Page 104 of Cruel Revenge
Royce leaves the room, the door slamming shut behind him.
Gia sighs and looks at me. “Are you going to be okay? I’ll go talk to him and try to bring him around to the thought of this.”
“Good luck.” I force a smile, even though my heart is beating a million miles an hour and it feels like I’m going to be sick. “He’s stubborn, and he’s not going to take anything you say to him kindly right now.”
“The power of the pussy will fix the day.” She winks at me before following Royce.
Aiden groans and sits back down in his seat, scrubbing his hands over his face.
When they fall away, he looks at me with a morbid sense of amusement in his gaze. “You know, just once I would like to have a family dinner where things didn’t absolutely devolve.”
I take my seat again, slumping down and taking a deep breath even though my appetite is gone. “I think that went fairly well, all things considered.”
Jade gapes at us. “You think that went well?”
I lean forward and reach for my glass of wine. “Nobody is dead, and it looks like there are minimal tears being shed, so I would probably consider that a good thing. I don’t know what else there is to talk about.”
“Let’s revisit the fact that you’re The Reaper.” Jade sits down on the other side of Joshua, leaning closer to him. “Did she tell you about that? Did she tell you about all the people she’s killed? Has she told you about all the people she still plans to kill?”
Joshua uses a white napkin to clean some of the blood from his face. “I know all about that.”
“You can’t.” Jade’s voice breaks a little. “Not really. You don’t know what it’s like to live with her when she’s off the rails and bloodthirsty. Don’t you see the look in her eyes right now?”
His face hardens when he looks at her. “And what look is that?”
“She looks like she wants to kill someone!” Jade waves a hand at me. “She’s barely holding on, and yet all of you are willing to sit here and pretend that everything is fine. Nobody wants to see what a monster she is.”
I take a long sip of the wine, my gaze meeting Joshua’s. I give a slight shake of my head, but he ignores me, his attention locking back onto Jade.
Joshua sets the napkin to the side, ice in his voice. “And how many things has she done to protectyou? How many lives has she taken to make sureyoudon’t spend time living in fear? How many times didyoucallherin the middle of the night while you were growing up, knowing who she is and still knowing that she would be there for you?”
Jade scowls, her gaze dropping to the table. “That’s not the point right now.”
“No. The point is that you all dance around the fact that she’s a serial killer. So what? You’ve all killed people. Sure, you may not feel it like it’s a need that you can’t go without. An addiction that you can’t overcome, but you sure as fuck benefit from it.”
My mouth drops open, and it feels like there’s a hand wrapping around my chest. It’s squeezing the air from my lungs, and I don’t know what to think.
Nobody has ever defended me the way that Joshua has, but right now he’s ready to go toe to toe with my family.
He looks at Jade with disgust before standing up and rounding the table, holding his hand out to me. “I think we’re donehere for the night, Sky. Maybe when your family is willing to apologize to you, we can reconsider this.”
For a moment, I’m torn.
I know if I go with him, I’m going to be opening a rift in my family. One that’s bigger than any other I’ve opened. One that might not be able to be repaired.
But if I go with him, there’s also an acceptance I’m going to be met with that I’ve never had before.
And so, I stand and put my hand in his, letting him lead the way out of the house and to the car.
He opens the door, waiting until I’m settled before he shuts the door.
It’s only once he’s in the car that he turns to me. “In the name of getting everything out there in the open, there’s something I have to tell you.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
JOSHUA
She stares at me,her lips pressing into a thin line like she’s not sure what to say.
