Page 115 of Born for Starlight

This time I really did grin. Of course she had.

“What about the people in charge? The ones that Matthew was so worried about?”

“Don’t worry,” Bruno said. “It’s covered.”

“Is Matthew going to be happy?”

“Eventually.”

Jase sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. “How is it that you’ve been speaking and understanding Portuguese?”

I closed my eyes. Memories flooded up.

“I’m remembering.”

“The orphanage,” he asked quietly. “They’re bad, aren’t they?”

I reached out and grabbed his free hand. “But they’re good, too. You’re there.”

“Can you tell me?”

I brushed a tear away. “Not now. Later. When we get home.”

He squeezed the back of my neck.

“Angelica!”

What the hell?

“Angelica!”

Whoever was yelling was getting closer. I looked down the hall.

Oh, good God, it’s Julian.

He had his arms out as he headed my way. Before Jase could stand up, Billy stepped in front of him. God bless the man.

“Whoa there.”

“I need to get to her. She’s been through so much. She needs me!”

Then he turned to Bruno and stabbed his finger at him. “You! You took my phone!”

Bruno shook his head. “It was the other guy.”

“Oh yeah.” He turned back to me. “Angelica, it was awful. Your bodyguard is a murderer. I think he killed a man and stuffed me in a closet with the body! Where is he?!” He started looking around at all the men who surrounded him.

Dantas stepped forward and pulled his ID out of his pocket. “Easy, sir. I’m with the Policia. My men got you out of the closet. The other man was not dead.”

“I don’t care, he still locked me up! He’s the one who needs to be locked up!” He turned back to me. “Angelica, he could have killed you. You were in so much danger.”

I had no choice, I had to stand up and grip his shoulders. “Julian, calm down. Matthew is not a bad guy. Matthew was working undercover. He was pretending to be a bad guy while working for me so he could help catch those awful people.”

Julian stood still. “So he was never going to hurt you?”

“No.”

“But he tackled me. He took my phone! I couldn’t film!”