Page 19 (2/2)

She also gave me a reason to live

It’s so easy for me to picture her face Maybe that isn’t unusual for other people, but I never thought about women’s faces Even when I was intiive them what they wanted, but I didn’t really care who they were There were a couple of exceptions during my life but not many

I love to look at Lia’s face when I fuck her Or make love The term matters more to her than it does to me I kno I feel when I’asms and the actIt’s centering and relaxing I sleep without ominous dreams when she’s with me

A slight scraping sound in front of hts At first I think it’s just snow and rock settling, but a moment later, a hand pops out of the snow beside me With wide eyes, I stare in disbelief as Sebastian Stark’s gloved hand begins to push the snow around,a hole

The fact that he has survived is surprising enough Landing literally two feet froive hi, listen to hi himself a hole When a handful of snow hitsat him

Slowly and quietly, I reach down rip the butt of the Beretta at my waist I unclip it with my thumb and then pull it up close to my chest Stark has his head uncovered at this point and is trying to look around a bit, but I’le As I extend my arm, I can just reach him

An unaccustomed hesitation hits me

I pause to try to get as good a look at hi the pre-tournament festivities, but I wasn’t nearly as close as I ah they are subtle There’s so about the curve of his jaw that reh different colors

I’d done minimal research on the other competitors, but when I realized Stark wasI could find on him Jonathan,as well With his cyber-sleuthing genius, he always see Stark’s organized cri himself on a sailboat in the Caribbean, and his subsequent status as a rescued castaere easy enough to find

There was so I found far

Sebastian had taken the nae of Landon Stark, but that wasn’t his actual surname He wasn’t even from the Seattle area

like Landon Stark and his boss Joseph Franks were Sebastian had been born in Chicago and abandoned by a young wo to escape her abusive husband She’d ended up dead shortly afterward, ed spouse Her na to nized—Alexander Janez The saical father on my own adoption certificate

Sebastian Stark was once called Sebastian Janez And he is my half-brother

I’d stared at the papers for hours, trying to make sense of it all I suppose I should have realized before then that Iout in the world somewhere; it’s every orphaned kid’s fantasy that there is a fah consideration to warrant a search

Maybe I should have Maybe if I’d taken the information Jonathan had discovered aboutties, I would have found out about Stark sooner By the time I kneas already locked and loaded for this tournament

Ulti to do it Guilt never plays into ue blood relationship is irrelevant Stark doesn’t seee, and there isn’t any reason for e that now

I release the safety and press the end of the gun to Stark’s teoes motionless

“Aren’t you supposed to give -to-win-the whole-time’ kind of speech first?” Stark asks

I stifle a laugh and shake my head “Not really my style”