Chapter 1

Danger. Warning bells resounded in her ears and when she closed her eyes, she saw flashing red lights, but try as she might, she could not forget Gresso. It was as though his name had been engraved in her memory. Her body was on strike against her. Her heart and mind were in constant battle, even when she had to really focus. 

From the day her sister’s husband Trojan was released from prison, she’d never been able to forget her encounter with Gresso. She knew deep in her soul that it was wrong. Gresso was a menace, a dangerous man—she was the front row witness to him sneaking in and taking away her first kiss like a thief in the night.

Her first kiss. She couldn’t believe that an important milestone in her life that she thought she might share with a true love was stolen by a convicted felon!

She bolted up from bed and pulled her own hair in frustration before remembering to exhale. Her pulse thudded like a woodpecker in her throat and her clothes clung to her body from sweat. 

What spell did that son of a bitch use on her that she could not erase his face from her memory, no matter how long it had been since their meeting? He was a squatter in her brain, that’s what he was. 

 An illegal tenant who must be evicted. All he did was give her grief, day and night. She just couldn’t get him out of her mind. Maybe she ought to see a priest about an exorcism.

Ugh, it’s so annoying! She shouldn’t have stayed in that interview cell with him. She should have stuck to her sister’s butt like glue. 

What the hell kind of racket were they running in that so-called “supermax” that they would leave an innocent young woman alone with a convicted rapist and human trafficker? Had the prison stationed a guard there to protect her virtue, she would not be going through this mental torture now. 

Stress, lack of sleep, and this mysterious malady she couldn’t pinpoint. She’s even looked through Webmd Maybe she had a brain tumor. There was no logical way for her to be obsessing over a bad guy. 

There was a difference between a “bad boy” and “bad guy.” A bad boy rode motorcycles and littered the streets with cigarette butts; a bad guy shot liquor store owners in the head and stole teenage girls straight out of their bedrooms. Gresso was clearly in the second category. 

Oh, if Ate Bella only knew, she would be so ashamed of Yrah. Mooning over Gresso like he’s the cutest boy of BTS.

It had been a torturous few months. She’d even begun avoiding her Ate Bella because the woman had nothing but questions for her about that day, and Yrah had no words to tell the story. The whole encounter was shameful. 

What if Ate Bella told Trojan? God, how utterly humiliating. It might reignite the feud between the two brothers. That was the last thing Yrah wanted because they had just reconciled after several years of estrangement. 

She blew out the few strands of hair that fell over her face. She would force herself to sleep tonight, praying that just for one quiet evening, Gresso would not visit her dreams. 

YRAH WAS yawning when she carried a heavy box into her sister’s new house. Trojan bought the vacant house near their old house where she still lived with her dad. Now that the renovation, which had taken several months, were finally finished, the newly-wed couple could finally move in with all new furniture.

She appreciated the glow of happiness on Ate Bella’s face. The woman was a far cry from the miserable wreck she was just a few months ago. She’d sit in a dark corner of the house sobbing all day, neglecting herself. At night, she would call Kuya Trojan’s name in her sleep. 

Yrah was amazed by their combined strength as a couple to stay together. They had to go through so much strife and obstacles in order to reach each other and remain together.

Real love really had a way of healing old hurts and fixing what’s broken inside someone. It was astounding. She found herself making this observation out loud to her Ate Bella as she was helping her affix her wedding portrait on a prominent spot on the wall of the living room.

The two of them smiled at each other before returning their attention to the portrait. 

Yrah sighed wistfully. “You looked so beautiful that day, Ate, even though everything was last-minute.”

Her sister slung an arm over her shoulders. “You don’t have to flatter me, brat. All right, I’ll get you some new art mats when I go to the mall.” With a frown, she looked at the other moving boxes.

Yrah smiled, warmed by Ate Bella’s thoughtfulness. “Oh, Ate, before I forget, I’ve received the admissions packet for school. I’m on my way to becoming a doctor.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“Is that what it means?” her sister teased. “Congrats, baby girl. I’ll tell your Kuya Trojan. I’m sure he’ll be excited to hear it. Hold on, I’ll give him a call now.”

“Wait, Ate, where is Kuya?” Yrah frowned. “I thought he’s in the field and it’s impossible to get a hold of him when he’s out and about.”

Ate Bella cleared her throat. “He’s in Italy right now. He told me he was going to see Gresso and he’d have his personal mobile on him, so he could be at the prison now. It’s easier to contact him when he’s in one place and not in some undisclosed location in Outer Mongolia or something.”

Blood rose up to Yrah’s face, heating up her neck and cheeks. Kuya Trojan was in the supermax in Italy visiting with Gresso? Did she hear that right? Her heart leapt within her chest. She was excited, instead of mortified. There was just one degree of separation between her and Gresso. He wasn’t galaxies away anymore, but on the other side of the phone. 

The red alert sign began to flash in her mind’s eye once more. What could be wrong with her heart? She seemed to suffer some form of arrhythmia every time Trojan’s brother’s name was mentioned.

“Sweetcake…”

Her head snapped up as though that deep, growly voice had whispered that nickname in her ear and not just inside her head. She slid off her Ate Bella’s arm from her shoulder, uneasy with herself and afraid of being discovered. She took a few steps away, so she could investigate the contents of one of the boxes and busy herself, so her sister wouldn’t notice that she got all weird when Gresso’s name was mentioned.

Wrong. Oh, so wrong. From whichever angle she chose to look at it, the optics were just bad. Her obsession over Gresso was unnatural and must be curtailed or she’d lose her mind. 

She was a thirteen-year-old girl pining over her first crush, pestering anyone who was friends with her crush for information about him. She couldn’t help but be curious about him. Why did Gresso turn out the way he did? What kind of life choices did he make that put him on the path that resulted in him being imprisoned in a supermax for life? 

She was born with a brain that needed constant input, but she couldn’t ask her Ate about him. Her father didn’t raise her to become a gossip. While she was growing up, he used to tell her that rumors ruined lives.

After opening the box in front of her, she froze when she saw the edge of an old picture frame. The box belonged to Kuya Trojan. Holding her breath, she pulled the picture frame all the way out and saw two young boys on a swing. The younger one is hanging on the back of the older one. 

She found herself staring at the kid who seemed to be gazing back at her. On his lips was the kind of mischievous smile that would be a knockout on a grown man. 

Innocent. Happy. Pure…

It was the complete opposite of the one she saw on Gresso’s when they met. Hard, cynical, bitter.

Did life erase it from his memory? Had he forgotten how to smile like that because of the obstacles he’d had to go through in life?

She shook herself out of her haze when she realized that her sister had been calling her name. Ate Bella was holding out her mobile phone, saying Kuya Trojan wanted to speak to her. 

It made sense that he would want to because they had become friends and he treated her like a younger sister, but when she met her sister’s eyes, a chill went down her spine. What was the old saying? As if a duck had walked over her grave. 

Yrah gulped. “Are you s—sure it’s Kuya Trojan, Ate?”

Narrowing her eyes, Ate Bella slowly nodded. Yrah had a feeling she suspected something was off. It would be bad manners if she refused to take the call. She cursed herself for her overactive imagination. 

What made her think it would be Gresso on the phone? He’d probably already forgotten all about her. Sexy guys like him had prison groupies, right? Who was little Yrah to stand out among the crowd? She was a momentary diversion to a man who had nothing but time in his hands. 

She’d accompanied her sister to pick up her husband from prison, and his brother just happened to be housed in the same prison. The two brothers reunited, and she was left with Gresso while Ate Bella and Kuya Trojan processed paperwork. Gresso was probably just enjoying his free time out of his cell for once. He could either flirt with her or solve another Sudoku puzzle. 

She took a deep breath, practiced her friendly voice inside her head, and put the phone to her ear. “Hello, Kuya?”

The line was silent for a moment before she heard someone exhale. The little hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end. She knew that sigh. Dear God, why would she recognize that sigh?

She tried to banish the notion from her head, but her body had already decided for her that it was Gresso on the other line. 

When he finally spoke, her heart plunged to her stomach and her knees turned to rubber. It was a good thing she was sitting.

“Hey Doc. My lips are a little chapped. I’m sufficiently hydrated, so I think I might need something else. I suggest mouth-to-mouth resuscitation—for the moisture, not the oxygen, you understand. With my lips so dry, I won’t be able to eat, then I’d starve to death… is that what you want, Doc? You wouldn’t want your first patient to die on you, would you, sweetcake?”

His low chuckle roused the butterflies in her belly. 

Sweetcake. As if she needed any more confirmation of the identity of the person to whom she was speaking! As if her Kuya Trojan would know to call her by that ridiculous nickname.

Gresso, the man who stole her first kiss.

The active volcano waiting to explode.

The squatter who must be evicted from her head! 

She gasped with outrage and pushed the phone back into her Ate Bella’s hand. She could already feel her cheeks heating up, so she was probably as red as a tomato right now. She turned away from her sister before she could see her blushing. Knowing her Ate, she would demand the reason for it. 

Water. She needed water. Right. She must head to the kitchen or risk fainting in front of her overly solicitous sister, who would probably take her to the hospital. Oh, Lordy! What kind of hormones had Gresso awakened in her body with that stupid kiss? If he thought she was going to placidly accept her fate and let the prince take her away just because he was the first one to kiss her, he’s got another think coming. She was no Sleeping Beauty. 

Behind her, she could hear her Ate calling her name, but Yrah was too afraid to even turn around because she didn’t want her sister to see her physical reactions to her psychotic brother-in-law.

“J—just a minute, Até!” I just need to swallow a whole bottle of pesticide because I’m convinced something unnatural is growing inside of me.

“What’s wrong, Yrah?” her sister demanded with a frown.

Yrah clenched her lower lip between her teeth. She had to think of something. She searched her useless noggin, but it wouldn’t cooperate. 

Everything she’d ever learned in school? Gone. The quadratic equation? Gone. The names for all two hundred sixteen bones of the human body? Gone. The name of her first ever crush in high school? Gone. Maybe she got abducted by aliens in the last five minutes and they erased her memory. But why was Gresso still there? UGH.

“I think it’s my appendix, Ate! It’s probably inflamed and needs to be taken out!”

She heard herself say the words out loud and couldn’t believe it. She smacked her forehead with the bottom of her palm. Studies showed that drinking 1.85 liters of water a day was good for the brain, so she drank two liters. And yet… Why had her thoughts dried up like raisins? She couldn’t even think up a reasonable lie. Appendix?!

She bolted toward the kitchen and when she got there—out of sight of Ate Bella—she gave herself a couple hearty slaps across the face before leaning against the fridge and exhaling like she’d just finished running a marathon. This was just depressing. She should really reconsider this whole med school thing. 

She had planned on becoming an Anesthesiologist someday. She hadn’t even started on journey, and yet here she was, wishing she already had the skills so she could anesthetize herself and stop feeling crazy things for Gresso, a convicted murderer and rapist. She didn’t want to end up like one of those crazy women who write to serial killers in prison and fall in love with them. 

She clutched her head and sighed. Maybe she needed to rehydrate, after all. It would be a damn shame if her med-school-bound brain atrophied because she was an idiot and couldn’t stop thinking about her sister’s psycho brother-in-law. 

TROJAN WAS staring at him with serious wrinkles on his forehead as Gresso hung up the phone. His brother hadn’t said a word, but he knew the reason. The man heard everything anyway, and Gresso would be goddamned if he acted like a coward and didn’t fess up to what he’d done. 

He’d flirted a bit with Bella’s little sister. So what?

“Brod, what the hell?” Trojan demanded in Swedish. 

Gresso hadn’t heard his native language in a while, so he was taken aback for a moment. Then he noticed the look of disapproval on his younger brother’s face and smirked. “What?”

Trojan cursed and shook his head. “Javlar! I should have known you were up to something when you asked to speak to Yrah. What the hell did you need to talk to her for?” He stuck his index finger in Gresso’s face. “Consider this a warning, min bror. Knulla inte runt med henne.”

Gresso laughed out loud and squeezed his brother’s shoulder. “Relax, brod.” He couldn’t help but bite his lip when a picture of that sweet, innocent üngmo, Yrah flashed in his mind’s eye. Almost ripe for the plucking. “It was just a few words exchanged over the phone. How could I ‘fuck with her’ from… what, eleven thousand kilometers? I got a big dick, but it ain’t that big.”

His younger brother, Mister Badass himself, gave him a look of admonishment a nun would be proud of. “Don’t even consider it.”

He already had. And did, every waking minute. She gave him the purest, happiest, untainted memory he’d had in a decade. Within the confines of his cell, on his cheap foam mattress, he laid awake at night and remembered how sweet her lips had tasted, tender like peaches in the summer, as though the whole encounter just took place yesterday. His cute little doctor wannabe. How could he not adore her? That day had been a good investment into his spank bank.

“Just… bloody behave, will you? Oh, who am I kidding? I might as well ask Satan himself to be a good boy.” His younger brother sighed heavily. “Look, I’m in the middle of processing to join Interpol. Each of their agents is given what they call a salvation bullet, which is a big single-use, get-out-of-jail card that’ll spring you out of a huge fuck up, no matter the severity. Like if you were the main recruiter for the guys who hijacked the planes that crashed into the Pentagon and the Twin Towers or something on 9/11.”

Gresso released a low whistle in response. “Sweet. Might prove useful for someone accused of convicted of multiple murders, rapes, and human trafficking.” He tried to sound as casual as he could, but his mind was buzzing.

Trojan reached out and gripped his shoulder. This time, the expression on his face was grim. “Brother, I’m gonna use my bullet for you. That’s why my application to Interpol needs to go through. But once you’re out, min bror, please keep away from my wife’s sister. She’s not… from our world. She’s clean and good and… untainted.”

“I know.” Gresso suppressed the smile tugging at the corners of his lips upon hearing his brother’s words. He just mentioned the very reason he wanted to own the studious little mouse. “Brother, she’s a pipe dream, all right? My own Zihuatanejo. She might as well live on a planet next to Alpha Centauri.”

Trojan frowned. “You’re talking about 'The Shawshank Redemption,' right? I don’t think that’s an appropriate movie to show to supermax prisoners. That’s just cruel and unusual punishment. Anyway, didn’t Andy make it to Zihuatanejo? So don’t smile at me that way, smartass. I’ve seen that movie, too.” He glanced at his wristwatch before standing up. Over Gresso’s head, he signaled to the guard. “I better get going. I have a flight to France to catch. Then home to the Philippines, finally. Please behave. I’m trying to get you out of here.”

“Ja, fader.” He saluted his brother.

Trojan laughed for the first time since his visit and gave him a firm clap on the back and a “See you soon” before heading for the door, one of the guards following him out as security protocol dictated. There were still four behind him, but they were in no hurry to take him back as they were playing vingt-et-un.

Gresso leaned back against his chair and put up his feet on the table, replaying his meeting with his brother in his mind and laughing in parts. He brought out his worn out copy of “The Completed Stories of Anton Chekhov” so the guards would think he was laughing at the book.

He thought about Bella’s little sister again and moistened his lower lip with the tip of his tongue. Just the very thought of her petite body with her surprisingly shapely curves turned him on. He imagined running his hands all over every inch of her. He smirked.

“Oh, yes, it’s impossible,” he murmured to himself, closing his eyes for a brief moment so he could search his memory bank for olfactory associations with her. Flowers, maybe. Night jasmines, though not as heady. Citrus. Maybe sunshine. Ivory soap. “So was going to the moon at one point, but we managed that. I’ll see you soon, little doctor…” He smirked.

Notes:

Ate – Filipino honorific for older sister

Kuya – Filipino honorific for older brother

 Brod – Swedish for brother

Min Bror – Swedish for My Brother

Javlar! – Swedish for “Damn it!”

Üngmo – swedish for “virgin” or “young woman”