Chapter 26
LOUIS
Even the wickedness of man is subject to law. — Immanuel Kant
It was over. Done. Tears stained my cheeks. I wondered if the trails of them would ever disappear or if I’d see them every time I looked into the mirror.
I could only stare at the blood on my shirt and the gun still in my hand. Shaking. I slowly set the gun on the mahogany desk and walked back over to him. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of this.
A life for a life.
“Live well,” he’d whispered as he cut into my body making the Alfero crest. “Take care of her. Protect her even if it means you’re not by her side.”
I swore an oath.
I intended to keep it.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” My breath caught as I slowly shut his eyes. “May heaven grant you peace after a lifetime of war.” I stood to my full height and turned just in time to see Tempest stare me down.
Her eyes flickered to her father.
She didn’t scream, but I could tell she wanted to.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “No other way.”
“None,” I whispered. “It was either me or someone else, Tempest. Try to understand that at the very least. Your father did, he—”
“Don’t tell me what he understood like he’s alive, like he told you secrets he never told me, like it actually fucking matters anymore.” She walked over and shakily jerked out of her white coat and laid it over his body. “Did he die well?”
She was being logical. Good.
“He died with honor,” I said.
“And you? How will you die? For taking the Alfero boss? My father? Any requests?” She didn’t have a weapon but her words hurt like she’d taken a knife to my chest. “Hmmm? What? Now you have no words?”
"Tempest.” My voice cracked. “You can leave if you want.”
There was nothing for her here anymore.
Nothing I could offer except pieces of the ghost that were left and the guilt I would now carry over what I’d had to do.
Do you want to play a game? I should have said no.
I should have asked for more terms.
I should have thought it through. Then again, would the ending have changed? Would it have been any different? Any less tragic? If not me pulling the trigger, would she prefer it be a stranger?
“Tempest,” I held up my hands, they were shaking. God, I couldn’t stop the tremors wracking my body. I still had his blood staining my clothes. I didn’t tell her it was from a hug.
Let her think me the monster I was, better that than she know the truth.
Let him die a hero.
Let me live a tyrant.
It was better this way—for her, for everyone. She could move on—God knew she’d have no choice now that I’d already finished what I started.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “You said you had no choice.”
“I didn’t.”
Muffled sobs escaped her lips as she covered her mouth with her hands, looking between the body and me then back again. “They’ll hunt you for this. Torture everyone you hold close—maybe even me, did you for one second think about what this would do to me? To us?”
“There is no us.” It was harsh. I meant for it to come out softer, but I was having a hard enough time holding it together, I was barely able to breathe let alone get words out. I needed her to hate me.
I needed her to cling to her family, her sister, her friends. For once, I fucking needed Tempest to actually do what she was asked.
One time.
Please God let it be now.
She choked on a sob. “Was any of this real? I mean, was it all a game from the start or did you actually care? Did you—” her voice cracked. “Did you fall even a little bit for me?”
Her eyes were so bright, so vulnerable. I’d earned too much of her trust, I didn’t deserve any of it.
Shit!
I bit down on my lower lip to keep from screaming. We were running out of time—she was running out of time. She needed to get to safety, she needed to be guiltless in all of this.
She kept talking. “Were your eyes wide open, open from the very first drop?”
I said nothing.
“God!” She screamed. “Did you do this willingly and smile at me while doing it? All to infiltrate my family? Break me in order to break them? Use the last shred of love I have against me?”
The hardest words I would ever say. The hardest truth I would ever tell when I’d only ever been a liar. “Yes.”
“To what!” she demanded shrilly. “Say it!”
"I’m broken. And broken people break things,” my breath was heavy in my chest, my throat burned with choking flame after flame.
“You were pretty so I touched you, you were easy so I took you, you were lost so I found you, you were nice so I ruined you.” I licked my lips.
“It was easy you know, making you feel like you were in control, almost too easy taking it from you.” I sighed.
“I let you set the rules. I told you the truth in the end, I just never told you the target.” I purposefully didn’t answer her other questions.
The truth hurt.
She was nothing but a target, right?
She was nothing.
Believe it.
Walk away, Tempest.
Walk. Away.
The final blow, I felt it, I orchestrated it for this very moment.
“Tempest,” I ground out her name letting it linger on my lips as the air carried it in a dark whisper toward the skies.
“Really think about it, the circumstances. Me saying yes to you so easily, us getting answers so fast, the infiltration, everything being tied up in a nice fancy little bow and then there’s you.
” I sneered. It hurt to do it. A part of my heart cracked as I forced myself to keep talking.
“In what world, would someone like me, ever truly love someone completely tarnished and easy like you?”