24. Chapter Twenty-Four
The ring had always been too ostentatious for my taste. I wore it because she had given it to me after Eoghan Green ruined our engagement party.
The carved iron with two crowns and a crystal blinked at me from my ring finger. It looked like something out of a gothic novel, which was appropriate, considering the woman who gave it to me. I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to keep wearing it.
No one would be taking her place in my bed, or in my life. I had no intention of taking another wife. But, then again, I wasn’t married, so the best thing to do was take it off, put it away, and have one less reminder of the woman who had upended my existence. I should take it off, and drop it on the table, in case she wanted to keep it. In case she wanted to give it to the next man… to Ryan.
I brought my right hand to my left, intending to slide it off… but I didn’t.
Maybe it was the magnetism that she always talked about. The way she would say that something “called” to her, or whatever witchy nonsense she would spout…
Something clutched at my chest, telling me that if I pulled it off my hand, if I wavered in my devotion, then something bad would happen. Something catastrophic.
So instead of removing the adornment from my hand, I steepled my fingers in front of me.
Divorce papers. Two words. So final.
I had them drafted up in New York while she was in the hospital. She would continue to be provided for, by me, without the obligation to live with me, or place herself in the constant danger of the life I had chosen. A life she still didn’t fully comprehend.
I signed my name across the bottom. I felt my heart cracking in my ears.
It sounded like a glacier crumbling into the arctic sea, only silenced by the sudden squeak of birds outside the window. Two black and white birds hopped along the outside balcony, their fat little bodies round and joyful.
“Shoo,” I said, angry at their singing. “Get out of here!”
I marched to the balcony, and slammed the double doors closed, blocking out the pesky vermin, my nostrils flaring in disgust at what I had to do. It went against every instinct I had. I was losing everything I didn’t know that I wanted.
I placed my forehead against the cool glass, closing my eyes.
She was home. She was safe. She’d be happy here.
But maybe just one more moment… just one more memory. Just one more…
I had said those words over and over again last night, when the prospect of never having her body filled me with an insatiable hunger that consumed me. One more kiss, one more embrace, one more moment buried in her heat.
One more, and one more, and one more.
But one more was never enough.
It would never be enough.
I placed a phone to my ear, dialing a number that was on speed dial.
“Yes?” Lea Bonifacio’s irritated voice came over the line, and I smiled.
She had hated me on sight, when I first started scoping her out in California. The fierce assassin had once been my mark. I gathered intel on her and her brother in the most obnoxious way possible. I hit on her, crashed her family dinners, and acted like a fool - I lived up to the completely douchey name of “Brett Bradley” while I freely walked around her house, and surveilled her from across the street.
“It’s done,” I said without preamble. “I’ll be heading out now.”
There was silence on the other end. Her silence was damning. The woman was rarely ever quiet when she had something to say. The fact that she was quiet now spoke louder than anything else.
“I can hear you judging me,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“What?” she said with faux innocence.
“Say what you want to say.” I rolled my eyes, my forehead still on the glass.
“I’m not a bodyguard,” she sighed. “I don’t protect. I’m a fucking killer. This isn’t a mission suited for me.”
“No, but you are good at stalking, staying in the shadows, and observing. So do that, and hopefully, you won’t have to kill anyone.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
I chuckled. “You’re sick.”
She audibly swallowed, and I wondered what more there would be from her.
“Just keep her safe.” I wanted to sound commanding and strict, but my voice was pleading instead.
Should I follow up my request with a threat? Tell her I’d kill her and her husband, and her twins, if my wife wasn’t safe?
No. There’d be no point.
With Lea, and Caledonia Security, I knew that if any harm came to Eve, it would be over her dead body. That’s why they were worth every penny.
“Thank you, Lea,” I finally said, knowing that this wasn’t her preferred assignment. The fact she took it at all was a testament to our long working relationship.
She didn’t respond right away. Instead, she weighed her words carefully.
“You cleared my name, and Callum’s,” she finally said. “I owe you for that.”
I had. She had killed a billionaire - he was a bad guy, sure, but he was a famous man with a lot of connections and his death sent shockwaves over the world. For her, it was self-defense, but that wasn’t likely to hold up in court. Not in the media, and not with a jury of her peers.
So I made it all go away. I covered it up, staged the bodies, and if anyone investigated her - the deaths were sanctioned by the highest levels of office, thanks to me and Corbin.
I didn’t do it because I liked her. I did it because she did a good thing.
“Consider this a thank you,” she finally said, clearing her throat, clearly as uncomfortable with emotions as I was.
We hung up after a feeble, mumbled goodbye.
The die was cast, the pieces were in place. I had no reason to stay here any longer. So why did my feet feel like they were knee-deep in mud.
I brought the phone to my ear again, calling another number. She was my conscience. The other light of my life. Once upon a time, three women were the stars I guided my ship on. Now, one of those celestial bodies would disappear from view.
“Tell me I’m doing the right thing,” I said, as soon as the phone clicked on.
I didn’t even give her a chance to speak before I laid my problems at her feet.
“You’re doing the right thing.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm, as she parroted the words back to me without conviction. “And what are we talking about?”
“About my wi– about Eve.”
Long silence.
Nothing but static.
“Have you talked to her about it?” she asked, her voice quiet.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because she feels like she owes me,” I said on a sigh. “Because she might be scared of being alone, even though there’s nothing she can’t handle.”
She had killed Brock all by herself. She could take care of herself. She didn’t need me anymore. She had her stupid fisherman…
I pushed off the glass, staring out at the balcony where the two birds perched, looking at me as if they were questioning my judgment too.
I’m projecting my feelings onto stupid, fucking birds… I have sunk to a new low.
“Because it’s what’s best for her.”
My sister didn’t say anything immediately. For once, I think, she was contemplating what I said with the level of seriousness it deserved. It didn’t happen often. My smart ass sister always had a witty jab, and quick retort at my expense. But she was capable of great wisdom once in a while.
“Isoveli,” she sighed. “If you think that the only way for her dreams to come true, is for you to step out of her orbit, then…”
She took in a ragged breath. I knew she was no longer talking about me and Eve. She was talking about herself, and someone else.
“Then that’s the right thing to do, even if it hurts.”
And that was exactly why I called her, and not my daughter. Rose believed in happy endings, and grand gestures. She believed in the obsessed, selfish love that she and Alastair shared. But Yuliya and I were destined for other things. Maybe it was our bloodline - something Rose was spared. It was the curse of our father, or the curse of fratricide. Happiness was not meant for us.
“We do the right thing.” My sister was saying it more for herself than me. “We do the right thing, no matter what.”
I heard a sniffle on the other end. Was she crying? I didn’t want to pry… she wouldn’t want me to. But it broke my heart.
“Even if it hurts, isoveli.” She sniffed one more time, before she coughed. “Anyway, we always have each other.”
“That’s right,” I said with a sad laugh.
It was me and my sister to the moon and back.
When we hung up, I was finally able to find the strength to leave.
I dropped the apartment keys on the table, dissolving my final ties with the woman with fiery hair, and walked out the door, shutting it firmly behind me.
She was safe.
She was saved.
It was time for me to get back to work.