into someone I don't know. Someone dark and dangerous and twisted inside. I can't say he's evil. I know he was trying to get out from under the drug business and sell off the companies that weren't legitimate. He promised me he would. Both of our names are on those companies. We own everything together."

"So if you die, everything goes to him."

Rachael nodded. "He wouldn't kill me for the money, Rio, if that's what you're thinking. I know he wouldn't. I don't ever look at the books. I don't even own a car. I don't care about the money, and he knows I don't."

"Is it possible Elijah is the one putting out the reward money to keep you alive and your uncle is the one who has hired a.s.sa.s.sins to kill you? That would make more sense. You had a fight with Elijah and he said some harsh things to you, but why would your uncle suddenly want to keep you alive? You aren't worth anything to him if he can't hold you over Elijah's head."

She was silent for a long time, but he felt her relax a little. "I didn't think of that. I couldn't believe it when Elijah just shot Tony right in front of me.

He was so angry. I'd never seen him like that before. He's always in control, always very cool under fire."

"So he wasn't acting in character?"

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"He feels dangerous now. He really does. I can't describe it, but he never did to me before. We were so close, and then somehow he began to push me away. He didn't want to talk about the business. He wouldn't answer my questions about Armando. He insisted I stay home, indoors, away from the windows."

"Maybe he was afraid for your life."

She sighed and reached over to take the drink from the small table where she'd set it. The juice felt cool and refreshing on her sore throat. "We were always afraid for my life. We lived in fear, it was our everyday existence."

"You thought by telling me who you are, who your family is, that I'd not want to be with you? Rachael, how could you think that?" His hand cupped her face, his thumb sliding over her high cheekbone.

"If I had tried to go to the police ..." She trailed off.

"Why didn't you?"

"Two reasons. Armando had police working for him and we didn't know who they were, and of course, Elijah was heavily involved in the business. That's how Armando thought to trap him. If he made Elijah dirty enough, he would never be able to get out and they would need one another. Armando was willing to kill his brother, but he genuinely wanted his brother's son. It made no sense to me. I've never understood it. I would never betray Elijah for any reason."

"And you think I wouldn't forgive you that? There's nothing to forgive, Rachael." Rio lifted his head from hers, drawing in his breath. "He knew. Your uncle knew about your mother being a shape-shifter, and he must have known about your brother."

"/ don't know about my brother."

"You said they were close, Rachael. Antonio and Armando. If Antonio had discovered that his wife was a shifter and they moved the family from South America in order to protect them from the elders, then he may have confided in his brother. Why wouldn't he? Antonio would

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have told his twin brother why he had to move his family to Florida so quickly, especially if he needed help fast and if he was leaving the running of the plantations to Armando or hired help."

"I suppose so. But I don't know if my brother can shift shape. Why wouldn't he tell me? We talked about mom and dad a lot Wouldn't that be a rather large piece of information to leave out?"

"Not if he was protecting you. You say your uncle took him out all the time alone. They spent a great deal of time in the Everglades. What were they doing there?"

She shrugged "I don't honestly know. I was a little child. I thought they were fishing or scuba diving or watching alligators. He never came back upset."

"If you were a kid and you could run free in the Glades, shifting shape and becoming something as powerful as a leopard, wouldn't you do it? And if you did things for your uncle, such as pick up packages, wouldn't that be a small price to pay? Armando would have realized the potential of such a gift. He would have a trained a.s.sa.s.sin, as silent and deadly as they came and no one the wiser. We can swim great distances and get into places humans can't. Elijah would have welcomed the trips in the beginning. He would have felt the freedom of running and becoming something so powerful. Do you see that?"

Rachael thought of how it felt to be in the form of such a powerful creature. A teenager would have found the excitement of it a heady and addicting experience.

Add in the thrill of secrecy and it would have been too much for a boy to pa.s.s up. "I remember him coming home and being so excited after bis trips with Armando he could hardly contain himself. He'd lock his bedroom door and play wild music for hours."

"Your uncle was probably training him then, but Elijah didn't know what he was carrying, or even doing. It was all a game. He loved and trusted your uncle.

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to him. He loved Armando and he had to have realized what his uncle was and what he'd been doing all that time. The guilt must have been unbearable."

That brought a fresh flood of tears. Rachael clung to him, weeping for her lost brother, for their childhood, for all the things they had done and couldn't change. Rio held her in his arms, offering comfort and acceptance. He rocked her gently back and forth, crooning some nonsense, anything at all to console her.

It had been years since she'd allowed herself the luxury of tears. She had worked so hard to be like her brother, not giving Armando the satisfaction of seeing her fear.

She rubbed Rio's strong jaw. "Thank you for not condemning us. We probably did everything wrong, made every mistake, but I was a child and he was thirteen. We had no one to go to, no one to tell. Of course Armando had custody of us, and from the moment we went to live with him, we had nothing but each other. I don't think I could bear it if you despised him."

"Rachael, love of my life, how could you think I, of all people, would presume to judge another? All one can do in this life is to try to do their best in any given circ.u.mstances."