Page 24 of Bound By Threads
“Stay where you are!” another officer yells, his voice tense.
I feel their hesitation, their uncertainty. I’m not a threat to them — just a man who crossed a line and is now a killer.
But I don’t deserve mercy.
This was justice for the girl who never got it. Revenge, even. The secret that led me here dies with me. Roman and Crew will never know why I did this, and I won’t tell them.
We don’t get to feel sorry for ourselves after all the hell we put her through, driving her further to the edge of the cliff. No, we deserve to rot. To live with what we did to her.
I try to focus on the ground, yet my mind drifts to her, as it always does. Her laughter, her warmth, the way she made everything feel right—we took all of that away. We destroyed everything that made her beautiful, that made herher.
The officers’ approach, their heavy boots echoing on the pavement. One reaches for his radio, but the sound is drowned out by the pounding of my heart.
“On your feet.”
The cold metal of handcuffs clasps around my wrists, the metallic clink signalling the end of my freedom.
They drag me to my feet, and my gaze locks with one of Roman’s father’s men. He looks at me, something flickering behind his eyes. “Why’d you do it?” he asks, his voice low enough that only I can hear him.
I shrug, uncaring. “Because he was a bastard.”
I don’t tell him it was for her. For everything that my father did to her, driving her to cast her body into the ocean, never to be found.
He nods, signalling the officers to take me away. With each step, the handcuffs dig into my skin, but the only thing I feel is a strange sense of relief.
I hope she knows that he’s gone — gone to the depths of hell, where he’ll never hurt her again. Not here or in the afterlife.
We failed her and lost her as a consequence of everything we did to her.
* * *
Roman sitsacross from me in the interrogation room, his face contorted in a mixture of fury and disbelief.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” he growls.
He’s pissed, but it’s not just anger. It’s fear; I can see it in his eyes.
Fear for everything he’s worked for, but I don’t care. His dad is a piece of shit who will get what is coming to him, when the time is right just like my dad did. But first, Roman has to face the truth about Scarlett.
“I was thinking I was done with his shit,” I reply, my voice flat, emotionless. “He needed to die.”
I feel nothing, not for my father and not for Roman or Crew. The emptiness has swallowed it all. But Scarlett’s face — her memory — lingers, haunting me like a ghost.
We all have to pay for what we did to her.
Two years later…
Chapter14
Lottie
The scent of fresh coffee, the sounds of the birds outside, and my alarm wake me. It was the kind of morning I used to dream of before Archer came into my life.
I yawn, stretch, and slip out of bed, stumbling to my joined bathroom. Slipping into the warm shower, I wake myself and smile.
I’d promised myself I’d make the most of this life after everything Archer and his parents have done for me, no matter how much the shadows of my past try to drag me down when the memories arise like a violent tide coming into the shore.
Getting out,I towel-dry my hair and glance at the clock on my phone. 7:15 a.m. Perfect. Training starts at eight, but I like to arrive early to stretch and get myself into the zone. I’m halfway through pulling on my leggings when I hear Archer’s parents downstairs, their voices carrying as they sing along to their favorite radio show that they listen to every morning.
