Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers. I'm sorry this update is late. You'll be getting a surprise in the next update so I hope you guys are ready for it. Are you guys ready to meet our new Main Character? Cause as of this chapter he's going to be a main character. I have noticed some annoyance or concern. This season is not really taking that long, I think it'll be my shortest season yet. And I'm noticing some upset as we're missing the main cast. I understand your concern, but we're not at the actual episodes yet, we're in the "summer" part, you know the time between seasons. Once we get to September, the main cast will be returning. I do have them appearing quite frequently, so it won't be all Rowan and Wo Fat, but I did tell you that this season does focus mainly on them. If you're really upset about them being separate and you'd like to wait for season 7 to continue reading that is fine. I'm not sure how many chapters season 6 is really going to be. I'm already at chapter 233, and we're about 11 episodes in at this point and they're still not back together. I'd recommend coming back somewhere around the 290th-300th chapters. Although I hope it doesn't take that long to get through season 6, it might. Don't forget to leave a review, don't forget you're getting a wonderful surprise next chapter, and I'll see you guys on Monday.

Chapter 218

Wo Fat had purposely not called Rowan to check up on her, he figured after yelling at her and calling her unnecessary names she wouldn't want to talk to him. But he figured she'd at least want to talk to him once he had been gone for so long, he never left her alone for that long, not without contacting her. Little updates to ensure that she was okay. But he had gotten nothing. Well, he figured he deserved that, and once he got his secondary score he'd treat her to something super nice. But not at Euro Disney cause that shit was way too expensive.

He was expecting to meet Ares at the drop, not a bag man with two briefcases of money. He offered the scroll with the stolen canvas in it and then looked over the two bags. He could tell right away that this was way, way, too much, way so much more than the agreed to amount. A streak of worry rushed through him, but he shrugged that off as lingering fears about his sister.

Still he couldn't stop himself from asking the bag man: "What's this?"

"It's the payout."

Obviously. It was like the man was trying to be as obnoxious as possible. "For what?"

"For the artwork," he said, and Wo Fat blinked his eyes. Okay, so what was he getting a finder fee, or an extra bonus? "And the girl."

Panic hit his system. The girl? No… that didn't mean Rowan. Right? There should have been questions to confirm what was going on. But that dark side of him took control almost immediately and he stopped being a rational human being once more. Wo Fat took that momentary pause to retrieve his gun, shoot the bag man in the leg before pulling out his phone. While the man cried and rolled around on the floor he dialed her number. She didn't answer her cloned phone, and she wasn't picking up at the hotel. He tried to calm down she could have been out, or screening his calls. He shoved the squealing man into the trunk of his car and then raced back to the hotel. When Rowan wasn't in her room and she still wasn't picking up her phone, he went back to the trunk and popped it.

"Alright, you little shit, you tell me where that girl is, now or I'll blow your head off," he said pointing his gun into the man's face.

"I don't know, I really don't know."

Lies.

Wo Fat's face remained unchanged. A simple stony mask of angry indifference. "I'm going to count to three," he said. "One." "—I don't know, really." "…Two…" "—I swear to god, I don't know." "….Three…"

He put the gun flush to the man's temple, right between the eyes and the man finally cracked. "OH GOD! Okay, he made me put her body in a crate and put it on a train."

Wo Fat forced himself to ignore the fact that this man had put her body into a crate. "To where," Wo Fat asked.

"I don't know. Really. That train could have been going to either villa."

Wo Fat continued to stare at him darkly. "Where are the villas," he growled.

"His private villas? Uhm… there's one in Sovana and the other one was in Naples."

He fucking took her to Italy? Great. Great. She wasn't even in the country anymore!

He wasn't going to get much else out of the man, and he was too mad to be reasonable. So he blew his head off and then shut the trunk. He idly pat his body to find his smokes, only to remember that Jian had made him quit. Fuck he needed a cigarette anything to calm his nerves. But he wasn't about to just ignoring the situation to just by smokes. He needed to find someone to help him, cause he didn't want to waste his time going to the wrong place only to have to double back to get to her at the other. So he called the man who still owed him a favour.

As soon as Sin Nombre picked up Wo Fat asked: "Are you in the country?"

Sin Nombre was quiet for all of two seconds, Wo Fat could hear the din of whatever dive bar the man was in on the other end before he got that careful: "Depends on the country you're in."

"France, are you close to France?"

"I'm in Monaco."

"Monaco?" he asked, relief hitting him. Yes, that was good. "Close enough. I need you down to Sovana, Codename Ares took Rowan and either they're there or he's taken her to his places in Naples. I'm going to Naples."

"Codename Ares is an art thief he's not in the human trafficking trade…"

"Yeah well she slept with him and figured her to be a sex slave and buyable, I said no but he sent me a payment and now I can't find her. One of his bag men confirmed him taking to her but couldn't confirm to where. I'm going to Naples, can you please go to Sovana?"

"Done. If she's there how badly will you need her out?"

"By any means necessary."

"My favourite kind of means. I'll keep you updated," and then he hung up the phone. Wo Fat could hear the blood thirsty excitement through the phone and he let out an almost relived sigh. He didn't know which would be worse for Ares, if he found him or if Sin Nombre did.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It was the buzzing that brought it all back.

The darkness, that crackling electric heat running through her. The chill of the cold. That painful strangling suffocating pressure as she struggled to breathe through the wet rag and the water.

The echoes of pain that ebbed through her, as if she were still in that basement, still tied to that chair.

It was the buzzing that also woke her up.

Her head heavy and fuzzy, her limbs like lead, her tongue thick in her own mouth. This was how she woke up in that basement, though to be fair, at that point she was already in the chair. This time she was just in a… bed?

Okay, that might be worse.

It was the scraping of cutlery on porcelain that got her attention, that had her bleary clouded eyes swinging in his direction.

Ares looked pleased as punch in that light blue suit, his white shirt open to bare his chest. He was sitting at a table that had two plates, one covered and probably for her. Two glasses, one filled with wine, one currently sitting empty.

He was cutting something up, and eating it. Loving every second. But with ever bite, every time he chewed she'd wince, because that sound was grating on her nerves.

"Morning beautiful," he said all together too cheery for a kidnapper. Rowan just glared at him. She didn't know what game this was but she wasn't buying it. It was a trick, she knew it.

"I saved some steak for you, it's a juicy cut, medium rare," he told her. "Very tender."

Despite coming off of a sedation, her stomach rumbled. The last thing she had eaten was a croissant back at Versailles, which was probably hours ago. She was hungry. It took a few tries to get her wobbly legs to work, and as she struggled to stand and struggled even harder to walk towards the table Ares just smiled and let her do it without lifting a hand to help her.

She finally took her seat and then just stared at him, waiting for something, the trick, the demand. There was no way he was just going to feed her for free. Nothing came for free, she knew that, everything had a price, and she wanted to be sure that she was willing to pay before she went ahead with this.

Ares just smiled that toothy grin of his and gestured to the dome in front of her. Rowan just glared at him, god why had she found this man attractive? He was nothing like Steve.

"Bon Appetite."

She lifted the silver dome to find nothing underneath and then Ares was chuckling. Rowan carefully put it back down and turned a glare onto him, yeah she figured that his offer was too good to be true.

"You didn't think I'd just give you food?" he asked her. "No, food is going to be a reward. You behave I feed you."

Rowan continued to glare at him, being sure not to show him any other emotion. Her last captors had fed off of her reactions, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"Don't get me wrong, I love that you have a little meat on your bones, but it wouldn't kill you to slim down," he said. Rowan balked at that. Slim down? She had been so badly hospitalized she lost like fifty pounds, how much more did he expect her to lose?

Rowan leant back in her chair, crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head at him. "You're absolutely pathetic," she growled. "What's the matter Ares, can't get yourself a real date so you gotta kidnap one? I mean, come on, the sex wasn't even that good."

A darkness passed over his face, a narrowed look colored his eyes. "You loved every second."

"It's called acting, I'm quite good at it," Rowan snarled. It was a dangerous move, going after the pride, but if he thought she was going to go down without some kind of fight, he had another thing coming. "I pegged you as a guy who needs his ego stroked. Moan like a porn star get you to come and then get you off me. Simple. You were something to do and you weren't even that fun. Would have had more fun at the party."

"You're lying."

Rowan hit him with a smug smirk before hitting him with her fake moans. She had noted that there was a steak knife by her plate. The idiot had put something sharp within her grasp, maybe she could grab it without him noticing, maybe she could make him let her go. She figured he'd do anything to keep her from slicing his dick off and feeding it to him.

The problem was that it was the fake moans that tipped him over the edge. She saw it in his eyes before he did it. She put her hands to the table, leaning forward to moan out words from their moments in the closet, to mimic the faces she had made so he knew that she wasn't lying, she had faked every second with him. When he finally swiped the table away from her he didn't noticed that she had a knife in her hand, a knife she carefully hid behind her cast as she got up and scrambled away from the advancing man.

She knew better than to just brandish the knife out right. She was weak, she had a cast, with those two things combined he would be able to disarm her in a second. No, this would have to be a surprise.

"Stay away from me, or you'll be sorry," she warned and the man actually paused, which was great because the only place to go now was onto the bed. The back of her knees had officially hit the edge of the bed. "When Wo Fat gets here, you're going to be sorry. I mean beyond sorry."

In a flash he had her pinned, taken straight down to the bed, a single hand to the column of her neck as he hovered over her, pressing between her thighs. She knew better than to struggle, it would only get him more excited. Instead she stayed perfectly still and glared up at him as he smiled eagerly down at her.

"He's not going to come for you," he snarled getting closer to her. "Why would he? You've served your purpose, I paid him his money, you're mine now. Now, this can make this easy or we can do it the hard way, but either way I'm going to keep you here, and I'm going to do anything I want to you. I personally couldn't care less which way this goes. To be honest I'd love for you to take the hard way I'd love to hear that scream of yours…"

She flashed back to that cement basement again, to the pain and the fear. The buzzing returned, along with the fuzziness. There was a major difference between now and the last basement. This time her hands weren't bound and she already had a weapon. She stared Ares in the eye as the knife slid up and into his chest. She heard that gasp of pain and surprise, she felt the knife slide in like butter, felt the blood drip onto her when she pulled the knife out.

Rowan pushed him off of her and stood. She looked down, first to the man she had just stabbed in the chest before she turned her eyes down to the knife shaking her in her blood-stained hands. There was silent between Ares' painful gasps and grunts for air. And in that silence, she heard laughter. She just didn't realize that it was coming from her.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

He had taken a train to Florence and then drove up to Sovana. The whole trip took six hours. Just as he got there, he heard from Wo Fat. The man had hit Naples. She wasn't there. That meant she was here. He was heading up to Rome, Sin Nombre was to find her and bring her there. He'd send an address when he booked himself into a hotel.

He started with taking out the roving guards on the wall. Sniping them from outside, once the wall guards were down he came in through the front door throwing grenades and shooting anything that came at him. He knew that if she was here she'd be in the lower level, the cells. So he made his way down but the problem was, once he hit the lower level there was no one. No one alive anyway.

He followed a trail of bodies that lead him to a cell that had been left open. In there, lying beside a rickety makeshift bed and an overturned table, was the man who grabbed Rowan. He was sprawled on his back. Sin Nombre came to stand above him as Ares shook and convulsed while holding his chest as his life leaked out through his fingers.

"Help me."

Sin Nombre cocked an eyebrow but said nothing. Instead he moved away, that man was going to die a very long and painful death, who was Sin Nombre to take that away from him? Especially when he deserved it.

Back out of the cell and looked at the bodies that were outside. Two guards, one stabbed in the back right between the two ribs, punctured lung, in the process of dying. The second, stabbed in the throat. He was dead. Down the hall was another guy, stabbed in the lower back, paraplegic now, Sin Nombre put that man down to end his misery. The next guy had a slit throat and laceration down his arms. He was the first one to show signs of being in an altercation.

Rowan had to be near-by.

He turned the corner and found her, crouched over another body, the knife sliding out from what might have been the guy's heart. She was doing this with a steak knife… who the hell had thought to give her one of those?

"Rowan?"

She turned around, her eyes wide, her pupils dilated, her hands shaking. She was covered in blood but she wasn't throwing up. She stared at him confused, tears streaming down her cheeks and then this strange bubbling laughter broke out her lips, her head tipping back looking like a wild woman.

Oh god. Rowan had lost her mind.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The car pulled up and Wo Fat stood immediately.

When Sin Nombre had called and said that he had found Rowan, Wo Fat had nearly cried out in joy. When he then said that there had been an… incident, with that pause and everything, that joy and relief turned into dread. He had told Sin Nombre to meet him at the hotel he had booked in Rome. Around the back so that the transfer would not be seen by prying eyes and then waited for the man to come.

He had bought cigarettes on the way down to Naples, had smoked one pack just getting there and another while waiting for Rowan to be delivered back to him from Sovana. He tried not to think about what the incident could be, because that filled him with too many terrible thoughts, and that angry psychotic monster popped it's head out again. Rowan had no idea what had been done to Sato's family and he knew that if she did find out, she'd be disappointed in him, and he couldn't live with that on top of everything else. Which meant he couldn't chance doing something else in his anger… or her finding out that he blew up a summer home in Naples with all the servants and guards still inside.

Sin Nombre had confirmed that she was alive and that was all that mattered. That was what he had to cling to.

But when that car pulled up, he was ready to see if she was okay. Ready to be sure that she was alive and everything was fine, and then lecture her for being as stupid as to wander off and get grabbed in the first place. Except Rowan was not in the passenger seat.

"Where is she?" Wo Fat asked as Sin Nombre got out of the car.

Sin Nombre nodded to the back. Wo Fat looked through the window and panic jumped up into his throat. "All that blood…" he whispered ripping the door open.

"Not hers…"

Wo Fat felt at her neck a steady pulse was waiting for him so that was good. Leaving her then he turned his eyes to Sin Nombre who wasn't smirking but instead… looked concerned.

"What the hell happened?"

"If I'm going to guess, I'd say she had a psychotic break."

"What?"

"Well when I found her she had taken down at least five guys with a steak knife, she was covered in blood and laughing. She hugged me when she saw me, then collapsed. She's been asleep ever since."

"She… she killed five people…"

"If you include Ares who's probably succumbed to his injuries by now… six."

Wo Fat looked back to her, the girl who originally only had one body in her body count now had seven. Oh God. But judging what she had went through, was that really unsurprising? The laughing part was strange though… he'd give Sin Nombre that one.

"And she was laughing?" he asked, sliding her out from behind the back and holding her tightly. Having her cradled to him again, covered in blood, so soon after the incident in Japan brought back all those turbulent emotions that had filled him that night. He had to tear his eyes away from her just to get them to go away.

"Yes, she was laughing. Covered in blood, having just ended a man's life, and laughing like she's the goddamn mad hatter."

"And you just took her out…"

"Uh yeah, but first I wiped her prints off the knife, stuck the knife in the last person she killed and then set the place on fire to destroy the evidence. Okay. But I think we have a bigger problem and that is… she's lost her damn mind."

Wo Fat held her a little tighter to him and glared at Sin Nombre. "Well… do you blame her? You saw that video! You saw what they put her through… and… he took her… she got kidnapped again and…"

"And whose fault was that? Huh?" Sin Nombre shouted back interrupting him. "Yeah, she's fucked up, she was probably traumatized before that fucker drugged her and carted her off to fucking Italy! But you were supposed to be watching her… REMEMBER?" Wo Fat glared at him and Sin Nombre sniffed. "And no, I did not watch the whole video. I watched pieces."

"Okay, you know what? You got your money, you've been paid, go now. Just go away."

"Got my money… I did this for free…"

"Then just leave! I got this now. LEAVE!" he shouted turning away from him to head towards the back door he had propped open. Sin Nombre scoffed at him.

"And how are you going to get her back into the hotel looking like that?"

Wo Fat paused. "Fine. You'll help me get her into the hotel, but I am not paying you for that either, you hear me?"

"Whatever," he growled but joined Wo Fat. "You should let me take her though since you have the key not me."

Wo Fat glared at him but let him take her from his arms , he'd have to knock out the cameras so no one saw him coming in the back with a bloodied Rowan and a sketchy looking Latino male. He didn't like Sin Nombre seemed suddenly a little too interested in his Rowan. He just got rid of McGarrett he didn't know if he'd be able to get rid of Sin Nombre too.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

She woke up screaming this terrible howling agonizing scream of fear. But it wasn't for him, it was for Steve.

But Rowan didn't get Steve, she had Wo Fat at one side and Sin Nombre at the other. Both trying to hush and shush and pull her into their arms. It was all very awkward until Wo Fat shoved him away from her. Sin Nombre tumbled out of the bed and then Wo Fat could focus on Rowan whose little fingers had gripped his shirt and was holding him tightly.

"They took me again! They… they took me!"

"Well… someone did," Wo Fat said taking her face in his hands so she'd look at him. "But we got you back. Okay. You're safe, you're safe cause I'm here now."

"Actually, I got you back, Wo Fat was in Naples."

Rowan turned to Sin Nombre and wrapped an arm around him to pull him into a hug that he squirmed out of after a measured count of 10 under his breath. Once he was free of her, she leant into her brother's chest and then tucked her head under his chin.

"What... uh… where are we?"

"Rome." "…The land of spaghetti and ice cream."

Rowan and Wo Fat turned to Sin Nombre who looked up at them and said: "What? It's true. Tourists live on spaghetti and gelato down here."

"Ignore him, he's been in the mini-bar," Wo Fat said sliding a little closer to her and hugging her a little tighter. "Are you… uh… did he do anything…?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed and then she started shaking. Sin Nombre got up off the bed and away from her emotional breakdown while Wo Fat crushed her in a tight embrace.

"No, its okay, its okay…"

"I killed people… I was…. I…"

"No… no…"

"What do you mean no? She killed at least five people…" Sin Nombre said from across the room and half in the mini bar. Wo Fat would have shot him if he had his gun on him.

"Five people?!"

"SHUT UP!" Wo Fat thundered in his direction and then turned back to her. He took Rowan's face in his hands and looked her in the eye. "You're okay, okay? Yes there were some casualties, but they were going to kill you first so…"

"I killed people. I killed people and laughed," she whispered the horror in her voice.

"Oh that was just a psychotic break, it's common in kidnap victims or victims of traumatic crimes," Sin Nombre told her. Both Wo Fat and Rowan stared at him like he was nuts. Wo Fat scowled at him but Sin Nombre didn't quite notice because he was busy making another drink. "Alcohol is good for wounds like those. Want one?"

"You got your money, leave," Wo Fat ordered through grit teeth.

"Okay, we've gone over this. I did it for free. No payment. And that was your last freebie, by the way, don't get me wrong, I love her and all, she's my favourite client, but I've more than made up for her getting kidnapped on my watch," he snapped at Wo Fat. "And why should I leave? Wouldn't she feel safer having a proper bodyguard around, at least for the night?"

"Oh, actually yes… yes I would," she whispered and Wo Fat groaned. He turned a disgusted glare to her and she pouted at him. "Please… it really would make me feel better."

"Fine he stays, but only if you eat something," he ordered and Rowan nodded, he then shoved the room service menu into her hands and left her on the bed to go over it.

He crossed to Sin Nombre who was downing another little bottle of rum and chasing it with the can of coke he had taken out of the minibar.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but if you're going to help… actually be helpful," Wo Fat growled, but Sin Nombre merely smiled at him. God… this was not going to be good. He could barely handle Rowan how was he going to handle her and an assassin who could take him quite easily and had the same annoying kind of personality?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It was the second kidnapping that brought it out of her. The mental and emotional trauma of all she went through. He figured the shock of losing both McGarrett and the kid had sort of numbed her, but this incident had brought it right out. She wasn't sleeping anymore, and the sleep she did get was fitful and full of nightmares. This was going to be an issue, he knew it. But he didn't know how to fix it, he didn't know how to make it better.

She woke both him and Sin Nombre up with her screams multiple times a night. She yelped and jumped at sudden movements and knocks on the door even if she had been told room service was coming or if she had ordered room service herself. It took two days and the promise of both of them going with her, to get her out of the hotel.

He had taken her to the Trevi Fountain, the place was pretty and calming and he figured that would help. After the fountain they could go wherever she wanted.

He stood a little ways away from her, letting her sit on the side of the fountain and play with the water. Giving her some space but keeping an eye on her as well. He had taken pictures, he had taken a video, the pictures for himself, the video for McGarrett, trimmed the right way it could really help stick it to him, keep him thinking that Rowan was happier with Wo Fat. That was important. He needed McGarrett to be bitter, to keep him miserable so that he didn't renew his search for her.

"You're going to need someone to watch her."

Wo Fat turned to Sin Nombre who was suddenly standing beside him. He handed Wo one of the three ice creams he had in his hand. Lemon gelato. He still had a vanilla and a chocolate. Depending on her mood one of those would be Rowan's. Wo Fat was betting that today was a chocolate day.

"I am watching her," he answered absently. Which was true, she was still under his watchful gaze.

"And when you're working again?" Sin Nombre asked. "You can't take her with you, not without incriminating her. So she will stay behind and who will watch her then?"

Wo turned to him. "You offering?"

"I… I'm available," Sin Nombre admitted rather reluctantly.

Wo Fat glared at him. "You? You want to Rowan-sit?"

"See why do you gotta say it like that, she can't be that bad," Sin Nombre cried. Wo Fat calmly stared him down and Sin Nombre sighed. "Alright, look, maybe I feel a little responsible, maybe I feel like… she might be easier to manage if we get her prepared for stuff like this… seeing as she seems to… attract this kind of drama."

"Tell me about it… wait... what do you mean get her prepared?"

"Well… someone needs to teach her self-defence."

Wo Fat glared at him. "Not when she has a cast on her arm."

"Best to know how to use it as a weapon."

"No. You can teach her self-defence, but only when she's healed better and up to it," Wo snapped. "And she'll need round the clock care, you sure you can handle that? Let me remind you that you are the one who wanted that obnoxious label on her."

"I can handle her."

"Fine. We'll discuss price tonight, now give her her ice cream before it melts," he ordered and then watched as Sin Nombre walked over to hand it to her.

He was right. It was a chocolate day.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Sin Nombre's had been signed on with what Wo Fat called a reasonable fee. It wasn't but apparently Rowan was draining his resources and he admitted that it was the most he could afford. Sin Nombre found that he didn't care, after the second kidnapping, after seeing that poor girl break down he knew he wasn't going to leave her to her own devices. She needed someone to help her, someone to protect her while Wo Fat was busy rebuilding his empire.

But this gig came with conditions.

For starters she had to not be made aware that Steven came looking for her. Which at first, made no sense to him, until he found out that Steve had broken up with her, dated another woman while she was being tortured and then left her in Japan for Wo Fat to rescue. He had a fit of guilt that sent him down after her, but at that point the damage had been done. Wo Fat wasn't going to trust Rowan's safety to him any longer. But if Rowan found out that Steven had come looking for her, she'd want to go back and he needed them broken up to keep her safe.

The second condition was not sleeping with her. Rowan liked to cuddle, Rowan would most likely jump into his bed after a particularly bad nightmare, but that did not mean sleeping with her, and that did not mean falling for her. Sin Nombre figured that one to be easy, he didn't love anymore, simple as that, not that Rowan was his type.

And lastly, keep her happy at all costs, but within reason. That one would be harder. But he agreed and now he had the job.

The first act as her official Nanny/Bodyguard, was to return to the Trevi Fountain to get her ring back. Rowan had thought she had been slick but Wo Fat had noticed. That little silver tiara she had been wearing on her ring finger was gone now. Wo Fat figured she was being poetic by dropping it in the fountain meant to grant wishes. But he knew she'd regret that one day, so it was his job to go and fish it out.

Which lead to him being calf deep in a fountain with a flashlight trying to find a damn ring. Took him almost all night, but he got it. When he got back to the hotel, the first thing he did was check on Rowan, which was how he found out she wasn't in her room anymore. She was in the adjoining room, Wo Fat's room, asleep on his bed. She had rolled away from him, her back facing the man, and he had simply reached out in the distance between him and her and grabbed a hold of the back of her shirt.

When Sin Nombre approached him, his eyes opened and for a moment they just stared at one another.

"She had another nightmare," he whispered, "It's going to be like this for a while."

"I can handle it," Sin Nombre told him. He handed out the ring. "Took a while but I found it."

"Good," Wo Fat said taking it easily and slipping it onto his pinky ring. "I'll get a chain for it tomorrow, one of us can wear it so we don't lose it."

Sin Nombre's eyes found Rowan again, not liking the way she curled in on herself like she was protecting herself from blows. Her eyebrows were creased, no doubt entrenched in another nightmare. It would only be a matter of time before she was awake and screaming again. He was getting tired of hearing that poor girl scream.

"It's easy to get attached to her," Wo Fat told him breaking the spell between him and Rowan. "You can say it's only a job, but it won't be. Once she gets under your skin she doesn't come back out."

He was speaking from experience and he appreciated the warning but Wo Fat hadn't experienced loss like Sin Nombre had. One didn't just let people in after a loss like his. So he was safe from Rowan Pierce and her infectious charm.