Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
Theo
Igrabbed Violet, yanking her body to mine in the same moment Rafael was distracted by whatever the fuck was happening.
It took only a few seconds for a swarm of bodies to reach us, the chaos of it taking me right back to that night at Connor’s, when Rafael’s men had found and overwhelmed us with frightening ease.
I braced myself to be handled, grabbed and ripped apart from Violet again.
Not that I would let it happen without a bitter fight.
My hand wrapped around my blade.
“Not again,” Violet muttered into my chest. “Please.”
I told her I would kill her before I ever allowed Rafael to take her again. I’d failed in that. I wouldn’t fail another time.
Light and sound and chaos flooded in with the bodies in military-like gear, all black, tactical, matching. Someone else came up from behind us, another man from the top of the stairs, like he’d climbed in from somewhere. We were surrounded.
Strangers, the enemy, with balaclavas over their faces to hide any features. I raised my knife, stroked Violet’s cheek as she gazed up at me, a silent conversation passing between us.
For a beat, I didn’t know if they were here to help us or Rafael. None of them had grabbed us yet; we were still together as they filed into the room, methodical and ominous. But I was braced. Ready to go. Take Vi with me.
The knife sat between us, ready to plunge into her heart then mine. We would go out together rather than apart, tortured and alone. We breathed together, eyes locked, one of my hands on the knife’s handle, the other twirling a lock of her hair.
The first real glimmer of hope came when one of the men charging down the stairs jumped over the banister, landing on a struggling Rafael.
I hadn’t even noticed him fighting until that second, grappling with what looked like most of the new arrivals.
They fought, but it was brief. Then the glint of a needle driving into Rafael’s neck.
He gasped, then slumped, then collapsed to the floor. Gone. Down. No one caught him.
Violet clung to me, afraid, but wide-eyed in relief that her husband was subdued, that these men…
these people must be on our side. Fuck, I hoped they were on our side.
But… who the fuck were they? I held Violet tighter as I looked for answers, seeking out a leader.
But the knife in my grasp didn’t feel as heavy, as ending.
I lowered it as I glanced around, waiting for a fucking explanation.
“Well, it sure is weird not seeing you on a screen,” Christian’s voice came from behind me, shock and confusion making me suck in a gasp. “Or hearing only your voice on the phone.”
I turned to the front door in surprise as my friend strode in.
I hadn’t seen him in person for so long.
His dark blond hair was scruffier than usual, a five o’clock shadow graced his usually neatly groomed jaw, and purple bags under his eyes indicated he’d broken his strict sleep schedule to be here.
Holy shit.
“Christian,” I breathed out my relief. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I moved towards him, bringing Violet with me, happiness at the sight of him lifting some of the anguish of the day away.
Violet locked our hands together. No way was I letting her out of my grasp with all these strangers around.
But Christian. He’d come to help, left his hovel in Chicago to help me. Fuck.
I almost cried from the relief of it all.
Christian took me in, looking from Violet to me, and back again. “You disappeared, mate. You both did.” He said it like it was so simple, like it was obvious. “I wasn’t going to do nothing.”
“You left your den,” I noted. Still surprised to see him out of his house.
He only went out during college when he had to, always preferring the safety of his dorm room, then the small home he bought near campus.
I dragged him out to bars, or to watch movies, but he always had one foot back behind closed doors.
“Again, you disappeared. What the hell was I supposed to do?” he asked, then frowned as he took me in slower.
We must both look an absolute mess. Two weeks at least, unwashed, underfed and full of fresh trauma to unpack.
Still, Christian flashed me a smile. “You still owe me that favor. But you can have a shower first.”
I laughed and pulled him into a hug, scruffing up his neck and squeezing. “I think that favor might have doubled.”
“Doubled?” Christian responded with a chuckle, giving me a jovial shove before looking over my shoulder.
“I think more than doubled, you fucker.” He frowned when one of the other men ushered him over.
“Give me a minute,” he said, walking off.
Once again, I wondered who they were, how he’d gathered them up, but watching them standing over Rafael as they no doubt discussed his fate, in that moment I didn’t care.
He’d probably hired a team of mercenaries on the dark web or some shit. I’d ask later.
Violet and I stood alone together, huddled up close with our fingers intertwined and our pulses matched fast. Her head fell onto my shoulder, and I resisted the urge to pull her in even closer, to press dozens of kisses onto her skin.
Because we’d survived. Both of us. No one was following the other into death.
I’d be following her to a beach. To a new home. To a fucking ice cream cone in the sunshine.
“Christian as in the cabin owner, yes?” she asked, her brain clearly tired from how her words slurred. “He’s the one who’s been helping us over and over?”
“Yeah,” I responded, still watching everything unfold, but my grip on her remained tight. One of the men used his foot to shove Rafael flat on his back, laughing when my brother-in-law’s head bounced. “He’s a good guy.”
“A rare treat, then,” Violet said through a yawn. “I have a lot of questions.”
“Me too, beautiful.”
I squeezed her a little harder. From now on, she would never be under the thumb of a bad man. Never be anything but in full control of herself and her surroundings. That was my vow to her. As her brother, her lover or whatever the fuck she wanted me to be.
It wasn’t a lie that I would die for her, that I would follow her anywhere. And now that we were standing at the precipice of all of that being over, none of that was any different.
Christian returned to us, and I couldn’t help but take in my friend some more.
He was so different from the guy I’d left in Chicago only a few long months ago.
I hadn’t seen him since just before Violet’s wedding, when I’d been commanded to meet them in the UK to escort her.
I’d left the city thinking I’d be right back.
And now here he was, leading a team of men to rescue me.
What the fuck.
“We’re going to burn this place to the ground,” he said, taking the time to look at both me and Violet in the eye as he spoke. “My guys are going to start throwing the fuel around, so we need to leave. Is there anything you want to grab before we go?”
I looked at Violet, but she shook her head, not saying a word. Our family was best left to burn here. What could we do with four bodies plus the guards? No, the best thing for them was to turn to ash where they died. There was no better grieving we could do by taking them elsewhere.
“No,” I told him. “We’re good.”
“They said there are bodies in the dining room…?” Christian asked.
I shook my head. “They can burn.”
“So be it.” Christian turned and gave a quick command, a quick nod and a gesture, and the men divided up, cans of what I could only assume was fuel in their grasps. “It’ll look like an arson attack. Everything will be ash by the time the fire is out.”
“The secrets will burn with the house,” Violet muttered.
Christian nodded, but his brow furrowed, like that wasn’t good enough for him either.
“What are you doing with Rafael Delucci?” I asked my friend, tipping my head back to where the man was being dragged, unconscious, by one foot towards the front door.
He wasn’t dead, which left me unsettled, but I let them continue.
They were making sure his head and limbs bashed against every surface, so it was a good show.
Once the mercs reached the porch, they didn’t stop, thumping Rafe down the steps with no care for his wellbeing. Whatever they’d injected him with was strong because the man was out for the count. We began walking out the same way at Christian’s quiet insistence, toward the waiting cars.
I was still in awe of him as I saw the full extent of his operation. He’d done all of this for me. The favor had definitely more than doubled.
Christian laughed. “I told them to keep him alive,” he said. “So the choice is yours.”