58. Orion
Orion
I ’d finished mopping up Vince’s blood before either Caspian or Jacob showed their face on the main floor.
It had dried into the wood grain on the doorframe, and scrubbing off the mess of his fingerprints was enough to send me into a near meltdown.
I had to step back and dig deep, drawing on reserves of strength I hadn’t tapped into in years to get through it.
The thought of losing Vince—again and maybe for real—was enough to make my stomach roil.
But of the three of us left in the house, I was the only one equipped to go and get him back.
Jacob could kill for fun, but Caspian couldn’t even kill for money.
I was the one trained to take out threats.
I was the one who should have kept Vince safe.
They were all proof of my own failures, and if I didn’t get Vince back…
I wouldn’t come back either. I’d made the promise to myself as I tossed the sickly sweet-scented white towel into the trash.
Throwing the last bloody rag on top of the pile and flicking blood off my fingers, I glared up as Jacob entered the kitchen.
He hadn’t showered, but he was dressed, which was an improvement from the state I’d left him and Caspian in the guest room.
“What are you going to do?” he asked, climbing onto a barstool.
I used the edge of my fingernail to pick blood off my skin. “I’m going to find Vanessa and I’m going to kill her. Then I’m going to find that Moore bastard and kill him too. Then I’m going to find Vince.”
“Thought you’d go in reverse order,” he said.
“I made the mistake of thinking the threats weren’t real before.” I used my forearm to turn off the sink, then toweled off my hands. The white terrycloth felt familiar against my palms, and I frowned at the trash can. “I got careless.”
“You did what you were told.”
“He never told me to do anything,” I snapped, throwing the towel onto the counter and shoving my hands into my pockets so I didn’t hurt him. “His father was the one who came with orders and demands. Vince…he never asked anything of me except that I keep him safe.”
“He asked you to kneel.”
“I offered that willingly.”
There’d been an expectation that I continue to serve him in the ways I’d served his father, but from the first moment, Vince was so different from Ricardo it was hard to remember my place.
I’d let my heart and my own desires cloud my vision, and in doing so, I’d lost the only man I’d ever truly wanted.
Ever truly loved.
“It wasn’t Vanessa,” Caspian blurted, feet skittering on the floor as he rounded the corner into the kitchen. His face was flushed, his feet bare. He had his cell phone clutched in his hand and it took every ounce of willpower in my body to not end him where he stood.
“Explain.”
“I…” His mouth gaped like a hooked fish, and that was when I noticed the tears streaming out of his eyes. “It was a trap from the start, but not for him. For me.”
Jacob even looked nervous at the words coming out of Caspian’s mouth, and he shifted on his stool to watch him closer instead of opening his arms and offering him comfort.
“I just talked to my dad.” Caspian bit his lips together between his teeth and squinted hard, tears sliding faster from the corners of his eyes. He was such a feeble man for how much of a threat he posed. “They never thought I’d be successful.”
I snorted. “In life?”
He shot me an angry glare, which had me grinning back at him.
“With killing Vince,” he said. “They gave me…gave me the gun, but they never thought I’d do it. The plan was always…”
“Always you,” Jacob said gently, and Caspian nodded, another wave of tears leaking down his cheeks .
“They knew I was…obsessed.” He covered his face with his hands and looked at the floor. “They used it against me to…”
Caspian didn’t need to the say the rest.
The plan had been to use his heart against him. Same as it always went, I realized.
In this life, loving someone made you weak, and all of us were at the same disadvantage. Obsessively in love with Vince Angelini, in our own, complicated ways.
“So if it wasn’t Vanessa,” I said, cocking my head to the side. “Though she’ll have to be dealt with before she gets to you.”
“What?” Caspian blinked at me.
“What?”
“I thought you’d be content to let her come for me and take me out,” he muttered. “One less interference to worry about.”
Caspian glanced at Jacob, then back to me.
“It’s not for me to question what Vince wants to do with his spare time,” I said, but it was more than that, and all of us knew it. I didn’t need to give voice to it for us to be in agreement that Caspian’s place in the house was just as important as mine, as important as Jacob’s.
“And it wasn’t my father, or Daren’s,” Jacob added, and the three of us turned our attention to the front door. The mess was cleaned, but I’d see the stains forever, much like I’d see Vince’s face haloed in light the night he unbound me from his father's bed.
I checked the leather strap around my shoulder, pocketed my phone and my keys and headed for the garage, not caring if the two of them followed, preferring that they didn’t because there was too much on the line with all four of us out in the wild. Too much liability, too much to lose.
I stopped and raised a hand so they didn’t come after me.
“Then there’s someone else, and I’m going to find them.”