Chapter 30
RAIDEN
“You must come home with us for a nightcap,” Grandma says as the limo drives through the rain-soaked streets.
I’m relieved when Aurora says that she will. I’m also relieved that Aurora has taken it upon herself to comfort Grandma, holding her hands and letting Grandma lean against her. She looks deflated.
I seethe, trying not to explode. Sebastian, the lunatic, the scheming prick, first forcing Julian to turn against me, then planning not just my death… I could handle that. Come for me. Fine. We’ll have a fight and see who comes out bloodier.
But Grandma too? That’s just deranged.
The driver guides us toward the large entrance of the home I recognize so well. Though, as we ascend the steps, I feel like a stranger. Grandma gazes around with shocked eyes at the mess left behind, paintings taken from the walls, rugs covered in boot prints, furniture moved.
“At least they were thorough,” Aurora says, offering a tight smile.
I match her smile, grateful for the effort she’s making.
“Take Grandma to the living room,” I say. “I’ll get us a drink.”
“Thank you, Raiden,” Grandma mutters in a frail voice.
Aurora leads her through the house. I warn myself to calm down as I head into the kitchen. There might be a long road ahead of us. Sebastian could be anywhere. He’s held all the cards this entire time. I’ve been in the dark, with no room to plan, no idea I even needed a plan.
I carry a brandy and some hot cocoa into the living room. Grandma sits at the window, staring out, completely still as if she’s got no energy left inside her.
Aurora stands and walks over to me, lowering her voice. Even now, with my world threatening to collapse, I can’t help but admire her beauty. Her perfection.
“She just told me something we should probably look into,” she says softly.
“Yeah?”
“Apparently, there are tunnels in the house.”
“Grandma loves her Halloween games,” I say, nodding. “There are secret tunnels that connect some rooms. When we were kids, Julian and I used them quite often.”
“Well… Does he know about them?”
“Sebastian never knew about the tunnels,” Grandma says.
“Are you sure?” I ask, carrying the tray over.
“Yes. I think so.”
“Did you tell the police about them?” I ask.
“Should I have?”
I try not to show my annoyance. I love her more than anything. She raised me and protected me after my parents died, but she also lied to me, hid an entire secret history from me.
“I’ll call the detective,” I say.
“Does anyone mind if I shut the door?” Aurora asks, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Go ahead,” I tell her. “I’ll get a fire going after I call Drake.”
“That sounds nice.”
I take out my cellphone as Aurora walks to the door. Before I can make the call, Aurora lets out a high-pitched gasp that cuts me to my core. I turn, somehow knowing what I’m going to see before the sick image comes into view.
Sebastian has a pistol in his hand, pressed against the side of Aurora’s head. I dart toward him, pick up the fire poker, and raise it above my head.
“Stop,” Sebastian bellows. “Or I kill the bitch.”
I freeze with the poker above my head. I’ve never seen anything more evil than this.
The twisted irony is that witnessing Aurora in the grasp of death is enough to make me realize I want a life with her.
I don’t know what our future holds, don’t know if we’re going to try the long-distance thing or how we’re going to make it work, but I know I want her. I know it can’t end like this.
“Drop your little stick,” Sebastian growls.
“Sebastian, please,” Grandma moans. “You don’t have to—”
“Shut up, bitch.” He cocks the hammer on the revolver. “Drop it, brother, or I’ll paint the walls with her brains.”
I drop the fire poker.
“Take a seat next to the bitch.”
Fury like I’ve never experienced before thunders through me, fury like I didn’t even know existed. I somehow take a seat, though every instinct is screaming at me to separate his head from his body.
“I always knew about the tunnels, you stupid old crone,” Sebastian says, licking his lips, a wild look in his eyes.
“I’ve known more than all of you this entire time.
I’ve known that you don’t deserve this, any of this.
You thought you were helping me, Evangeline, helping me by hiding who I was like I had something to be ashamed of, like I didn’t deserve to be seen, to be–be real… ”
He laughs hollowly.
“I’m realer than you all.”
“Sebastian, you don’t know Aurora,” I say, trying to keep my voice level.
Aurora is doing a passable job of hiding her terror. She isn’t trembling, and she no longer has her arms wrapped around herself, but she can’t hide it from me. Our masks are off now.
“Let me switch places with her,” I go on. “If you want to kill me, do it. Go ahead. I was supposed to die a long time ago anyw—”
“Don’t start whining about the Marines, you sappy little coward,” Sebastian hisses. “Nobody cares that you joined up and got special rich-boy treatment and abandoned your so-called brothers to bleed to death in the dirt while you skipped merrily on your way.”
That stings, though I try not to let it show.
As Sebastian talks, Aurora looks meaningfully at me. I learned to read her expression when I could only see her mouth and her eyes, the rest of her face hidden by the mask. Now, it’s even easier.
She’s getting ready to do something. I shake my head subtly. She can’t risk it.
She ignores me.
“We’re going to take a drive,” Sebastian goes on. “But first, Raiden, you’re going to get some zip-ties and truss yourself and the old bitch up. I don’t want any tricks.”
“A drive… where?” Grandma says, repressing a sob and making a choking noise.
“Somewhere no one can hear you scream,” he says fiercely. “Like nobody heard me scream. For years, suffering in silence. Years of trying and failing to be noticed, to be loved.”
“I loved you,” Grandma croaks.
“Don’t lie to me,” he growls. “There have been enough lies out of you.”
Aurora raises her eyebrows in my direction. Her chest is rising and falling quickly, adrenaline pumping through her, as though she’s getting herself ready for something courageous and foolish.
Again, I shake my head at her. Again, she ignores me.
“Get moving,” Sebastian spits.
If Aurora is going to do something–which is madness, but I’ve got no way to tell her to stop without clueing Sebastian in–I need to distract him.
I step forward, arms at my sides, offering my chest as a target.
“If you think I’m going to tie up my grandmother, our grandmother, brother, then you might as well put a bullet in my chest now.”
Sebastian grits his teeth. “I’ve already killed you once. Slipped a blade between your ribs. I thought he was you, and I was perfectly willing to do it. Do you think pulling a trigger will be more difficult?”
“I think your plan has been a joke from the start. If you killed me, Julian, and Grandma, do you think you’d get the inheritance? Don’t you think it would look suspicious? Think… if you’re capable of that.”
Aurora’s chest is rising and falling even faster. I don’t like the urgency in her eyes, a clear indication she’s going to do something reckless.
Wait, I try to tell her with my eyes. Wait until the gun is pointing at me.
“I will blow your brains out, you spoiled prick,” Sebastian says.
“You won’t,” I growl. “You haven’t got the guts for it. Stabbing a man in the dark, sneaking away like a coward that’s your game. But doing something that takes real guts? No, damn way.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Time slows as Sebastian moves the gun away from Aurora and aims it at me. His finger is on the trigger. If Aurora is going to do anything, she needs to act fast.
Suddenly, the gun is pointing at me.
I keep my expression neutral, but fight-or-flight grips me as panic streaks through me.
“Don’t think I’ll do it?” Sebastian says.
He fires a shot.