Chapter 29
29
RAVEN
“The one where there’s nothing left to lose.
I jerked away from Louis. “You left me.
”
“I had no choice.” He shook his head.
“They kidnapped me and sent me back. I came as soon as I broke free.”
“How do we know you’re good?”
“Because I’m marked,” he said.
“A walking target.” He lifted the UV light to his face.
A giant X was tattooed across his right cheek in UV ink.
“I’m an outcast, because I fell in love with you.”
“Why come back now?” I asked.
Dad dropped Ace to the floor with a dull thud.
He’d been hit so hard he got knocked out—by my own father.
I knew everyone was mad and confused, but as far as I was concerned that was the father of my baby—despite his blood saying otherwise and my husband.
I refused to believe anything else.
“Take him downstairs,” Dad snapped.
“And that’s what we asked as well. It seems he has some unfinished business, with you.”
Louis reached for me again.
I took a step back.
“I tried to stay away.” Tears filled his eyes.
“I watched you, tailed you often, and then Lily was born.”
He dared say her name?
Out loud?
“And you looked so happy. I walked away until a friend inside told me that Ace was succeeding in doing exactly what Lucian was supposed to do.” He drew a ragged breath.
“I’m saving you.”
I snorted out a laugh.
“Do I look like I need saving?”
My heart hurt, but this man, this man I didn’t know him, maybe I never had.
He wasn’t the man I had fallen for, and Lucian was dead.
The guy I’d barely known and thought was Louis wasn’t even here.
Lily’s real father, however, was probably getting either beat in the basement or tied up.
I needed to find a way to convince my dad to let him go.
“Dad…” I reached for his hand.
“Something feels wrong—I’m not saying Louis would betray us but…” I looked around.
“I also don’t think Ace even knew what he was doing, plus he grew up with us. He would never willingly go against us. He’d die for me?—”
“He lied to me without thinking of the consequences,” Dad snapped.
“He bled for me.”
“He bled for me !” I yelled back.
“And for Lily!”
“Sweetheart…” Dad’s face softened.
“We have no idea what he’s capable of or how long he was even under her spell. When we called him back from Italy he’d already been there three years.”
Three years of psychological torment.
Three years of being in love with someone only for them to leave you.
I didn’t have the whole story but it suddenly made so much more sense.
“I choose him,” I whispered.
“Even if you don’t. I do. And Lily does too.” I shook my head at Louis.
“I never knew you then, apparently, and I don’t know you now. Please leave me and my family alone.”
Louis’ eyes darkened.
“I’m here saying I’ll fight for you. I’ll save you, I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
“That’s the thing about love,” I interrupted him.
“It’s more. You don’t even have to ask, you just do, seamlessly day after day. Ace doesn’t offer to save me—he’s too busy giving me and our daughter the tools so we can save ourselves.”
I walked past my dad.
Two men blocked the hallway.
“Move. I’m going to go see my husband.”
“Raven,” Dad warned, “he can’t stay.”
“Where he goes I go.”
“I can’t let you do that.” I could feel his nod at the guys in front of me.
“Move,” I said again to the men in front of me.
“At least let me say goodbye to my husband.”
The guys moved to the side while I stomped through.
“Ten minutes,” Dad snapped.
I knew what he meant.
“Can’t stay with us.” That was basically like saying he’d kill him, whether that was physically or just by sending him away and giving him a new life and name, I wasn’t sure; it depended on each case.
Lily would never know Ace.
I would never have him.
It was too dangerous.
The doorbell went off above me as I took the stairs down to the bottom and went to the first room.
It was a holding cell before dad decided what to do—it was a way for people to pay for their sins.
I shoved open the door.
Ace was shirtless, his scars on full display.
He hung from the ceiling with both arms spread wide to the sides at a V angle.
His head hung in front, his pants were tugged down low on his hips like they didn’t bother to pick them up when they also tied his ankles together, his jeans getting caught in the process.
His body was gorgeous even like that, all sculpted muscle and scars.
I refused to believe it.
“Ace?” I called. “Wake up.”
I tapped his face.
He stirred and looked up from beneath a curtain of messy brown hair.
“I love you.”
Tears spilled over my cheeks.
“I love you too.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and hung on.
“I’ll talk to my dad again, we’ll figure this out. I’ll grab Lily and we can run away with you.”
“From your family? You’d always be in danger with me, Raven, even I know that. Your dad’s trying to protect you, protect Lily.”
I hated that he was right.
If it was just me I’d run—but we had a daughter.
“But she needs you. I need you. You just started learning how to braid hair.”
His smile was sad.
“I still think the doll I’m practicing on is possessed, how does it move around so much?”
I smirked.
“I do that to mess with you.”
“Even knowing my only stupid fear is dolls?”
“Absolutely.”
His smile dropped.
“I’ll miss you, but it’s okay.”
“None of this is okay.”
“I had you.” He licked his lips.
“For a few brief moments I had what people fight wars over, what they live for and die for. I had it and guess what! I’ll still have it; nobody can take the memory of us away—nobody can take what I’ve stored in my soul of you and Lily. It’s mine to keep.”
“I can’t lose you.” Chest aching I leaned on his shoulder and sobbed.
“I love you. I spent too long not touching you, not kissing you, not telling you every day how much!” I kissed his warm neck and found his mouth and broke away.
“She needs someone to give her away at her wedding, she needs someone to scare off anyone who wants to date her, she needs someone to teach her how to shoot a bow and arrow?—”
“Because that’s normal.”
“It is. For us that’s normal,” I cried.
“Please just—fight with me, fight alongside me for us, please.”
A tear slid down his cheek and onto my hand.
“Don’t you see? That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
I kissed him again.
“No.” We parted. “No.” I kissed him so hard that his body moved against the bindings holding him there.
Footsteps sounded.
They’d said ten minutes!
They’d lied.
A few men rushed in and started pulling him free from the bindings.
“Wait? He’s going free?” My heart soared.
Maybe my dad found a way too?—
“Not enough time,” Mark one of my dad’s higher ups worked on Ace’s feet.
“They killed your nanny and left a note with her body on the doorstep. Lily for Ace.”
Two of the most important people in my life.
Dizzy, I bent over and had to put my hands on my legs.
“What do you mean?”
“They’ll hand over Lily to the family but they want Ace. A life for a life or maybe they just want their soldier back.”
“He was never one of their soldiers!” I screamed.
“Do you hear yourself?”
They jerked Ace to his feet.
Mark didn’t so much as look at me.
“Doesn’t matter. The car’s right outside the gate. We’ll take no chances on this one. I’m sorry, Raven, I really am.”
It was a blur walking up the stairs behind them.
Needing to touch Ace but ready to collapse at any minute over the idea of losing Lily.
Losing them both.
I couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.
“This is the best way.” Ace stopped in front of me.
Mark let him. “Trust me.”
“Don’t leave me,” I begged.
“Please. Please don’t leave us.”
“Your life will always be mine—now let mine…be yours.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“It was beautiful, a little nightmare that turned into a dream I never thought I’d be given. Thank you for making the darkness warm.”
I rushed out after them to the front.
Every man in attendance was lined up and armed standing up front.
The gate was open on the other side a black limo and a tall woman leaning against the hood of it.
She was stunning, with long black hair a svelte shape and red lipstick that you could almost taste by just staring at it.
That’s who he’d dated?
That’s who he had been in love with?
I would hate her even if she was a saint sent from heaven.
The man next to her was holding Lily in her car seat.
I jumped forward.
“No.” Ace shook free from Mark and started to walk toward her.
It felt like an eternity as the other man began his walk toward us.
Ace stood in front of her.
They talked.
He nodded and then he leaned in and hugged her like they were best friends.
What the hell was going on?
Did he really betray us?
Was he lying?
I rushed toward the man holding the car seat and pulled her free from him.
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as they undid the restraint and pulled Lily against my chest.
She’d been sleeping.
Thank God.
Ace was still standing there.
He nodded. And hung his head.
He nodded again and then she handed him a gun.
He took it, aimed for her head and pulled the trigger.
When it was all over with, he took one look over his shoulder at me and smiled.