Chapter 2

"What exactly are you saying?"

My father's expression darkened.

"You would give up fifty thousand dollars a month and return to the Sicily training compound just to avoid protecting her?"

Gabriel's gaze settled on the scar running from my left cheek to behind my ear. He didn't even try to hide his disgust.

"I'm not worthy of serving Miss Elena."

I almost laughed.

I had carried that scar since I was ten, when I stepped between Bianca and a rival gunman. Ever since then, people had looked at my face and decided I was the less fortunate Moretti daughter.

Perhaps Julian had felt the same way in our first life.

"Gabriel, you can't abandon my sister."

Bianca grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to his feet.

Gabriel looked up at her, his devotion written plainly across his face.

"I never came here for her."

I said nothing.

Bianca quickly hid the flash of delight in her eyes. When she spoke again, she sounded offended on my behalf.

"No. You can't do this. I won't let you go back there and suffer just because you refuse one assignment."

"There's a simple solution," I said.

Everyone turned toward me.

I looked at Bianca.

"She can keep both Kane brothers. That seems to be what all three of them want."

Color rose in Bianca's cheeks. "Elena, what are you implying?"

From the moment the brothers entered the room, she had barely taken her eyes off either of them.

Gabriel was taller and more imposing, but Julian was more handsome. If everyone hadn't believed Julian was mute and emotionally damaged, Bianca might have chosen him from the beginning.

My father studied me carefully.

"You truly don't want either of them?"

"No."

I glanced at the two brothers.

"Neither one interests me."

They both looked at me.

Gabriel seemed offended, as though he couldn't understand how the woman he had rejected had found the nerve to reject him first.

Julian's expression was more complicated.

He remembered our first life. He remembered how desperately I had protected him and how easily I had surrendered my life for Bianca.

Perhaps he had expected me to fight for him again.

I didn't care enough to find out.

My father tapped one finger against the table.

"And your safety? Can you guarantee it without a personal guard?"

"Probably not."

My answer caught him off guard.

I turned toward Lorenzo, my older brother, who sat at my father's right hand.

"Assign me to Lorenzo's division. He controls the ports, hotels, and logistics companies, and he already travels with a full security team."

Lorenzo finally looked up from the file in front of him.

"I'll be safer with his team," I continued, "than with a man who would rather return to the training compound than protect me."

Gabriel's face tightened.

I didn't look at him again.

In my first life, I had spent seven years begging one of the Kane brothers to stay.

This time, I was walking away from both of them.