49. Damon
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
DAMON
NOW
I’m in hell.
That’s the only word I can use to describe this cabin, unable to escape three people I despise and my brother, who seems content to give up everything we’ve worked for.
Everything we’ve sacrificed for.
I’ve given up everything to be the leader of the Lombardi family.
Everything.
And now my own brother is going to be what costs me the future I’ve worked so fucking hard for.
You helped him escape with her, I remind myself.
He is not alone in the blame.
Hell, if you want to get really technical about it, I’m the one that woke him up to save Chloe from Ralph. I’m the one that orchestrated their escape.
Can I really blame my brother for doing what I told him to do?
Dropping into one of the armchairs in the living room, I tip my head back and stare at the wooden log ceiling.
I stayed in my room for as long as I could after my brother left with the man responsible for our mother’s death, but I was going stir-crazy. I’m not used to being so stagnant, and that in itself is a form of hell.
Chloe and the bodyguard are outside collecting wood for the fire, giving me what may be my only chance to call my father and tell him our whereabouts.
He’ll be pissed that I’m not delivering Ronan and Chloe on a silver platter, but without access to a car or jet, getting two people across the country is going to be next to impossible.
Hopefully throwing in Kingston Beaumont and his best killer will be enough to make up for it.
And yet I hesitate.
My leg bounces restlessly, my hand wrapped around the burner I swiped from Ronan before he left. He hasn’t been checking it since I was the only one with the number, making it easy to snatch without anyone noticing it missing.
I wish there was another option.
But the way I see it, I either deliver my brother and his woman, and take my throne, or I fail and lose everything, destined to spend the rest of my life on the run.
There is no door three, no get-out-of-jail-free card.
Even with that knowledge, the phone remains on the table in front of me, taunting me to make an impossible decision.
Chloe’s laugh in the distance makes my body tense.
There was a time that sound was reserved for Ronan and me. Back before I accepted my fate. Before I fully understood my obligations to the family as the first-born son.
I used to curse my brother for not being born first, for not having the kind of responsibility that I have, but eventually it was easier to accept that my life was not my own.
It belonged to our family legacy.
It still does.
Her laughter drifts closer, and I swipe the phone off the table, shoving it beneath the cushion and out of sight a moment before the door swings open and cold air gusts through the cabin.
Chloe steps inside, her auburn hair wind-swept and covering her face, but it’s the way her eyes sparkle with delight as she holds the door for Ryker.
Her arms are full of a few light-looking logs, but he’s loaded up. There’s no way we need this much wood today, but I don’t say anything.
Maybe if I ignore them, they’ll ignore me too.
“I’m serious, Siren. The boss can really belt out ‘I Will Always Love You’ if he’s drunk enough.”
“There’s no way Kingston is doing karaoke, drunk or not,” she argues as she nudges the door shut and follows him across the room to the fire.
“You’ll have to ask Rocco when you meet him. I’ve never seen so many terrifying men cry from laughter.”
Chloe shakes her head, her smile so wide it takes my breath away.
I used to do anything I could to make her look at me the way she is at him right now, and then I would do everything in my power to make her miserable so she wouldn’t taunt me with her happiness.
It makes me a shitty person, but seeing her happy when I was miserable was its own form of torture.
Ryker helps her pile the logs beside the fire before pulling her gloves off. He drops a kiss to her knuckles, a gentle gesture completely at odds with such a brutal man, but she brings it out in him.
She brings it out in all of them, and it’s what will ultimately get them killed.
Chloe turns, and I notice how pink her cheeks are from the cold. They used to turn that shade when I did something to upset her.
Her eyes lock with mine, and her smile falters. “Hey Damon,” she says, her tone more subdued now she realizes I’m in the room.
And I fucking hate it.
I hate that I’ll never be the reason for one of her smiles.
I hate that I’ll never be responsible for her laughter.
And I fucking hate that she still has the ability to make my chest tighten with nothing more than my name on her lips.
I don’t respond, instead returning my attention to the logs above me.
Once they settle somewhere, I’ll retreat back to my room to figure out my next steps.
“Asshole,” Ryker mutters.
“You got something to say, bodyguard?” I snap.
“You heard me.”
“Just leave it, Ry,” Chloe says softly as she steps between us.
“Yeah, Ry,” I taunt. I don’t know why I keep pushing him. If he is who they say he is, I shouldn’t put myself in his sights, but I can’t help it.
Chloe sighs, her eyes falling closed as she tries to retain her composure. “You’re an asshole, you know that?” she snaps. “They could have left you in Miami to deal with the consequences of your own actions.”
“You mean when I helped my brother break you out?”
“That was your choice! You can’t punish us for a decision you made!”
“Would you have preferred I let Ralph rape you?” I growl, the thought making my own stomach roll. “Or let Salvatore get impatient and send me to torture you until you gave us answers?”
Her eyes flare with annoyance. “You can never take responsibility for your own shit. You made the choice to help Ronan. You decided to save me. You can’t shift that onto me after the fact, especially when I was unconscious.
I know blaming me for everything wrong in your life is one of your favorite hobbies, but not this time. ”
Chloe turns on her heel, storming toward the bedroom she shared with Ryker and Ronan last night.
The door slams behind her, and Ryker turns his glare on me.
“I don’t know why she won’t let me kill you and put us all out of our misery.”
I open my mouth to respond, but he’s gone before I get the chance.
And once again I’m alone.