Chapter 22 #3
I had cried myself numb. The only thing I could feel was the sting on my hip.
My knees were clutched to my chest while I rocked back and forth, probably looking every bit as insane as I was.
I was staring out over the stream, letting the water soothe my ragged and tortured mind when I heard his silent approach.
His boots a mere whisper on the ground. But I knew it was him.
I could always tell. He stopped a few feet from me, silent for a few minutes.
“Princess,” he almost whispered.
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped hoarsely, as anger flashed through me again, but only an echo of what it was earlier. Hearing him still call me that hurt more than I cared to admit. He needed to leave. I needed answers, but not right now. Another blow to the heart would end me.
“You can continue to hate me all you want later, but I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen. Understood?” His voice was firm.
I shook my head. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself. I was done taking orders from him. I wanted to curse him before the gods, offer up my last breath to the Dark Ladies, so he could suffer this pain I felt, for the rest of his existence.
But all that came out was, “I want to go home.” I was tired. So utterly tired.
“I will take you home, Ava. But first, you listen.”
Did I imagine pain in his voice? He came to sit beside me, bracing his arms on his knees with a sigh.
He was too close and too far away at the same time.
I wanted to lose myself in the comfort of his arms, like I had done so many times, but also hated the idea of him ever getting to touch me again.
He was the snake in my garden. An alluring, detestable thing.
I turned my head away from him, so I wouldn’t have to look at him.
“Your little boyfriend’s father was the man that had my mother and sister killed.”
My head snapped back to him. No, it couldn’t be. Not Charles Anderson. I had known Charles to be a ruthless man, one that always made my skin prickle. But a killer of women and little girls? No, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Was Grayson making this up? The latest lie of his sick mind games?
Fuck. I could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t lying.
He truly believed what he’d said. My stomach turned.
Could it be? Had I dined and laughed and even celebrated Winter Solstice with the man that was responsible for those gruesome deaths?
For the trauma a ten-year-old boy had to endure, that still haunts him incessantly?
My gut screamed yes but not once had I felt like I was in danger around Charles.
Grayson handed me the picture of the red diamond that was pinned to the board.
“He had his hit men take this the day they murdered my family. It was my mother’s ten-year anniversary present from my father.
Anderson had always had his eye on it. My father had outbid him at an auction.
I believe that was the start of their rivalry. ” Grayson scratched at his chin.
“That’s the only reason he’s still alive.
I don’t know the location of the diamond.
The security around his vaults makes it impossible to slip in unnoticed.
It might not even be in there. And I can’t just take Anderson and torture it out of him.
He’s notorious for not breaking. I’ve been stuck for ten years. ”
“So that’s where I came in,” I stated bitterly. What had he planned for me, expected me to do?
Grayson sighed, and was quiet for a while, staring out at the water.
“I was staking out the bank, about three weeks before the robbery. Imagine my surprise when you came walking out.” He smiled to himself.
“The few times I had seen you with Shaun, I had always been struck by you. You were too good for him, you know?” he added.
“But that day at the bank, you were throwing your head back, laughing as you came through the door. You had overalls on and a dirt streak over your cheek. And I swear I had never seen anything more beautiful. So I followed you. Like a fucking perverted stalker, I followed you around town, and watched you run errands, stopping to chat with people and picking up trash around the base of an oak tree, patting its trunk, like you were apologising to it.” Grayson laughed at the memory, shaking his head.
“I was drawn to you because I found you to be so pure-hearted, such a beautiful, odd little thing. And that somehow made me hate you, because how could I like someone that Anderson was so fond of?” Grayson rubbed at his neck.
“Even now he has people searching for you.”
Anderson. He wasn’t talking about my ex-boyfriend Shaun. He was talking about Charles, his father.
I shook my head. “Charles isn’t that fond of me. Not like that.” He had always saved me a seat next to him when I joined them for dinners and other occasions. But he had told me that he enjoyed my conversation and philosophies. It wasn’t that big a deal, was it? My head was spinning.
“Ava, the man was smitten with you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You were probably the only thing he wanted that he didn’t dare to just take.” Grayson paused before continuing.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you.” Gods, he was there. During the two years that I’d dated Shaun, Grayson was there. In the shadows, watching me.
I shuddered.
“So I wanted to take you. I’d been trying to find a way to end that man for years and couldn’t. Not without risking my mother’s diamond. So I’d decided that I would hurt him instead. By taking you. Or that’s what I was telling myself.
“For the following few days, I had abandoned my stakeout of the bank, and instead found myself on the beach every morning, watching you in the water. And at night you kept me awake as I plotted how I could use you to get to Anderson. At first, I only planned to take you from him. Have what he couldn’t and then make sure he never would have a chance with you. ”
I winced at that.
“But with every sleepless night, my plan evolved to where I could finally see a way to get my diamond. And my revenge.”
“What was the plan?” I already knew. I was living it. But I needed to hear it from him. How he had every intention of breaking me from the very start. Maybe then I could hate him. Regret him.
“Anderson is a cunning bastard. He’s very careful of the people around him.
I’ve tried to get someone on the inside, but he killed her.
One wrong word and he shot her through the eye.
” Grayson’s eyes flashed to mine. “But you? You were already there. It wouldn’t be years of gaining his trust. And he liked you.
Maybe even respected you. More than his own fucking son.
” He shifted uncomfortably, looking like he was sceptical of telling me more.
“Taking you was the easy part. We were already set to rob the bank. I only had to break into your house, make a sandwich, and leave it on the counter. Then you, the dutiful friend, would show up exactly where I needed you. That way it looked like a robbery gone bad. Two flies with one stone. The next part I knew would be trickier, but not impossible. I’d done it a few times before.
” He chuckled nervously. “I had to get you to fall in love with me.”
“Then why not just take me to dinner like a normal fucking person?” I grumbled. It was a stupid plan.
Grayson rubbed a hand over his face. “I had thought about that. But I would’ve been too exposed for my liking.
Anderson checks in on you, you know? It was too risky.
Too close to home. Plus, I had an opportunity to make him feel loss.
Even if it was temporary. I couldn’t pass that up.
So I opted for the hard way. And fuck, was it hard.
” He looked up at the sky, seemingly reliving it.
“That first few weeks, Ava, I could barely control myself. You were the only woman Anderson had laid eyes on that had walked away unscathed. I despised you for it. What made you better than my mother and sister? I wanted to break you for it. But instead, there I was, calling you my princess in my head. Just as bewitched as Anderson. I was the one falling in love, and I hated you for it. You had me enthralled. Like a stupid fucking moth, I was drawn to you. To that perfect light of yours. A light, I’m ashamed to say, I tried to extinguish to save myself. ”
He hung his head low. “I’m sorry for all I did to you, Ava.
How I treated you. I was out of control.
God, I had these fucked-up dreams of you each time I closed my eyes.
I was fucking you while they were killing my mother and Abby.
They were screaming for me, but I wouldn’t stop to help them.
I was too wrapped up in you. It fucked me up, Princess.
I could feel it all slipping away every time your green eyes pierced mine so fiercely.
You had the power to stop all of it. All I had been working towards for so many years.
And I couldn’t come to terms with that. And Jesus, I was falling for Anderson’s fucking woman.
I didn’t want that comparison. Not for one second. ”
He laughed bitterly, the sound maiming me.
“Do you see the irony of it, Princess? He’s better than me.
He was a better man to you than I am. He had the good sense to leave you growing in your garden, admiring you from afar.
I plucked you. I brought you into my home for my own selfish reasons and watched you wilt. ”
Tears were flowing hot over my cheeks. Grayson had hurt me. He had taken me, abused me, then showed me love like I had never experienced. All for it to be ripped away again. I was wilting. No, it was beyond that. I was already dying inside.
His fingers brushed my cheek, wiping away the tears, but I pulled away. His touch only ripped at my wounds.
“How did you expect me to get your diamond from Charles?” I found my voice.