Chapter 26 #3
Then she smiles wider.
“Clever,” she says. “Very clever. You do have some of your father in you after all. I should’ve known you were too weak to come alone.”
“No,” Clover says. “I’m not weak, but I’m also not the scared little girl that you can control with your fits and mind games anymore either. The woman I’ve made myself into is no longer afraid of you.”
“Aren’t you though?” Terra’s eyes glint in the moonlight. “You’re still so transparent, Clover. Your hand is shaking. Your voice is hollow. Your eyes are blown wide. If that’s not the terror I instilled, then what is it?”
“Don’t say a word, Valen,” Roman mutters. “Let this play out.”
“Just because you’re terrifying doesn’t mean I’ll run from you this time.” I’m so damn proud of Clover, but I can sense the toll this is taking on her to keep her voice steady, so I press my front to her back, hoping she gains strength from the contact.
Terra studies us, but she really only has eyes for Clover. It’s as though I’m not even here.
“You’ve grown,” Terra says.
“Yes.”
“You think you’ve become brave.”
“I’ve always been brave,” Clover hisses. “You just tried to break me of it. But you failed. You always failed when it came to me.”
“And now?” Terra takes another small step. The red dots track her movement, but she doesn’t seem to care. “Now, you insolent little idiot, you think you can trap me? Contain me? Erase me like your slut of a mother attempted to do? Lock me away like your precious Vivian?”
“We know all about that,” Grant’s voice calls from the trees. “We know our mother paid Miriam to keep you locked away.”
This is news to me.
“We also know that she threatened you with a fate worse than death if you ever tried to come near Valen or Clover again.”
I’m going to throat punch my eldest cousin for keeping this from me.
“Did she tell you why she didn’t turn me in?” Terra raises her voice to the sky, the embodiment of a demon reciting an incantation and just as horrific. “Did she tell you what I know? What I could destroy with a single word to the right people?”
She’s met with silence. This is the piece my cousins have obviously been missing.
“No?” Terra’s smile is as sharp as a blade. “I didn’t think so. Saint Vivian had her secrets too.”
“We’re not here to talk about our mother,” Roman says, stepping into the clearing, wearing tactical gear that glints like stars, his weapon raised. He’s pissed. “We’re here to take you in. You can come peacefully, or—”
“Or what?” Terra laughs. It echoes around the wilderness like the first crack in a frozen pond. “You’ll shoot me? In front of my seedlings? Without knowing what secrets I could unleash about your dear, precious mother? About you? I don’t think so.”
“This isn’t going to plan,” Grant mutters. “Get her talking or take her down.”
“Clover’s not your seedling, and she sure as hell isn’t your daughter,” I say, pressing myself into Clover’s back. “Whatever claim you think you had on us died the night I was beaten until I couldn’t remember my own name.”
The first flash of real emotion flickers in Terra’s expression. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“But it did.” I breathe deep, growing even taller so my dominant frame towers over her frail one even from a distance. “If Vivi hadn’t shown up when she did, they would’ve killed me.”
“Because you were weak,” she hisses, the coldness returning to her features and tone. “Just like your father. Or don’t you remember? Oh, dear. Memories are a fickle thing, I suppose, but deep down, you know what you did.”
Ice slithers through my veins.
“You know, don’t you?” She’s baiting me, but I won’t fall for it. “You know the moment those lines were cut, you belonged to me. Without me, you were unable to embrace your true potential. But unlike your father, you’re not the innocent you believe yourself to be now, are you?”
I have no idea what she’s talking about. Clover reaches behind her back and rests her palm in mine.
“My potential isn’t tied to you,” I say.
“Isn’t it?” She glares at Clover. “And what about you? Still writing letters to a boy who abandoned you? Did I teach you nothing?” she roars.
“Stupid, stupid girl. Men always leave you. I taught you that, but did you listen? No. You’re still hoping for a love story that was never yours to begin with.
I gave you everything, Clover. Purpose. Meaning.
A place in something greater than yourself.
And you threw it all away. For what? For him? ”
“For myself,” Clover says with steel in her tone. “I chose myself. That’s what you could never understand. I was never yours. I was always mine.”
Terras face twists. “You ungrateful little—”
“Enough,” Chief calls out, moving closer and holding up a badge that carries no fucking purpose.
“Stand down, Chief,” Sterling hisses.
“Terra Stone.” Chief ignores all our protocols. “You’re being detained on suspicion of murder, stalking, and attempted kidnapping. You have the right to—”
“What the fuck is he doing?” Grant shouts.
“I have the right to nothing.” Terra’s hand moves to her pocket and every gun in the clearing aims for her chest.
“Stop,” Roman barks.
“Or what?” Terra removes her hand, holding up her phone.
She doesn’t care if she dies here today.
Maybe she’s hoping for it. “You want to know what mommy dearest was up to, don’t you?
Don’t you know I’m the only person alive willing to give you that information?
” She glares at me, then to the tree at my left.
“Fuck her,” Grant growls in my ear. “I’m close to getting that information on my own. Do not, I repeat, do not negotiate.”
“You think you’ve won?” She’s still smiling, and far too calm as she slowly inches away from us. “You think this is over?”
She presses a button on her phone and brings hellfire down around us as our tree detonates, raining limbs and branches to the ground below.
The fucking bitch put explosives in my tree.
The blast is loud enough to make my ears ring. Hot enough to send a wave of searing heat as a fire ignites.
Clover screams as I grab her with both hands, running with her in my arms, when a second explosion has me dropping to the ground and covering her small body with my own as more debris flies through the night sky.
Shouts sound in my earpiece, but I can’t decipher words over the ringing in my ears.
Then I see Roman’s face—watch the angry twist of his lips as he directs our men through a thick cloud of smoke settling over the forest—and I know.
Terra’s gone.
Disappeared into the woods like the smoke she’s left behind.
“Daniels, pursuit. Jones and Henson, perimeter. Do not let her off this property.”
I rip the earpiece from my ear. It’s only causing more confusion as I help Clover sit up. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Fine,” she says, but she’s shaking so hard her words are almost unrecognizable. “She—she blew up our tree.”
“I know.” Pulling her closer, I check for injuries, then lift her into my arms. We have to get the fuck out of here.
“Not the whole tree,” she says, almost laughing. “Just the branches.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I see she’s right. The explosion must have been thirty feet high. No wonder we didn’t find them.
“She got away,” she says. She’s in shock. I think I might be too.
Knowing your mother hates you and actually having her try to kill you are two very different things.
“Our guys will find her,” Grant says, falling into step beside us.
“She really wanted to kill us,” Clover says. “So—so what if I’m not her end game? What if it isn’t me she’s after?”
“What else would she want?” Grant asks, wrapping his arm around Chief and helping him through the brush.
My vision blurs, and I pause to shake my head. Grant’s worried gaze scans every inch of us as though he’s preparing to perform first aid if necessary, but I’m not injured. Memories are glitching in my mind so fast, I’m dizzy.
“She said I was weak, just like my father. What line did I cut her out of? What matters most to her?”
Understanding dawns in Grant’s expression. “This isn’t just about Clover. It’s about money,” he says. “Because what does money equal in her eyes?”
“Power,” I grunt. “I’m not married. I have no children. Obviously, Terra’s death certificate is a fake, so if I die, she’s technically my next of kin.”
Roman jogs to catch up to us. “She’s gone. She had another fucking escape hatch. But she dropped this when she ran.” He holds up an evidence bag.
Inside is a photo of Clover. I glance down at it as all-consuming hatred eats me from the inside out.
“That’s from today,” Clover gasps. “From our safe house.”
“How is that fucking possible?” Grant shouts. “We took every precaution securing that location. Where are her accomplices?”
Roman shakes his head. “They wouldn’t put down their weapons. Our guys had no choice but to fire.”
“Valen,” Clover says quietly, wiggling in my arms until I carefully set her on her feet. “She’s never going to stop, is she?”
Her voice breaks on the last word, and when she stares up at me, I see something that guts me more than all the fear and panic attacks combined. I see exhaustion. The soul-crushing kind that comes from fighting the same battle for so long you’ve forgotten what peace feels like.
“I—I can’t do this anymore. I can’t.”
I want to lie to her and tell her everything will be fine.
But I can’t because Terra just proved she’ll stop at nothing to reach her goals, and she’s never, ever going to let Clover go.
“We have to figure out what she has on Mom,” Sterling says. “I have a bad feeling that this is all connected somehow, and the sooner we find the missing pieces, the sooner we can ensure everyone’s safety.”
“We have to move,” I say, reaching for Clover’s hand. “And this time, we’re not trusting anyone but family. No more guessing. Terra isn’t better than us,” I growl. “She’s just had a lifetime of practice hurting people. She thinks she has nothing left to lose, and that makes her dangerous.”
I glance over my shoulder. Our tree is still standing. Scorched and damaged beyond recognition, but still standing.
Just like us.
As we reach our vehicles, I say, “What she doesn’t realize is that having everything to lose makes you so much more deadly.”