18. Caspian
CASPIAN
“ S he said I can tell you the extent of her injuries so you can help with her recovery, but she doesn’t want to talk further.”
Willow sat with me, Obi, Ciel, and Ryuji in the kitchen.
Wynn was asleep in his room. After Obi and I had finished disposing of the bloodied clothes and used gauze, Willow had called us all together.
Leona rested in our room, but Willow said she would come out when she was ready. She needed some time alone.
It was killing us all.
I just wanted to hold her, like I held her when her mother died and her father died. I just wanted to promise her that everything would be okay. That we’d make it okay.
“Tell us,” Ryu insisted. He leaned over the island, gripping a glass full of scotch. It was his second so far, at least from what I had seen.
Willow sighed. “Let’s just get a few things clear. None of you are entitled to the truth about what she went through. She’ll tell you when she’s ready, or she won’t. That’s up to her. Understand? ”
Ciel and Obi nodded while Ryu took a massive drink. When Willow turned to me, I answered, “Understood.”
I would do whatever it took to help her through this. One breath at a time.
“She was not raped.”
The four of us collectively exhaled.
“However, she was assaulted. As I’m sure you’ve already seen partially, she’s covered in bruising. She was beaten. She has scratch marks on her skin?—”
“Scratch marks?” Obi’s voice dipped low and dangerous. “From nails?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.” Ryu grunted. “I’ll fucking end them all.”
“She said she killed the man who did the worst of it,” Willow added. “And that Max Volpe helped her.”
The man on the ship’s bridge with his eyes gone. She had stabbed him over and over. That had to be him. I let out a heavy breath, pressing the palms of my hands to my eyes.
“She also has a concussion and several lacerations. I’ve given her antibiotics and bandaged what I could. Now her eye...”
“Will she lose it?” Ciel asked.
Willow shook her head. “Thankfully, no, but she wouldn’t let me stitch it.”
“Why the fuck not?” I asked, straightening.
“She wants Obi to do it.”
Obi’s head snapped up. “Me?”
“Yes.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket. “I can have the best plastic surgeon in the city here within an hour. They will keep the scar as small as possible. Surely, there’s?—”
“She was adamant that it had to be you.” Willow crossed her arms over her chest. “She needs someone she can trust. Not a stranger. ”
He stared at his hands, like there was something covering them that only he could see. “If that is what she wishes.”
“The wound is clean,” she continued, drawing her hair over her shoulder. “It’s ready for suturing. I’ve also left topical anesthetic in the bathroom if she wants it. She told me she didn’t, but it’ll be painful.”
“Fucking hell,” Ryu groaned. He poured himself another few fingers of alcohol. “She’s so fucking strong.”
He was right. I was so proud of her. For fighting. For surviving. Thank God we’d already buried those fuckers in the sea, but that was not the last of this.
The four of us exchanged a somber look. Our faces reflected a whirlwind of emotions. Anger. Rage. Resolution.
The Vokshi Clan would face the Shadows and die in the darkness.
So would Max—for bringing this on her. He was the who got mired in the Camorra’s shit.
We’d known they were bad news since we were kids.
Like walking a knife-edge, working with the Camorra was necessary business that came with significant risk.
There was a reason the American mafia considered themselves a separate organization.
And now Max’s fucking choices had caused Leona to get harmed.
I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands.
I should have. But he’d helped her, and that made me so fucking confused. What the hell was he playing at?
Ciel gripped Ryu’s shoulder. “Can we—Can we see her? After she gets stitches?”
“If that’s what she wants,” Willow responded. “She needs to eat and drink. She’s exhausted. I suggest that you have food ready, and then let her decide where she wants to rest. I think she’ll sleep better knowing you’re close.”
I glanced at the massive bed Ryu pulled into the living room. He did the same while his hand tightened around his glass. We were obviously both hoping she’d choose the massive bed.
“Thank you, Willow,” Ciel said. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, just like I’m sure they did for all of us. Outside of a few hours here or there, we’d all been up for three straight days. It was time to rest. “For everything.”
“Thank you,” I echoed. Willow had saved us again. When I’d first woken up in her care a few months ago, I wasn’t sure if we could trust her. But now? We all owed her our lives because of what she had done for Wynn, me, and Leona.
“Of course,” she said as she slipped from her stool. Her long hair swished down her back. “Call me if you need me. I’m going to check on Wynn.”
She left the room while the rest of us sat in the dim light of the kitchen in silence.
For the first time in a very long time, I had no idea what to do next. I didn’t know how to help Leona if she didn’t want to see me.
But one thing was still certain. She had always been my greatest priority. Nothing about that had changed, except that she was the priority of four other men, too.
And now I was glad of that fact rather than scared of it.
“We’re going to be all right,” Ciel reassured. “Everyone is home now.”
“We won’t be all right until those fuckers are drained of blood and dead at our feet,” Ryu snapped. His face twisted. “We should have gotten there sooner so we could have made that piece of shit suffer a thousand times more. This never should have happened in the first place. If Wynn hadn’t?—”
He choked back the rest of the sentence, and we all stared at the kitchen island, the accusation tainting the air between us.
He downed the rest of his drink, like he needed more courage to say what was on the tip of his tongue. “If Wynn had kept her in the penthouse, this wouldn’t have happened.”
It would be easy to blame him. At first, I wanted to. They never should have left. But that was a slippery slope I wasn’t willing to go down .
Obi rubbed his forehead. “We cannot change what has happened. We can only get stronger moving forward so that this never happens again.”
“I’ll make sure it never happens again when they’re all lying dead at my feet,” he growled.
Without another word, he grabbed a pair of keys hanging on the wall next to the refrigerator and stormed to the weapons closet.
I followed without thinking, barely registering that he’d grabbed his knives and two handguns before he yanked open the front door.
I grabbed his arm in the hallway right outside the elevator. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to fucking murder some people,” he hissed. He tucked one gun in the waistband of his tactical pants, and the other in the holster on his ankle. “Get off me.”
I gripped him even harder. “If you think that’s what she wants, you’re dead fucking wrong. Get back in that apartment right now.”
He glared, lifting a knife and pointing its edge right at my face. “How the fuck can you say you want to protect her when you aren’t strapping up beside me, ready to hunt those fuckers to the ends of the earth?”
That’s exactly what I wanted to do. “Because right now she needs us. She smiled at you, Ryuji. A fucking smile . Don’t you understand what that meant? What you do for her?”
His jaw worked, and he lowered his knife.
“I’m burning up from the inside out with rage, but use your goddamn eyes. She needs you. She’s barely holding on as it is. What if she comes out of that room, and you’re not there?”
“I can’t—” He sank to the ground, exhaling heavily. His elbows rested on his knees as he crouched against the wall and closed his eyes.
“Yes, you can.” I stood over him. “If all of us fall apart, what’s she supposed to do?” I grabbed his shoulders and yanked him to his feet. “I’m holding it together for her . She’s so fucking strong, and she deserves that from us.”
He stared at the ground.
My grip on his shoulders loosened. “When she’s ready, we’ll hunt down every single one of those fuckers. We’ll carve her name onto their skin. The Vokshi Clan doesn’t know it yet, but they’ve signed their own death warrants.”
He opened his mouth, a snarl on his tongue, before he swallowed it down. He shook his head like he could shake off the storm cloud that hung over his shoulders. “I can’t lose her again.”
“We won’t.” I led him back inside. “We need sleep. We’ll focus on murder tomorrow.”
Obi and Ciel looked up when we both walked into the kitchen.
“We need to agree on some things,” I said. “First, we don’t let her see our shit. Those were the worst fucking days of my life, but they were even worse for her.” Heads nodded around the island. “Second, we do what Willow said: we wait until she’s ready to talk about it.”
I needed to know the truth, but I also knew Leona.
If we pushed her to tell us, she’d retreat even further away.
The same thing had happened after Max’s father died.
We gave him just enough space, while also letting him know we were there if he wanted to talk.
He never did, but he eventually came around and started acting like himself again.
Leona was already distant. It would just get worse if she thought we were pressuring her.
“Okay,” Ciel agreed. Obi and Ryuji followed.
I ran a hand through my hair. The worst of it was over now.
One breath at a time .