Page 114 of Insidious Heart
“A noble cause, yeah, I know, but—”
“No buts, Tor. Just listen because you need to hear this shit and finally accept it.” He watches me condition my hair and maintains eye contact as I start on my body. “You loved your brother, and you still love him. You can’t argue that’s what you feel when you think about him because if you didn’t then you wouldn’t get so heated over the bastards that hurt children. You wouldn’t have helped Spider get James back.”
My brow furrows. “Ok, sure, I can roll with that, but—”
All he does is hold up his hand and John has me swallowing my tongue like a little bitch. “Whether you realize it or not, you go after assholes that remind you of your father, of the Monsignor. Monsters that prey on the weak and defenseless. You go after people that cause harm to others, not just because Toby was hurt, but because you were too, and somewhere in that twisted skull of yours it’s why you don’t want anyone else to hurt like either of you did. And now…” He sighs and scrubs a hand over his beard. “Now it’s because of Stevie.”
“I don’t follow…” Not completely, anyway. Stevie definitely falls under the blanket of what John just referenced, but if that’s the case, then he means that Anthony Sack-linski’s ex wife as well as countless other people are now my reason for killing too. And even my dumbass doesn’t think that’s right.
“Jesus, Victor, you’re smarter than this.”
“Pretend I’m not…”
John rolls his eyes. “You’re currently torturing a man you were hired to kill.”
“Yes.”
“One you’ve had countless opportunities to kill prior to having him locked in a semi-truck trailer.”
“Correct, but I couldn’t kill him until we had all the info on his plans to frame the Kings.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He backs up as I finish showering, grabs me a towel and hands it over. “Information you got most of and…” John shakes his head at my frown. “You know what, you figure it out for yourself, but I’ll leave you with this: you’ve never tortured anyone before, and you’ve never had a girl you’ve obsessed over orcaredabout enough to see more than once, let alone rescue multiple times. Chew on that for a while. You know where to find me when you want to tell me I’m right.”
Then the big bear lumbers off, slamming the screen door on my RV as he does.
“Chew on that for a while,”I snark to myself as I walk back to my bedroom and start getting dressed. “Thinks he knows everything just because he taught me…” And that is the exact moment it clicks.
I’m torturing Beau after passing up countless chances to kill him.
I passed on those opportunities for the Kings, yeah, but also because I was worried about what Stevie would do, how she would feel if she knew I was hired to kill her father.
And the bastardislocked in a truck trailer because I lost my ever loving mind when I peeked through the open window and saw him beating her. Just like I did when I thought Stevie was trying to kill herself, and when Joker was hurting her.
Frowning, I pull a t-shirt over my head then pause with it halfway on, my mind racing as every second shared with Stevie since seeing her in that parking lot plays through my brain like film on a reel.
Stevie has become my motive, another reason behind what I do, and every foreign emotion or feeling she’s brought out of me suddenly has a name, a label slapped on it like neon fucking lights.
But since I have no idea what the entire fuck to do with that label, or how to put it into words, I do the only thing that makes sense to me.
And my sweet little dove will havetwoJohns to thank for it.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
STEVIE
“Areyou sure you want to go home?” Harlow asks for the hundredth time as she helps me put on one of Theo’s sweaters.
Apparently her clothes were the only reasonable ones that would fit me—Harlow and Ember are toothick, Tate isAmazon warriorsize, Sofie offered but my nurse said no becausegirl doesn’t need to wear coroner chic,and everyone shut down Summer and Jolie because apparently they dress likehooker barbieand I’llfreeze my tits off.And since all of these kind women have been taking care of me and hanging out in my room since I woke up, I’m just going along with things.
When Theo waddled in nine months pregnant and looking like she was going to pop at any second, though, I will admit I was a little confused. But baby belly aside, Theo is definitely the closest to my build so it makes sense.
I give Harlow a small smile. “I really think it’s for the best.”
“In what galaxy?” Summer snorts. “Yourdad’s houseseems like the last place you should be.”
“Stop.” Theo backhands her friend in the gut as she drops down into a chair with a grunt. “If Stevie wants to go home, we’ll let her.” Then she pushes her glasses up her nose with a grin. “And I’ll make sure Zak puts at least two men on her house while she’s there.”
I tug the enormous sweater down over the tank top and sigh. “That’s not really necessary. There’s always someone on the house when I’m there.”
