“Me too, beautiful.”
I squeezed her a little harder. From now on, she would never be under the thumb of a bad man. Never be anything but in full control of herself and her surroundings. That was my vow to her. As her brother, her lover or whatever the fuck she wanted me to be.
It wasn’t a lie that I would die for her, that I would follow her anywhere. And now that we were standing at the precipice of all of that being over, none of that was any different.
Christian returned to us, and I couldn’t help but take in my friend some more. He was so different from the guy I’d left in Chicago only a few long months ago. I hadn’t seen him since just before Violet’s wedding, when I’d been commanded to meet them in the UK to escort her. I’d left the city thinking I’d be right back. And now here he was, leading a team of men to rescue me.
What the fuck.
“We’re going to burn this place to the ground,” he said, taking the time to look at both me and Violet in the eye as he spoke. “My guys are going to start throwing the fuel around, so we need to leave. Is there anything you want to grab before we go?”
I looked at Violet, but she shook her head, not saying a word. Our family was best left to burn here. What could we do with four bodies plus the guards? No, the best thing for them was to turn to ash where they died. There was no better grieving we could do by taking them elsewhere.
“No,” I told him. “We’re good.”
“They said there are bodies in the dining room…?” Christian asked.
I shook my head. “They can burn.”
“So be it.” Christian turned and gave a quick command, a quick nod and a gesture, and the men divided up, cans of what I could only assume was fuel in their grasps. “It’ll look like an arson attack. Everything will be ash by the time the fire is out.”
“The secrets will burn with the house,” Violet muttered.
Christian nodded, but his brow furrowed, like that wasn’t good enough for him either.
“What are you doing with Rafael Delucci?” I asked my friend, tipping my head back to where the man was being dragged, unconscious, by one foot towards the front door. He wasn’t dead, which left me unsettled, but I let them continue. They were making sure his head and limbs bashed against every surface, so it was a good show.
Once the mercs reached the porch, they didn’t stop, thumping Rafe down the steps with no care for his wellbeing. Whatever they’d injected him with was strong because the man was out for the count. We began walking out the same way at Christian’s quiet insistence, toward the waiting cars.
I was still in awe of him as I saw the full extent of his operation. He’d done all of this for me. The favor had definitely more than doubled.
Christian laughed. “I told them to keep him alive,” he said. “So the choice is yours.”
Thirty-Five
Violet
Thefirstdayafterit was all over, we spent traveling, then sleeping. Christian drove us to his cabin while we slept in the back of his car, the same cabin we’d hidden in before, and it was a little like going home. It was the first place I’d ever been even a little content, and stepping back inside the walls was a cozy comfort.
We were hours and hours from the burning up compound, but despite the comfort of the house, it didn’t seem enough. I wanted to go further. The other side of the world.
Theo remained more awake than me as we traveled, which I only knew from how often I woke up to hear him talking to his friend, muttering in a low voice so I wouldn’t rouse. I never told them I had, just let their soft conversation send me back to sleep. Every time I awoke, Theo would be holding me, stroking my hair or my thigh, whatever he could reach. Impossible to not be connected in the moment. I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to disconnect from him again. He was my safety.
The second day after it all ended, we spent figuring out our next move. Neither of us wanted to do anything fast, so we decided to stay at the cabin. Christian left us there, with promises to be back soon and explain himself better, and to keep in touch in the meantime. He left us, and he left Rafael tied up in the basement.
“Are you going to kill him?” Christian asked just before he left, his voice tentative, a little strained. There was something behind his eyes as he spoke, like he might want to be there, or might not want it to happen, I didn’t know. I was too tired to parse out someone else’s emotions, too wrecked to push. But a tension came through his voice, anyway. I only had the capacity to ignore it.
He was leaving us here, alone, with my tormentor. Rafael, locked away tight in the basement for us. I never expected to have power over him like this. I envisioned going out fighting, taking him with me, urgent, immediate and bloody. Not this. Whatever happened to Rafael now would not be in my control.
“I don’t know,” Theo responded for me. “Not yet, at least.”
Christian nodded. “Do me a favor if you do.”
“Anything,” Theo said, straightening up.
“If you do kill him, please film it and send me the footage.”
Theo seemed surprised at the request, a bit shaken, but it made perfect sense to me. Rafael was a hateful man. We should put it on the internet so the world could celebrate. The man had left so much destruction in his wake. Those other women he’d married then killed, their families… and that was only those he’d given his name to. There were many more. His followers, who’d harmed too, their butterfly effect of pain.
