I first noticed the warmth that left my body in a small trail. It didn't take much else to get me moving.

I roll out of Matheo's bed and walk to his closet to find something to wear. Once I find an athletic shirt and shorts, I quietly exit his room and walk down the stairs to the house's gym located in the house's basement.

The gym itself was limited to all the people living in the main house, so I didn't have to worry about one of my cousins walking in.

I am standing right outside the door when I can hear someone continuously hitting a punching bag.

That's weird, it's only 7 and Matheo, the only one in my family who works out in the morning besides me, is still snoring.

I slowly push the door to the gym open and there I see Aiden. His back is facing towards me as he steadily punches the bag.

I awkwardly move to the treadmill to start warming up, choosing to ignore Aiden's presence for both of our sakes.

I run.
And run.
And then run some more.
Continuing in a ceaseless loop for 30 minutes.

As I am turning off the treadmill, I feel a presence behind me. I choose to ignore it, knowing it's Aiden who wants to talk.

The treadmill is not a complete stop before I am thrown off it and onto the ground with Aiden on top of me.

"What the fuck," I yell, before I notice a small knife now under my chin. I kept my head still, as I tried to kick out with my feet.

Aiden's blue eyes are dimmed slightly due to the artificial lights, but nothing stops the small half smirk-half laugh that forces itself upon his lips.

At least his laugh is still as light sounding as when we were in high school. I was worried it may have changed like the rest of him as seemingly done.

His eyes stared down into mine creating a spark I had, for so many years, wished turned into an unstoppable fire that even the strongest of men couldn't take down.

"Now we're officially even," he smiles, creating that small dimple I wish I could just kiss. Shit I'm going crazy, a guy I previously liked holds a knife to my throat and I'm thinking about kissing him. I try to look somewhere else but then I end up back on his smile.

I also wish I could just smile like that, let the wind take all my fears away and just sleep peacefully in Aiden's warm embrace. But that is what I gave up six years ago and I know I can't go back to it. For his or my sake.

"Your pettiness is showing," I say, still laying flat on my back.

"You attacked me first, and then ignored me," he replies.

At this point Aiden had removed the knife from under my chin and was carelessly pinning me down. So in one quick motion I rolled us around so I was sitting on top.

"You sure like using that move a lot," Aiden says as he tries to get comfortable in his new position.

"Yeah well you like pinning me down a lot," I reply sarcastically.

"I guess I'm gonna have to find a way to counter attack because..." he trails off, grabbing my waist with his hands and pulling me down, so his lips are next to my ear. "I'm going to pin you down a lot and make sure you enjoy every single second of it."

Butterflies flutter around my stomach, and I have to bite my cheek hard to keep the color from rising into my face. I push him away from me and he lets my waist slide through his fingers before he pulls back.

"I still don't know how you are here, please don't tell me you're working as a doctor?!" I question.

"No, not a doctor. I'm actually the right hand man."

"Wait what. How did that happen?! How did you even find my brothers?" I start to go off on a completely silent Aiden.

"Cameron," Alexandre screams from the other side of the gym door. I immediately jump off Aiden and stand a few feet away from him.

Alexandre opens the door and looks between Aiden who was just standing up, and me.

"Yes," I reply to Alexandre's earlier call.

"I forgot to introduce you two, Aiden, this is Cameron, our youngest brother, and Cameron, this is Aiden, our right hand man."

I nod slowly, as if digesting this unknown information.

"Ok now that that's all out of the way, Cameron, our family is going to be here in a little bit so if you want something to eat, you should hurry up and do so now." Alexandre says, turning to look at me.

"Ok, thanks for the heads up." I walk back up the stairs to kitchen not giving a second glance back.

As I walk into the kitchen I see Mylan and a girl talking about some random topic while she makes waffles and he sits at the marble countertop with his computer next to him. Mylan notices me first and waves me over to sit next to him.

"Mia" he says to the girl making waffles, "this is my youngest brother Cameron."

I was raising my hand to say hi till the girl completely turned around and I got a look at her face. Shit.

In my 21 years of life, I would have never thought I'd have to confront a few small white lies I made to a person I thought I would never have to see again. But right in front of me stood Mia, the girl who I guided to the hotel, staring at me with wide eyes. The spoon that she had been previously mixing with was now swallowed whole in the silky, tan batter.

"Cameron?" She gives me a questioning look. "Wasn't your name Luke, or was that just an alias?" I ignore the side eyes Mylan gives me to the question.

"No, my real name is Cameron. Though if you don't mind me asking, why are you here?"

"I am here to see my brother as well as attend the funeral." A brother now, that was new.

"Who's your brother?"

"Aiden, he's the right hand man," she says, like I already knew that.

Since when did Aiden have a sister?

"Cameron was your alias Luke Hayes?" Mylan asks. I turn to look at him. I forgot about him.

There's no point in lying as he could figure out based on how I responded to the name. "Yes, how did you guess?"

Mylan looked at me like he had just completed one of his 2 week puzzles.

"Dad always had letters going out and to that guy. Even when our brothers and I asked Lucien he didn't know anything about it. I was also fascinated with the code dad used to update our security with. You did that?"

"Yes, I decided to go to school for computer engineering and cybersecurity. I had to write a security code to graduate this year."

As I was talking, I looked around the room, but as soon as my eyes landed on Mylan's face it was one filled with joy and excitement.

"You decided to do what I do!" Mylan smiles and pulls me into a hug. "Look at my baby brother now, he is so smart and skilled. Take that Matheo, you thought Cameron would just be a killing machine, but I knew he would be smarter than you. Cam must have all the girls dropping at his feet." Mylan said specifically the last part with such excitement I refused to let a frown enter my face for fear of upsetting him.

"Mylan be careful, he's going purple." Mia jokes.

"Sure Mia, you're just mad that your younger brother doesn't like to hug," Mylan jokes back.

"How dare you, Mylan, you are not getting any waffles."

"That's so mean, Cameron, tell her that's mean."

"Mia," I start. "If Mylan doesn't let go of me in 10 seconds he doesn't get waffles."

Mylan pushes me out of his embrace yelling, "Traitor!"

As I am close to starting to smile I almost forget what I told myself at the beginning of this trip.