Page 46 of Exacting Vengeance

She deserved someone special. That pretty much eliminated him.

The past was still there, standing rigidly between them as surely as the Berlin Wall had once divided East and West Germany.

“Kyle!”

“Yeah?”

Deke sent him a worried look. “Where have you been for the last two minutes?”

Stuck in the past. “Sorry. I’ve just been…thinking.” About a woman he had no business thinking about.

“No kidding.” Deke arched a brow. “What’s with the guy parked in front of her building? Is that why we’re here?”

“Kinda.”

“Is that all you’re gonna say? Yeah, yeah, and kinda?”

He looked at his brother. Sure enough, Deke was grinning, dimples and all. “Yeah.”

“Seriously, what’s up bro? I partied late last night and left a beautiful woman in bed this morning to meet you here. The least you could do is tell me why.”

Kyle sighed. His brother was one of the best agents he’d ever worked with, and he never missed an opportunity to party. He was also right. “I can’t tell you why, but I think Victoria Kelly is in danger. She’s not an asset, so I can’t justify FBI protection.”

“So you hired private security to protect her?” Deke huffed. “That’s a lot of money.”

“Yeah.” It was, but she was worth it.

He curled his fingers tighter around the wheel, wishing he could relive so many parts of his past and do them differently. Like going back to Sasha’s Place that night and finishing Yuri off. Though murdering his target would have been frowned upon. All that would have gotten him was a life sentence in a cell right next to the sonofabitch.

“There’s something going on between you and her, isn’t there? I saw it in the holding room. The heat between you two was enough to singe the hair off my balls.”

Leave it to his little brother to put things in perspective, in his own unique way. No matter that Deke had sensed the truth. He still couldn’t tell him everything. “I knew her a long time ago.”

“Before Diane?”

“No. After.” It had taken him years to get over the death of his wife. Having such strong feelings for Victoria had completely knocked the wind out of him.

“From Chicago?” Deke asked. “Ahh. While you were doing that long term undercover gig. So she’s the woman that got under your skin back then. The one you never talk about. The one you said you could never reach out to because it was”—Deke made air quotes with his fingers—“too complicated?”

Deke had always been perceptive. At times, too perceptive. “It’s still not my story to tell.”

Deke’s green eyes widened. “Holy cow! Is she Yuri Petrov’s wife?”

“Ex-wife,” he corrected.

“Wow. Wow,” Deke repeated, nodding in understanding. “You weren’t kidding. That was complicated.”

“Still is.” His presence in her life was a constant reminder of her dark past.

“Okay, so you hired security to watch her,” Deke said. “So why are we sitting here, too?”

“I’m picking her up and taking her to self-defense class.” Whether she liked it or not.

When he’d given her the address, he’d gotten the impression she had no intention of showing up. After he’d offered to pick her up, he’d been hit with a gut instinct she wouldn’t be here when he arrived this morning, so he’d shown up early to make sure she didn’t ditch him.

“Were you with Heather last night?” Kyle asked, hoping to change the subject. Heather was the last of Deke’s girlfriends that he’d met.

“Nah.” He grimaced. “She wanted to get married, have kids, and I am so not ready for that.”