The Heir She Loved (Shadows of Sin #4)

14 Everett

July 5th, 2022

“How cute.”

I hit silent on my phone so she wouldn’t hear the conversations we were about to have. She didn’t need to hear what was happening here, she only needed to focus. She had to focus. I knew she was strong enough to fight through this, I also knew she wouldn’t come out of this the same way she went in, so the faster we found her, the better it would be.

Azrael’s glowing blue eyes reminded me of the Devil. Sometimes I wondered if he was a reincarnate, especially with his hatred of religion. “You knew about this.”

He shrugged. “I told you it would happen, yet nobody ever seems to listen.”

“You knew the Delepski’s would get to her?”

I demanded, my anger only growing, which I didn’t think was physically possible at this point.

“We all knew someone would, but I suppose I did have a little more belief in it than some of you, after all, it is our track record.”

He cocked his head. “Nobody ever pays attention to context clues, do they? It’s quite sad, really.”

His eyes found Malachi’s.

Malachi gave him a stern look. “Everett, you knew people were after her—”

“And you ordered us to go after your traitorous Initiates despite that,”

I stated, my voice so chilling, even Beckett straightened. She needed freedom, but maybe I shouldn’t have allowed her to go to that party. Maybe I should have told her to remain in that house until I returned.

She wouldn’t have done it. Some rules were meant to be broken, and she would have broken them all if it meant a little freedom.

I couldn’t hinder her freedom. Not more than it already was.

Still, having someone to blame was well-deserved.

“Initiates that never would have been a problem had you boys vetted them correctly.”

“We vet them just fine,”

Greyson stated coldly. “But we all know that the effects power has on a person can’t be predicted, not all the time. It’s no one’s fault.”

“If we would have just killed them for their sins against us, we could have avoided all of this,”

Azrael offered, admiring his cane.

I worked my jaw, my eyes finding Malachi’s again. We should have killed them. I had been questioning that ruling since the second Malachi ordered it. Why hadn’t we just killed them? Why show them that kind of mercy?

Malachi watched me for only a moment before addressing the room. “What do we have?”

He had his reasons, he always had his reasons, and we were just supposed to accept that and move on, but what the fuck? We couldn’t have these issues opening up a school. We couldn’t.

Poppy read over the list I had quickly scrawled out, her black brows pulling together. “Ev, this is…”

She sighed and her eyes lifted. “She’ll give us more,”

she said confidently, her warm blue-green eyes flaming in determination. “Maybe next time she calls, patch in Rae—”

“She doesn’t need Rae,”

I told them, standing. “We’ve all been through the training, any one of us can help her.”

I didn’t want anyone to have to talk her through it. I should have put that goddamn tracker in her when I had the fucking chance.

“Smart of you to give her an earpiece,”

Azrael hummed.

Evelyn was studying the paper as if new information would appear suddenly. “She doesn’t have her phone on her all the time.”

It was too bad it didn’t have a tracker in it like her damn phone did. As soon as she got back, I was putting a tracker in her neck. Would I tell Azrael? Absolutely fucking not. There was no need to boost his psychotic ego more than it already was.

Evelyn’s phone started ringing and she immediately picked it up. “Emily,”

she said before answering it. “How’s Lucy.”

Emily had taken the redeye in, going straight to the vet to stay with Lucy while the rest of us went to The Alibi to discuss next steps. The only people missing were Jack and Rae, who were currently in Rome dealing with an issue regarding the Pope.

Fucking Catholics.

“Okay, thank you.”

She hung up and found my eyes. “Lucy’s out of surgery, but not out of the woods. They stitched her up, but she lost a lot of blood.”

Well, I expected that. She wasn’t allowed to die. “They have cousins and friends everywhere,”

I stated. “The two we killed in the woods were hired online, the man from the house was Russian, worked a few years for them. Evelyn has his name. Let’s check his properties first, his financials. I want everyone to keep their earpieces on. If Evelyn and I can’t answer her, Malachi, you first, Becks, and then Pops.”

“And me?”

Azrael asked with a glinting grin.

I eyed him. “Don’t ever talk to her again.”

Poppy rolled her eyes. “I’ll do my best,”

she said on a breath, but we all knew that if Azrael wanted to have a word with her, he would.

“Fine, Evelyn and I are going, we’ll send you the other address, send a dozen men to each one, his family is large, lots of guns, angry. I want them all dead, but I want Alexei left for me.”

They all nodded in agreement and got to work, Evelyn and I heading out.

I didn’t care how long it took, once I got her back, I was going to kill every single one of them. Anyone who had a single drop of Delepski blood in their veins or a penny from them in their bank account would die, and I felt no guilt for it.

The whole family needed to be erased. Anyone who ever worked for them, anyone who supported them, anyone who took a fucking dime from them, their body parts would be drowned in acid, and if we ran out of acid, they would be scattered around this world, dropped from airplanes into the middle of the Sahara, the middle of the ocean. Whatever it took.

They would fucking rue the day they took my girl.