Chapter 48 Kane
KANE
Delilah’s head resembles one of the dolls she ruined when she was a child. All the strands are cut at different lengths, some close to her scalp, others falling around her ears as she sits opposite me on the jet. Lennox checks on the masked pilot.
He exits the cabin with his phone in his hand, waiting until the door is closed to ask, “Would you like to clean yourself, little doe?”
Delilah stops staring at the covered window to smile at him. “Not with your recycled pee water, Lenny.”
Why the fuck is she smiling at him?
They’re too comfortable with each other as he takes the seat next to her. Without addressing the nickname, he teases, “Now you have an unfortunate haircut to match your unfortunate name.”
She laughs as she nudges him with her shoulder.
Her laugh is still lingering as I reach over the table and drag her over the fucking thing. Once she’s sitting on my thigh, I look at Lennox with genuine hate. “Don’t talk shit about what she’s been through.”
She attempts to climb into the empty seat next to me, but I drop her bag in it as I tightly wrap my arm around her waist.
The rest of the flight is spent with me glaring at Lennox while she stares at the wall. He doesn’t look at her or try to speak to her again. But I still hate him for making her smile and laugh when she’s mine. Some of the loathing is chased away when she lays her head on my shoulder.
When she’s asleep, Lennox softly says, “Your jealousy is misplaced.”
“When did you two get so close?” I hiss.
“I stayed with her while she was sick, as you already know.”
“Did you…”
He shakes his head as he pulls his gloves tighter against his hands. “That will never happen.”
I’ve never seen him touch anyone without his gloves on. Even on the rare occasions he’s hugged me, he’s always been careful to never have skin-to-skin contact. Yet I can’t stop myself being pissed about their closeness when I can’t remember the last time my wife was playful or laughed with me.
Fuck, I can’t remember the last time I laughed. At anything.
I press my lips to her forehead as I hug her, my eyes closing at finally having her. She’s not trapped with that wicked cunt. As soon as I’ve avenged what was taken from us both, we can leave. For now, we’ll wade through our grief together.
Lennox didn’t drive us to the other cabin full of hell when we landed. I’m sure he’s doing this as a fuck you for glaring at him. The large windows frame the patch of disturbed snow perfectly so I can’t avoid it while I wait for Delilah to wake up.
My arms tighten around her as my eyes burn.
Kid, this is Delilah. You remember the one from the pictures? She would have loved you and you should be here to meet her.
But she flinches before I can finish my conversation with my beautiful boy. Lifting her hand to my cheek she croaks, “Kane? Why are you crying?”
“I’m not. I forgot to blink. I’ve missed you, koukla mou.”
“Can we get steak now?” she asks with so much hope.
“I can make it for you.” I kiss her cheeks, chin, and forehead before standing with her in my arms, turning my back on my butterfly. He’s still with me though. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget him. I know I won’t when a new future he’s not in is revealed every single fucking day.
My strong wife looks around the cabin, inadvertently showing me every angle of her haircut.
There’s only going to be one way to fix it, so I carry her into the bathroom.
The leather case Lennox left is on the vanity as I set her on her feet.
Without thought, I unzip it and take out the clippers.
Buzzing vibrates off the tiles as I lean over the sink, ready to buzz my head.
“Are we going to have matching haircuts?” she asks lightly.
I look up at my hair. I’ve kept the exact same length and style since…
“No,” I grit. Straightening up, I carefully cup her jaw before slowly running the clippers close to her scalp. “We’ll end up getting stuck together like Velcro.”
Her laugh isn’t as bright as when she laughed with that fucker Lenny. It’s a stupid fucking name. So is little doe. She’s not a fucking deer.
Delilah doesn’t cry as I move the steel edge of the clippers around her scalp, careful not to nick her sensitive skin. The matted parts of her hair clump together around her feet with the finer strands littered around them. She’s still beautiful.
“You have a really round head,” I whisper.
“Thanks,” she scoffs.
Her eyes are like huge blue marbles staring at me as I step back once it’s done. “Do you know what koukla mou means?”
She shakes her bald head.
“My doll.” I hold her hip, pulling her into me. “You look like one now. Do you remember when you were pissed at Scarlet for refusing to play with us, so you hacked the hair off her doll?”
“Shut up.” She playfully swats my chest. “It looked even creepier by the time I’d finished.”
That should have been the first sign Delilah was insane. She pushed the doll’s body through the spokes in my bike tires so it would get mangled. However, like I was then, I’m enamored with everything she does.
“Well, my skills are a little better than yours because I didn’t use a steak knife, but you look like a doll. Kiss me, pretty girl.”
The apples of her cheeks turn a soft pink as she wraps her arms around my waist. “I don’t look like a creature out of one of the horror movies?”
“Never,” I promise. “You’re my beautiful little egghead.”
She looks like she’s glitching as she stares up at me, then a deep belly laugh vibrates through her chest into mine. Fuck Lenny. I got a louder laugh. She pushes her full weight into me, mumbling, “Fuck off, that’s not funny.”
Her scalp is still pink, so I stop myself from kissing her crown as I tease, “It suits you.”
“Kane,” she whines even though she has a smile on her face.
“Your husband is still waiting for his wife’s lips.” I watch her blush deepen and I swear her smile gets wider.
It disappears entirely when she stops hiding, leaning up on her toes to softly press her lips to mine. “Happy?”
“With a peck?” I scoff. “Kiss me properly, woman.”
The strain on her legs won’t be good for her after what she endured, so I lift her onto the vanity and step between her thighs. With one arm on my side, the other on my nape, she pulls me down to meet her lips with the softest fucking smile on her pretty face.
There has to be a word deeper than love to quantify Delilah’s position in my life.
I don’t just love her. People love all kinds of shit, so it waters down the word.
This is more than enjoyment, peace, or comfort.
It’s life. My feelings for her are as unexplainable as a soul.
There’s a common belief everyone shares about this elusive soul, but no one really knows what it is, where it is, or how it exists.
She’s so fucking embedded into me, she’s written her name between the strands of my DNA, but I will never be able to explain it.
All I have to offer is my worthless life as I carefully undress her so none of the hair sticks to her skin, revealing different marks on her body at multiple stages of healing.
“Get in the shower, pretty egghead,” I say to hear her laugh again as I pull back, setting my knife beside the sink. “This is here for you, but no one will come in while I’m out.”
Her eyes are filled with fear as she curls her fingers into my shirt. “Where are we? Home?”
“Not yet. I have one more thing to do then we can go wherever we want. I’ll take you to Paris for real this time, yeah?”
My throat constricts as she whispers, “Promise?”
I know what promises are. They leave like you.
“I give you my word,” I amend before I kiss her forehead.
She’s still hesitant as I walk out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me.
I don’t want her to run away, so I jam a chair under the door handle before I walk out of the house.
The sun has already set but it doesn’t hide the rectangular divot in the snow.
If I stop beside it, I’ll never leave, so I walk through the trees to reach the other cabin.
There’s no lights to guide me, but the moon is enough as the cubed silhouette comes into view.
I have no idea where Rowan will be as I enter the building. My first guess is the security room, so I go there. Lennox’s gloved hands are on the desk as he clicks between the surveillance cameras. I make sure no one is behind me before I ask, “Why is my wife calling you Lenny?”
“It’s an awful name. Do get her to stop.”
“Do you care about her?” I take the seat next to him, facing the screen as I assess him for any reaction.
He plainly says, “She’s my niece.”
“And you’re from a family who fucks each other.”
He’s been open since the first trip I took away from this place. All of that changes now as he reverts back to his riddles. “If you grew up in a world where you never saw the sun, would you be afraid of the dark?”
“No, but I’d be afraid of the light.”
He nods, clenching his jaw as Rowan enters the captives’ room. The masks are back in place, but I focus on Lennox.
“You don’t like the dark, do you?” I deduce.
“We all do what we need in order to survive.” His voice is back to the softer one he’s always used with me. “I have no desire for your wife, however, if my comfortability with her makes you uneasy, I’ll make sure I don’t do it again.”
He seems lonely as fuck and Delilah will be better with more people supporting her, but I’m not able to make a decision as he says, “Delilah’s upbringing is closer to what I witnessed. There’s an ease in knowing you don’t have to explain yourself.”
Fucking guilt-tripping bastard.
He taps his middle finger on the spacebar of the keyboard, allowing Rowan’s voice through the speakers. “Who is your client?”
It’s the same question, as always. The captives are shackled to the wall without each other for support. The woman is the target this time as a guard steps forward with a cattle prod crackling in his hand. Her screams echo around the room but he doesn’t stop pushing it against her skin.
The man screams, “Vartanov! He asked me to find you!”
“His weaknesses?” Rowan raises his hand, calling his attack dog back to him, only to focus on the man. The captives remain silent. “Is he still attached to his children?”
The woman is stronger than she looks as she says, “No. He doesn’t care about anyone. He doesn’t even talk to them.”
Lennox stares at the side of my head like this should mean something to me. I don’t think I’ve heard the name before.
“You live with him,” Rowan says calmly. “Therefore you should know what his weakness is.”
“He doesn’t have one!” she screams. “He’s a psychotic fucking prick who’ll tear you apart, limb from fucking limb with a smile on his face!”
His questions are repetitive, but he has a tell despite the mask. He opens and closes his fist on certain questions. If prison taught me anything, it was that everyone is afraid of something. And I’ve just found Rowan’s.
“He’s afraid.” I smile at Lennox. “Isn’t he?”
“Well done, little shadow. Who of?”
“This Vartanov person?”
He shakes his head, muting the speakers as Rowan signals for the guards to begin doling out the punishments.
“There was once a girl Rowan believed he could mold into what he wanted.” Lennox angles the screens so I can’t see them.
“Another one of his curiosities. She was the first to harm him, so he brought her here. He took her under his wing, taught her everything Helene had taught him. She had a voracious appetite for destruction.” He sighs.
“Between her need to start fires and her quest for as much death as possible, she wasn’t compatible with the business interests of our family. ”
“Who did she kill?”
“Anyone she could. Masks and subjects alike.”
He looks like he wants to say more, but he pushes against my shoulder so I’m staring at the screens.
Rowan has left the room. Just as I’m about to ask him where his need to leave out major details comes from, the door opens.
Rowan walks in, smiling. “Nephew, would you care to explain why you arrived with a visitor?”
“She needs to learn her fucking place.” —is by my side. “That isn’t possible when she reverts back to the shitty habits her parents allowed.” —like thinking she has to fight everyone alone.
Lennox tenses as his brother removes the mask. Are they going to start touching each other in front of me?
“Are you aware of her crime?” Rowan asks as he walks over to me. He curls his fingers over my shoulder, causing my organs to recoil.
“What did she do?” I ask.
His fingers dig in as he answers, “She stabbed our mother.”
I’m going to throw up.
It’s the first time anyone has mentioned the bullshit Helene tried to convince me of. But I’m not some inbred freak with a tail and three feet.
Pride warms me at the thought of my brave wife stabbing that bitch. It’s why the decrepit cunt was moving slower than usual. But I don’t let it show as I grit, “I’ll pause the training,” to reward my wife for her efforts, “to make sure she understands the gravity of what she did.”
He assesses me before nodding once as he releases my shoulder from his grip. I need to get away from him. Far a-fucking-way. The clack of the keyboard stops me as Lennox quickly switches between screens to show the other cabin is rigged too.
“Uncle?” The word tastes like decay as I pause by the door.
“Yes, dear nephew?” Rowan says.
“This is for my entertainment. Once she’s served her purpose, you can have yours.”
The motherfucker smiles as he pulls the chair back, taking the seat I was in.
“Of course, I’ll close the bids until you’re ready.
” He doesn’t acknowledge Lennox as he brings up the screens full of his clients.
There, in bright green letters, is my inmate number above a description of my wife.
He’s been profiting off our torment for years, interchanging us while we suffer.
I bite my tongue, forcing my body to move now that I know his fear. He’s not untouchable.
First, I want to dance with my wife because I have a suspicion that whoever I am once this is all over won’t be someone who can appreciate normal shit.