Chapter 25
It has to be you
Endo
Scarlett’s kiss lingered on my lips after I rinsed my mouth.
She tasted of strawberry cheesecake, and after I rinsed my mouth, her taste reminded me of strawberry toothpaste. I tried to get rid of it by brushing my teeth with peppermint toothpaste. When that didn’t work, I rinsed my mouth with spearmint mouthwash again.
Since the various mints proved ineffective, I washed her taste down with whiskey. Repeatedly. Every night since I first kissed her. Without a doubt, that woman has driven me to drink. At this pace, I’ll destroy my pancreas in thirty days and still won’t get the taste of her out of my mouth.
It’s been over an hour since we left the clinic, and we’re driving by the marina while Philip packs for the temporary move to the Keep. The window is down, my elbow resting on the ledge as I watch the boats, scanning them for suspicious activity.
“You think Philip wants to stay at the Keep?” Connor asks his brother from the front passenger seat.
Scarlett asked Dec, who asked me if I could release his brother from the dungeons yesterday.
I obliged. The time in the dungeons taught him a valuable lesson: I mean business, and I’m not in the mood for family theatrics.
“I don’t, no.”
Connor turns in his seat, eyebrows raised. “Philip is sensitive.”
“Philip will follow Marquis and do what is necessary.” Marquis agreed that he’ll recover faster and better at the Keep, so the couple is moving in.
Connor makes a sour face. “Dec thinks you’re still mad about what I said to the doc. Are you?”
“I forgave you. Give me a few years to forget.”
He mutters something under his breath. I don’t make him say it out loud because I’m better off not knowing. “Just stay on our side of the Keep. That’s all,” I say.
“Will do.” A moment later, he turns in his seat again. “Is the Keep divided into our side versus hers?”
“Bro, shut the fuck up about her already,” his twin says.
I nod. “Good idea.”
Connor lifts two middle fingers. One for each of us. It makes me laugh.
The conversation reminds me that Scarlett’s a tool in my arsenal, nothing less, nothing more. Cass’s life depends on how well I use the tool I stole from a man who can get me my brother. I need to keep my eye on the prize and not get distracted by the collateral I intend to use.
My phone rings. I recognize the clinic’s number and pick up.
“Hey,” Scarlett says.
“Speak of Lilith and she calls,” I say. When Scarlett doesn’t reply, I continue, “I thought that was a pretty good joke.”
“Average at best.”
I smile. “I missed your candor, luv. What’s up?”
“Can you give me a ride?”
In the rearview mirror, I catch Dec’s gaze and twirl my finger, signaling we should turn around. “I’ll be at the clinic in ten.” I hang up.
Right on time, we park out front, where Scarlett stands with the puppy in a soft-sided carrier.
She asked me to take the dog, but the dog was out for a potty break when I was leaving, so she kept it.
She’s been taking it to work since word of the clinic reopening spread through town and to the outskirts.
The dog helped lift Marquis’s spirits, but we haven’t told him it’s his pet yet. I don’t want him to take care of the dog. I want him to take care of himself. My brother’s rescue mission looms on the horizon, and I need my best man working the logistics.
Marquis rescued Philip and himself from a situation I’m unsure anyone could survive. He’s the finest soldier I’ve ever met. Strategically, I’m weakened. Cass is out, and now Marquis. If my enemies wanted to strike, now would be a good time.
This is why I need Marquis and Philip in the Keep with me. I can’t take a chance that they’ll get attacked even in the town that I protect.
Scarlett removed her lab coat. Today, she wears a caramel blouse and a dark brown pencil skirt paired with white tennis shoes.
The dog’s crate in front of her looks like a single piece of luggage.
As we pull up, she reminds me of an abandoned woman, not one waiting on someone to pick her up or save her.
Or maybe that’s how I think of her. Abandoned.
Her father abandoned her.
Her sister stopped calling after she left a message scolding Scarlett for her disappearing act.
I understand where the sister is coming from.
If I thought Cass had left without telling me he was okay and I expended all this effort looking for him, I’d get upset too.
But the father? That’s cold. Perhaps even sociopathic.
How can one not worry about the well-being of their child who was taken by force?
When I snatched her, I was sure he’d put more effort into getting her back, but days later, I still haven’t heard from him. Would Wilfred care more than her father? I doubt it.
Or is the father lying low until he makes a move?
Declan stops the car, and I stretch to open the door for her. Scarlett sits in the back with me, the soft dog crate between us. She turns her head toward her window. I don’t expect her to chat.
Five minutes later, I see that she’s wiping her cheeks. Is she crying?
I lean over to try to get a better look, but she turns her body toward the window. She is crying. Do I want to know why? It’s probably because of something I did. Actually, it’s because of everything I did, so I’d better not ask.
But what if someone else did something to her? Maybe I could help whoever wronged her see the error of his ways as I did with Connor. He is rehabilitated and treating her nicely. Just sitting in his seat not talking shit or even looking at her wrong.
If a woman wronged her, I could send Slada. She’ll fix it all right.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” I ask. I’m not big on small talk. Say what you mean and mean what you say, or sit in silence.
Scarlett sits back and expels a breath as if releasing tension. Whatever’s on her mind is as heavy as my worries over my brother, over what I’ll do with her if her father doesn’t comply.
I gambled on a sure thing. I took his fucking daughter, but clearly, he’s not responding the way a father should. Does he not love her? I know he’s using her and her sister for power moves and personal gain, but that’s nothing compared to what he’s doing now with me. He’s risking her life.
He thinks I won’t go through with what I told him I’d do. I need to send a message. A firmer one. Hearing about our wedding should get him moving faster. “Did you hear what I asked?”
Scarlett clears her throat. “No, sorry. I thought you were talking to your nephews.”
“I asked if there was something you wanted to tell me.”
“Thank you,” she says.
“Thank you?” I frown. “Thank you for what?”
“For the flowers.”
She’s throwing me off my game. I swear to God, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with this woman. Why can’t I pin her down? She’s driving me crazy.
“You’re welcome. Aren’t you upset with me?”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
“Yes, I’m upset with you, but I don’t want to argue with you today.”
I sit up again. “Why not? That’s what we do.”
A smile plays on her lips. “I signed the contract for the wedding reception. You’re going to be upset when you see the cost, which makes me happy.
My quota for the day is fulfilled. I can sit in the car and cry about how bad I feel for having to do this and lie to everyone, and I’m going to miss the dog and all these people you’ve made me work with. ” She licks her lips.
“There’s a hundred-thousand-dollar deposit that I’ve made nonrefundable.
So you’ll owe Fiada that money for the time she put into creating a reception you’ll end up canceling.
And you will be the one to cancel, not me, because I won’t be here to disappoint her.
Fiada is really nice, and everyone is excited about the wedding.
” Her chin quivers. “They want to make this awful thing between us work. People are invested.”
“Or I can marry you.”
Scarlett fists her hands in her lap. That a girl. Get mad at me.
“You are joking. Say it’s a joke.”
My jaw is locked tight. She must process the possibility that I’ll follow through on what I said I’d do. Engagement to marriage.
When I don’t deny what I think might be her worst fear, she continues. “That wasn’t part of the deal. The deal was that I would stay with you until your brother is located.”
“I’m still waiting on that.”
“Wait longer.”
“My brother can’t wait,” I bite out. “My brother could be dying for all I know, and every day, every hour, every minute I spend waiting could mean life and death for him. I need your father to act fast, and he’s dragging his feet.
The news of the marriage will make him work faster. What’s the date?”
Her eyes narrow. “You came into the clinic with a plan. You engineered all of it, didn’t you?”
I neither confirm nor deny.
“You’ve lost your mind,” she adds.
“The date, Scarlett.”
“I won’t marry you.”
“I can call and ask. Same difference.”
“August…something. I can’t remember.”
At the front, Connor snickers.
“Something funny?” I ask.
If Cass were here, Scarlett would’ve mourned her father by now, none the wiser that he died because he crossed the wrong people.
But that’s an alternate universe, and I operate in this one.
I operate in a world where my brother is gone, where I sit in the back of my car, arranging my own marriage.
With a woman who won’t marry me. Better yet, neither of us wants to be tied down, but one of us (me) must be the force (not voice) of reason.
“I shouldn’t have to marry you,” I say. Your father should’ve delivered by now.
“Then don’t.”
“I won’t unless I must.”
“Endo, please.” She scoots closer to the dog carrier, a barrier between us. “You cannot mean to really marry me. I’ve got an overseas assignment this summer. I won’t even be here.”
“Unless you stay.”
Scarlett reels back as if I struck her.
It’s not often that I hate myself for what I do, but I do hate myself now. And I can’t stand the fear on her face.
“I don’t have a choice,” I tell her. “I can’t live my life not knowing what happened with my brother.
I can’t move on while Cass might be out there somewhere suffering.
If they’re torturing him, he is enduring it because he knows I will come for him.
I must come for him. I always come for the people who are mine.
This is why they’re still mine. There are people in this town who have sworn allegiance to my family since before the region was proclaimed an autonomous territory. I will rescue him or die trying.”
Scarlett’s eyes fill with tears. They spill over and roll down her cheeks.
I wipe them with my thumbs, then cup her sweet face and growl as I press my lips against her forehead. “I’ll call your dad again tomorrow. If I get nothing, we will formally announce our wedding. I’m sorry it has to be you. I really am.”
With that, the car parks at the Keep, and I exit.