"I don't understand. What's so important about my father's notes? Tristan knows what happened with his father and brother. He knows what they did and why my father was murdered. Why doesn't he just give them to Karl and be done with this whole horrible thing?"
"I don't know why. All I know is that he's not done with those notes yet."
"Well, I don't care about that. I just need to see him. Where is he, Daryl?"
He frowned and shook his head. "I don't know. All I know is what he told me when he called. He wanted me to make sure you read the papers he left you."
I angrily waved the envelope Tristan had left me in front of him. "I don't care about the papers. I want Tristan, not things. Please tell me where he is."
"I can't."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two huge men who seemed to be hovering just outside the door to the sitting room. Pointing at them, I asked, "Then can they tell me?"
Daryl turned to look at the them and shook his head. "No. They're not here for that."
"Then what the hell are they here for? Who are they?"
He waved them into the room and they took their place in front of us like two giants eying their next victims. The one who stood on the left had very short, cropped dark hair with some streaks of grey, and his face said he was all business. He was enormous, like a bouncer at a club, and he looked as if he could pick me up with two fingers. The man on the right wore his lighter brown hair slightly longer and had no grey in his, but his eyes were the darkest blue I'd ever seen.
"Nina, these men protect you. They've protected you since your accident. When you leave this house, they're always nearby making sure you're safe."
"Do you mean every time I went out they were there?" I asked in astonishment.
I looked at the men as they nodded silently. My bodyguards looked down at me as I worked to process all of this. Two men had been watching me and obviously Tristan had hired them.
"Yes, and they'll be there every time you go out from now on."
"What if I don't want them to be?" I asked, feeling slightly irritated by Daryl's officious tone. It was one thing for Tristan to be all Alpha with me. I loved him. Daryl was just some scruffy guy sitting in what was now my house and bossing me around.
"I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice. They have their job, just as I have mine. Your safety is paramount to Tristan, so you'll just have to get used to having them around."
"I don't understand, Daryl. I thought that Karl and his thugs didn't care about me anymore because my sister gave them what they wanted. Why would I be in danger?"
"If Karl doesn't get what he wants from Tristan, he's not above hurting you. These men will make sure that doesn't happen."
"What? For the rest of my life?"
"I don't know the answer to that. For now, they'll be next to you at all times."
I looked up again at the men. "Since you're going to be my shadows, I should at least know your names."
Mr. All Business nodded. "Nathan West."
The corners of Blue Eye's mouth hitched up slightly, giving him a sort of scary-sexy look. "Gage Varo."
Both men had hollow, deep voices, adding to my anxiety about all of this. Turning to face Daryl, I asked, "How do they know when I'm leaving the house? Does Jensen call them?"
"They stay in the carriage house. When Jensen leaves, they leave."
I sat stunned at what Daryl was saying. These men lived on the same property as I did and I'd never even seen them. And they'd been following me for weeks. How is it I'd missed these two gigantic men near me at all times?
"Why haven't I noticed them all this time?"
The one named Varo answered, "Because you weren't looking for us. Our job is to be invisible. You would have never known we were there if you hadn't been told."
"What if I don't want to live here with bodyguards and a driver?"
Daryl seemed to think about my question and answered, "I think that would make Tristan unhappy. He wants to ensure you're safe, Nina."
"I want to talk to him. I'm tired of all this. Where is he?"
Instead of giving me the answer I so desperately wanted, Daryl simply stood to leave. "I can't help you with that. What I can say is that Tristan has taken care of everything to make sure you're safe."
Jumping up, I screamed, "Why do you keep saying that? I don't care about being safe. All I want is to see Tristan!"
"I'm sorry, Nina. I wish I could say more."
"Then there is more to say. Where is he? Why can't I at least see him?"
My bodyguards walked out, leaving me alone with Daryl. He smiled for the first time and said, "Nina, I can't say more because Tristan hasn't told me more. I don't know where he is. All I know is that in the middle of the night he called me and told me he needed my help to make sure what he wanted to happen happened. That's it."
"Did he sound..." I didn't know how to say it. "Did he sound like he was okay? There was coke and..."
Daryl smiled again. "He sounded tired."
"Would you tell me if you knew anything else, like say, if he said anything about me other than that he wanted to know that I'm safe? Give me something."
"I work for Tristan, but I know how much you mean to him, so yes, I would. He said very little, Nina. All I know is that his first concern was for your safety."
I hung my head in sadness. "Thank you, Daryl. Did he say anything else at about anything I should do?"
"One last thing. Don't try to contact your sister. She and her family are safe from Karl and his friends, but to make sure they stay that way, you can't speak to her for a while."
"Did Tristan do that?"
Daryl nodded. "Yeah. They weren't safe, even after she gave Karl your father's notes."
"When is all this going to end, Daryl?"
Shaking his head, he shrugged. "I don't know, but trust that Tristan won't let Karl and his buddies get what they want."
I wish I knew what that awful man wanted. So much of this was still a mystery to me, and with Tristan gone, I didn't have anyone to help me understand all of it.
Daryl handed me a slip of paper. "This is my number. Call me if you need anything. West and Varo will take care of your safety, and Jensen is here for you like he's always been."
Nodding, I pressed a fake smile on my face. "Thank you, Daryl."
It seemed like I had men everywhere to take care of me except for the one I truly wanted standing next to me. The memory of those pictures of Tristan came back to me as I sat alone, and I found myself in the attic next to the trunk that held those images from so long ago.
I sat down on the wood floor and lifted the lid. Inside were letters and pictures from years before. I recognized the large portrait that sat on the bottom of the trunk. Pulling it out, I propped it against the inside of the lid and studied it in the faint sunlight streaming into the attic. Instantly, my eyes were drawn to the left side of the picture where Tristan's father and brother sat. Hatred coursed through my veins as I stared at their faces. Even though Taylor was just a small child, I hated him. It was almost as if he wasn't Tristan's identical twin. Nothing about him reminded me of the man I loved. All I saw was the man who was to blame for that poor girl's death.
Victor Stone sat behind Taylor smiling and happy. I hated him even more. My hands began to shake as they clutched the sides of the picture containing the two people responsible for my father's death. Not just death. Murder. They'd murdered my father to save themselves. I wanted to scream—to find them and hit them until they felt like I did when I first heard my father was gone.
But I couldn't. Fate had punished them before anyone else could. They were gone, taken from this Earth, and I'd have to learn to live with how much I hated them.
I couldn't look at them anymore. My eyes filled with tears at the hatred inside me. This wasn't who I was, though. I didn't want to hate. I forced my gaze to the right side of the portrait where Tristan sat in front of his mother. Her face was placid, but something in her eyes made her look sad. She was beautiful, her eyes so much like Tristan's now as I stared at them. They seemed to speak from the silence of the image. Had she known what her husband was like? Did she ever find out what Taylor had done, or had she remained blissfully ignorant like many women in her position?
I understood wanting to be ignorant of the painful facts of life. I couldn't blame her if she had chosen to believe her husband and son weren't the monsters they were. I just prayed that she knew how good Tristan was.
Unable to look at the ones responsible for all this heartache anymore, I placed the portrait back in its spot in the trunk next to a stack of letters tied with a red silk ribbon that reminded me of all the notes and letters Tristan had written me. I ran my fingertips over the handwriting as I read the name they were addressed to.
Tressa.
Had they been love letters from Tristan's father to his mother? Tossing them back into the bottom of the trunk, I closed the lid. I couldn't think about Victor Stone being someone good and kind. He was a monster, and that was all there was to it for me.
I walked back to my room, still determined to at least let Tristan know that I forgave him. Grabbing my phone, I laid back on my bed and texted him a message, my fingers saying what my voice couldn't.
I wish you hadn't left. I wanted to tell you this myself, but I'll have to do it this way instead. I forgive you. Please tell me where you are so I can come to you. I don't want this house and the money if you aren't with me. I love you.