21. Hector
21
HECTOR
W hen Emelia sits down in her chair, I have the distinct pleasure of watching every ounce of color drain from their faces. Each man has several reactions before they school their features, taking on emotionless expressions.
Silas is confused, then hurt, and then angry. I see every emotion as it flashes in his eyes. He has every right to be, she almost blew him to smithereens. I feel sorry for them as they wrestle with their internal turmoil. I honestly can’t imagine what it must be like to feel so betrayed by someone that you care so much about. I hope that Emelia can make this right for them, and they understand her intentions and motives.
Hayden is less obvious, but I still see the snippets as they play across his face. He’s also angry, then contemplative, and then his eyes soften and I know that he’s too far in his obsession with her to ever hold anything against her. She’s the light in his dark world, and I don’t blame him one bit. She’s my light as well.
Declan doesn’t bother to hide his anger as he glares across the room. “I knew you were nothing but bad news. You nearly got us all killed. You practically did kill Silas!” He bellows and the veins running along his neck bulge in his rage. He jerks violently and tries to free his arms. “Was this just a means to an end?” His words are biting, but I know there’s hurt behind them. I can see it in his eyes, if only for a moment, before they harden in rage.
Emelia leans back in the chair and waits for him to calm down. For all her psychotic tendencies, the woman has the patience of a saint. “As you might have guessed by now, Em is not short for Emerson,” she starts off slow, and I can see the wheels turning in her mind, trying to find the right words. “What I’m about to tell you is the truth. You can take it for what it is, or not.”
“I don’t want to hear anything else that comes out of your mouth,” Declan spits vehemently and narrows his eyes. “You’re nothing but a snake.”
Hayden shifts in his seat, leaning forward as much as the ropes allow him, and turns his back to Declan. “Can you see it, Dec?”
Declan glances over at Hayden for a brief moment before looking back at us. “See what, Hayden?”
“The knife in my back. Surely you see it sticking out? It’s wedged right between my ribs and into my atrium.”
“No, but if I find it I’ll be sure to use it to return the favor,” Declan mutters through clenched teeth.
I roll my eyes at their dramatics. “This is why we had to tie you to the fucking chairs. We knew you wouldn’t listen otherwise.”
Emelia stands and walks around to lean against the front of the desk. “The night of the fire that took my parents,” she begins and her voice is distant, like she’s already lost in the memory, “I lost a piece of myself when that structure collapsed. It was like a part of my heart was broken off and my soul was smashed into tiny pieces and scattered in the wind. Something inside me just…broke… or ceased to exist. I made a vow that night that I would do everything I could to avenge the people we lost, even if it took breaking myself.”
“Where do the Irish come into play? Clearly, Mr. O’Leary knows who you really are? What game are you playing?” Silas asks, and narrows his eyes in her direction.
“Samuel’s son was in the hotel that night,” I respond before Emelia can speak. “She managed to pull him from the wreckage, but he died a few days later from internal bleeding. Emelia couldn’t let it go, and wanted to find who did it, but didn’t have the means to do so. Nor would Diego let her. So she met up with Samuel to convince him to let her use his resources.”
“Who the fuck is Diego?” Declan nearly shouts. His body is vibrating with rage.
“Diego,” Tobias interjects calmly, “was my cousin. He was the head of this empire and spearheaded the entire operation. When he died of colon cancer, the mantle passed to me, but I wanted no part of this.” He gestures to the room. “I was security for Diego, so I remained security for Emelia. The title Em originally stood for Emerson, but it died with Diego. She is now the embodiment of Em.” He points at Emelia with a fond look.
Emelia looks over her shoulder and smiles warmly at Tobias. Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears at the mention of Diego. “He was my godfather. He taught me everything I know. When he died, I doubled down on my efforts to find the people responsible for the fissures in my soul. I found the three of you, and passed your information on to Samuel, who then developed the plan. I had nothing to do with the way things were carried out.”
“They kidnapped you,” Hayden says cooly. “We watched it happen.”
I bristle at the memory of those rogue agents. “Everyone has a few bad seeds. Those men were dealt with for deviating from the plan. I’m not sure who they were actually working for.”
“An inside man on an already inside job,” Hayden muses quietly. His fingers flex and I imagine that he’s trying to subconsciously run them through his thick, dark hair.
“I suspect as much,” she agrees, and my skin prickles. “Anyway, back to my apology.” She moves until she’s directly in front of Declan. Her fingers reach out to brush his cheek, but he jerks his head away. I see the hurt flash in her eyes before she steeles herself. “The night you told me about the fire and your involvement,” she whispers softly, “I nearly had a panic-induced heart attack after I left.”
My stomach tenses at the memory of her falling apart on her bedroom floor after she realized that she almost killed three of the men she truly cared about by mistake.
“I thought you were the last people alive responsible for their deaths,” she continues quietly. “But when you told me that you had no involvement with the explosions or the fire… I immediately called everything off.”
“What do you mean the last people alive?” Silas asks slowly, his brow furrowing deeply. “There were several groups involved in that job.”
“There were,” she agrees easily with a single nod. Her green eyes darken and flash dangerously. “I hunted every single one of them down, trying to find a name for the person who hired them. No one knew and I kept coming up empty handed.”
Declan leans his head back so he can look into her eyes, his expression unreadable. “Until I gave you the name.”
Emelia places her hands on Declans thighs, right above his knees, and sinks to the floor. I blink at her in shock. Never have I seen her on her knees for any other reason than sexual pleasure. Declan’s entire body goes rigid.
“Declan, I am so sorry. I don’t have the words to tell you how sorry I am. I acted on my information, but that information was wrong. My mind is being pulled into so many different directions with all this.”
Declan shakes his head. I watch all three of them as they sit rigid in their chairs. “Would you have done it?” he finally asks. “If your information wasn’t wrong, would you have killed us?”
I hold my breath because I, too, want to know the answer to this question. I’ve been tossing it around in my head for a while now. If they truly were involved with the death of her parents, would she have been able to handle them? Or would her emotions have prevented her from pulling the trigger.
She sighs and leans back on her heels, her cheeks turning red. The silence stretches on as she turns her answer over on her tongue. “No,” she finally says. “After I thought Silas was gone, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing anyone else. I regret every second that you suffered, Silas, and I’m sorry for it. I thought I was avenging my parents and mending my broken heart, but instead I only broke it further.”
Hayden jerks against his bindings, trying again to free his hands. “Let me out of this fucking chair, Angel.”
She looks over at him and her face softens. “I can’t do that. Not until I know that you understand. That you won’t kill me.” She pushes herself up, moves in front of Hayden, and then drops back to her knees between his open thighs. Her fingers trace along the light stubble on his jaw. I think he’s going to jerk away like Declan did, but he turns his face and places an open mouth kiss to her palm.
“I already do,” he whispers to her, and my heartbeat quickens in my chest. “I understand because I was you. I felt what you felt. My parents are long dead, but I spent several years searching for a means of revenge. I lost myself to it for a long time, and even now I’m not the same as I was before. I don’t want to kill you, Angel, I want to hold you. I want to feel you solid in my arms and know that you’re okay. Let me mend your broken cracks with gold,” he whispers.
My throat tightens at his words and I know he means it. I can tell by the look in his eyes. He holds no ill will toward her for what she’s done. The other two might take a little more groveling, but he’s as lost to her as I am.
Emelia turns back to Declan and Silas. “I couldn’t go through with any further plans because I couldn’t bear the thought of the men I love bleeding and broken because of me.”
Silas shudders in his chair before jerking against his ropes. I can see the war raging inside him and I can’t imagine what he’s going through. He just found out that he almost died for something that he had no part in. My heart actually aches for him as I see tears gathering on his cheeks. “Do you mean it?” he asks, and his voice breaks with raw emotion.
Emelia gets up and moves over to Silas, but this time she doesn’t kneel. “With every cell in my body,” she confirms, and reaches for him. He tenses and her fingers stop right before she grazes his hair. “Can I?” Silas nods and Emelia strokes her fingers through his tousled hair. His eyes close and tears stream down his cheeks. “Please forgive me,” she whispers, and I can hear the pain in her voice. This is just as much a torture for her as it is for them.
Silas draws in a ragged breath before looking over Emelia’s shoulder at me. I nod once without breaking eye contact. He closes his eyes again and I watch his muscles relax, his body sagging into the chair. “Declan?” Silas whispers and turns to his brother.
Two down.
One to go.
Declan is completely still as Emelia drops back to her knees in front of him. His eyes are closed and I have to really focus to see if he’s even still breathing. At the sound of his name on Silas’s lips, he opens his eyes and they are like dark storm clouds. “We’re all a little broken, aren’t we, Princess?” he asks calmly. “We took a job to kill Em, which turns out to be you.” He pauses and I can’t help but wonder if he’s doing it for dramatic affect. “It seems that we find ourselves at an impasse.” I swear his eyes smolder as he looks down at her. “Because I can’t kill the woman I love either.”