Chapter 25.
‘Christian’
Philip’s yacht sails for the next six hours, travelling down the inlet before finally meeting the sea and docking at an island along Puget Sound.
Those hours are endless. It’s as though the atmosphere in the car has teeth—so razor-thin and jagged that even the slightest movement would tear through flesh.
As the hours go by, we make it look like we lost them, or that we’re still searching, just in case Philip’s backer still has eyes on us. So even after Philip’s boat comes to a stop, we make a show of following the inlet further—of having lost the trail.
It’s Aster’s team who remains on standby, and who heads out to take them down, the moment Reuben gives them the location.
The island is located in the territory of the Lester Family, a new family that has been growing slowly over the last six years. It turns out, they’re also one of the families who have been arguing for more territory with the Taigas… so this year’s negotiations are sure to be fun.
Baal and Reuben are quiet most of the time when they’re not giving orders, but whenever they speak to each other they’re always bantering in Spanish. I’ve never seen many interactions between Reuben and his siblings, but something about it makes the atmosphere just a bit more bearable.
“How are you holding up?” Baal asks him.
“I’m fine.” Reuben’s voice is clipped.
“If I’m being honest, it’s not that strange that he broke up with you.”
“He didn’t break up with me.” I can feel Reuben’s glare from here.
“He’s had a rough day,” Baal ignores him with a reassuring grin. “Let him breathe for a little while and I’m sure you guys will be back together in no time.”
“I’ll shoot you, Baal. If you don’t shut up, I’ll shoot you.”
I have to tune myself out and pretend I don’t hear it.
I’m definitely regretting learning Spanish. Ignorance was blissful.
We’re on our way back to the estate when Aster’s team closes in on the island.
The wait for an update strikes the tension up even further as the hour passes, but even when we arrive at the mansion, there isn’t a single soul among us who can stomach the stillness.
We need motion.
We need distraction.
Instead, the five of us end up loitering in the city for another hour, where Baal treats us all to tacos and burgers at a popular place nearby.
I can’t find it in me to eat anything, but when Gabriel slides a wrapped burger towards me, I accept anyway—as compliant as a wallflower, with all my emotions spent.
By now, my body too, aches with every movement.
Reuben is the first to place a med kit beside me to treat them. I open my mouth to protest but he gives me a warning glare, and I have no choice but to snap my mouth shut. I’m not sure what I expected, but him pouring vodka over the open cuts on my arms should’ve been predictable.
I’m cursing like a pirate, when he mumbles, “Don’t be a baby.”
Why don’t you try getting hit by a fucking truck and see how it feels?
“You’re better off bathing me in it at this point,” I grind between my teeth, slitting my eyes into a scathing glare. But he just holds my gaze with a bland expression as he pours more alcohol over me.
Bastard.
There’s a gleam of amusement in his eyes as he wraps up my arms, and I’m hoping that’s the end of it until I realize he isn’t leaving. He’s watching me expectantly.
“What?”
“Shirt.”
“Definitely not.”
He gives me a hard stare, nose flaring. “You were hit by a truck.”
“Then I don’t think alcohol’s really going to help me—”
He yanks my shirt up before I can stop him and the movement makes me hiss. He freezes when he sees my bruises, and I can’t help but wince when a terrifyingly calm smile touches his lips, “On second thought, I think I will bathe you in it.”
“No, you will not,” I snap.
“How are you even walking?”
I pretend not to hear him with a sigh, “Ignore the bruises.” I tug my shirt down, biting down on my lip, “I think… the bullet might still be in my leg.” Reuben doesn’t move and for a moment, I’m not sure if he heard me.
“The what?” His voice is frighteningly quiet as I raise the pants of my leg.
“On the dock,” I mumble softly. “They shot me. I haven’t had time to treat it.”
“You went six hours,” I can feel the anger in his gaze without meeting it, “with a bullet in your leg… and you told no one.”
“… I think it hit a nerve?” Or two? “It’s been numb the whole time so I can’t really tell.”
“You just promised me nothing reckless.”
“This doesn’t count,” I scowl, “I didn’t have time—”
“I’m going to kill you.”
My mouth snaps shut. “That—that goes against you bandaging me up.”
“I will continue to bandage you up,” he promises darkly, “and then I will kill you.”
“I can get it out,” Gabriel steps up and our attention snaps towards him, but our last words are still in the air between us. It winds the tension just a bit too tightly again.
I turn my head away, mumbling, “I don’t trust you poking around in my leg for a bullet.”
“Well, either we do it now, or the doc will have to tear your skin open again to get to it.”
I… I don’t think I like the sound of that. I’m tired of pain.
Gabriel is quiet as he works to get the bullet out and Reuben gives me a knowing look, before leaving us to ourselves, trailing back to Baal’s side.
He breaks the silence, only when the bullet is removed, bandaging my leg with a grim expression, “What I said to you… I didn’t mean it that way.”
There are so only so many ways you could’ve meant it, asshole.
“I just meant… you’re strong. On the Millenium Star.
With Olsen. Even back there in the port, you handed us our asses.
If you didn’t want to be here, you would’ve died a long time ago.
So as much as it hurts you…” his gaze meets mine squarely, “I don’t think you actually want to join your dead, traitor-killer. ”
I blink because it’s not what I expected. Because I can see the sincerity in his eyes.
“I’m already dead, Gabriel.” The words escape from a strange part of me. “In reality, I’ve been clinging to a corpse, trying to give it a purpose. Xavier was right.” I look away, voice softening a bit more than I intended, “Reuben… distracted me.”
“For a corpse, you have a lot of feelings.”
My mouth snaps shut and Gabriel raises a brow, “You had a soft spot for Evelyn. You had a soft spot for Lucia. You bonded with Kai. You saved Xavier. And Reuben… brings you back to life.”
Stop it.
“You’re not a dead man.”
That’s because… you don’t understand.
“It’s Aster,” Aster’s voice sounds through the speaker suddenly—cutting our conversation short—and the tension returns so sharply, everyone holds their breaths.
“We’ve shut down the Harvester. I’m sending a boat to Jacques Harbour to bring you here. Be there in fifteen.”
Baal’s shoulders slump with relief as he replies, “Got it. I’m sending Reuben.” He turns back to Reuben with a grim expression, “I’ll head back to the house and alert Father.”
“Okay,” Reuben replies.
The air that was so much easier to breathe a few moments ago, has become stifling. Suffocating.
I use the time to prepare every inch of my being on our way to the island. Every scenario—every possibility—of the state I might find Evelyn.
The girl I saved only to lead to her death.
I’m in a daze on the drive to the harbour and on the boat to the island, until Aster meets us at the dock under the evening sun.
He leads us further inland, over freshly cut grass and past scattered trees, and onto the premises of a well-kept cottage, hiding in plain sight, between two small warehouses.
The premises are buzzing with Aster’s people—more than twenty men with grim expressions.
Amongst them, a dozen people, all wrapped in warm sheets and trembling slightly. Women, men, children.
Disgust and hatred surge through my core, like a hot ball of fire. It tightens my fingers into fists at my sides and grinds my teeth together, until rage is permeating through every inch of my being.
But what catches my eye is one trembling young woman.
A small girl with dark skin and golden eyes.
Philip Warren had already captured his third victim.
If he’d gotten away, we would’ve never found a trace of him ever again.
“It wasn’t just the Harvester,” Aster says grimly.
“It was a full trafficking operation. We found these people chained together in the warehouses like cattle. There were some who…” He trails off, unsure, “didn’t make it through.
Who likely resisted. They were killed, but they weren’t buried…
they were left there, beside the living. ”
The disgust inside me is reeling so much, it pulls my lips into a scowl. The survivors were left amongst their dead, surrounded by the smell of rotting flesh with the shared understanding that no one would come for them.
“The property is in Lester’s name?” Reuben asks grimly and Aster nods. Tobias, Gabriel and Xavier are all quiet, wearing solemn expressions as we follow him deeper into the property.
“We rounded up everyone who was on the premises,” Aster’s expression is cold, “and shot everyone instead of Philip Warren and six others. They all cried the same name. Lester is their benefactor who’s been funding them for the past three years.”
“We’ll be torching the entire thing,” Aster softens his gaze to meet his brother’s eyes, “so feel free to ask them questions.”
“What will we be doing about the Lester family?” There is a bite to Reuben’s voice, and Aster’s expression darkens.
“That is the Don’s decision.”
I long to ask about Evelyn, but the words stick in my throat. They choke me up, even though I’d prepared so painstakingly for the worst case.
“And Evelyn?” Reuben asks the question softly—for me—and I’m flooded with both gratitude and tension. I'm holding my breath as I wait for Aster’s answer and my heart picks up a fast pace between my ribs, even after so many hours of visualizing the worst.
Aster’s feet come to a stop in front of a stretcher, some ways away from the cottage, covered by thick white tarp, and my heart sinks.