Page 80 of No Control
“Maybe not, but this…You’re better than this.”
“I’m better than nothing,” I scoff. “I’m just a different kind of evil than the man who raised us. Still destined to destroy.” She shakes her head, but I don’t give her the moment to speak. “Don’t let her leave or you’ll have hell to pay, Cher.”
The fire in her eyes tells me she’d pay it.
But that’s just a risk I have to take, because I apparently have to learn lessons the hard way. Like for instance…
The woman I let go is the same one trying to kill me.
***
“You look like hell,” Jude tells me as I climb into the passenger seat of the Tahoe. “Like really look like hell.”
I glance over at him in the backseat and shrug. I’m not in the mood for chatting.
“He’s going to stay in here while we take care of this,” Luca tells me from the driver’s seat as he smashes the gas and whips the SUV around.
“Okay.”
“The guy who broke into your house to look around cracked pretty quick,” Luca explains as he tears down the highway. “I pinned him. He was either Craigslist material or a rookie. Whichever he was, he’s no more now.”
“Mm,” I mutter, glancing down to the pistol in my hand. My mind replays the terror on Lydia’s face. The way she looked at me for what I am—a monster. I don’t know why it stings. It shouldn’t. Nothing about her reaction was surprising.
Well, other than she didn’t try to kill me.
I had considered she might try, but even that would’ve been better than the heartache in her eyes. The way she smacked my hand away when I just wanted to fucking hold her. If I could just start over…
“She’s probably going to know we’re coming,” Luca speaks into the silence. “We need to prepare for security at the house. Bodyguards. Other hitmen. Whatever.”
“We haven’t been able to enter the house,” Jude adds, looking at me. “She’s got it under lockdown.”
I nod, not turned off by the idea of entering a death trap. It might be the perfect solution. Lydia can hate me in peace.
“What’s wrong with you?” Luca smacks me in the arm. “You’re never this quiet.”
“Just mentally preparing.”
He bobs his head, accepting my answer, and we spend the rest of the ride in silence. An hour later, he turns into the neighborhood, punching in the keypad at the gate with ease— that’s how Luca does everything. He could slaughter a whole town and never blink.
“No security outside,” Luca says through gritted teeth. “I think she knows we’re coming.”
“Maybe we should go back.” Jude’s voice is full of annoying nerves. He’s not made for the field.
“I’m not going back,” I grunt, throwing open the passenger door. I grab my pistol and don’t even bother with the mask. Fuck this woman. Fuck all the women who made me soft.
“Wait!” Luca shouts at me, but I don’t listen. I sprint for the door. And as I press down on the lever, it opens.
She’s waiting.
I slam the door shut and lock it, preventing Luca from coming in right behind me. Maybe it’s better if I face this alone. I head straight for the room I killed Carlson in and am not surprised by the warm glow of the light. Pistol in hand, I turn the knob. For all I know, she might be waiting for me on the other side with a machine gun.
But as I push the door in, standing to the side, I catch sight of the woman. She’s sitting in the middle of the bedroom in an armchair, dressed to the nines in a black gown.
Not a weapon in sight.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she muses, her eyes no longer dull or hazy. No, her hazel irises are sparkling under the glow of the lamp.
“Yeah? So you can kill me?”
