48. Vaughn
Vaughn
“Ouch. Are you trying to hurt me worse? It’s clean. Let me pat it dry and put the damn bandage on.”
Penelope’s hand went to take the gauze I held, stopping halfway at my look. I reached back up, patting the water from the upside-down crown.
“The only reason you’re doing this is to be close to…” her hand waved to her bare breasts, “those.”
“Maybe it is. Maybe you should stop provoking me.”
I leaned the few inches, biting gently against her nipple and tugging back. Penelope gasped, her eyes wide as she froze. She shifted on her feet. “I did not say you could do that.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Will you hurry and put the gauze on so I can get dressed and go to bed? Unless you’ve changed your mind and are willing to take me to Marian.”
My head shook, and her face dropped.
“Vaughn… it is not safe for her out there. We both know that.”
“Nor do I want it to be. Marian will face the full wrath of The Order. Her blessing is that she won’t be here long.”
“You’re letting her go?”
Hope had Penelope’s eyes rounding through the emotion.
“Marian’s entire family is dead. Her mother was not a good person.”
“Dead? Oh my God. Marian… told me stories about her mother. She was evil.”
“Yes, she was, and she hurt a lot of my Masters. … She even got to me.”
“Got to you?” Penelope’s tone deepened with anger. “What do you mean, she got to you? She hurt you? Lied about you? What did she do?”
I felt myself soften inside at her growing rage.
“Marian’s mother, Melissa, was second in charge at the US’s…
place like this, so I had to deal with her.
I can’t really explain it. She… messed with my mind.
She’s a hypnotist. I knew that, but I can’t believe how she pulled it off.
I told her things, Penelope.” My eyes met hers.
“I gave her personal information about my Masters. Some lost a lot of money, estates. There are wives filing for divorce. Divorce. I would have died before telling anyone such private matters. She used the information I gave her to extort things from them. She even went as far as having affairs with a few of them while she was in town. What she did, she can’t pay for. Marian can.”
Penelope gasped. “But—But—You can’t take your anger out on Marian. She had no idea that was happening. She hated her mother.”
“You know how The Order works. Someone must pay. The Masters demand it. I demand it. Marian will take her mother’s punishment in blood, but we will lock her to us in oath.”
Confusion.
“What are you talking about? Lock her to us?”
I licked my lips trying to decide whether or not I should tell her yet.
“It is the only way, Penelope. Our blood is strong. Marian’s… I almost—”
My brow crinkled as I fought morality. Penelope was already mad, and I knew telling her this would be a nail in my own coffin.
“Before I chose you, I contemplated choosing Marian. I even talked to Melissa about it years back. Her line is supreme. Melissa, of course, denied the offer—”
Crack!
The slap was so loud and powerful, sound wavered in my ears.
“Leave my room. Now.”
“Penelope—”
“Another omission. All those months we texted…You had so many opportunities to somehow tell me. You didn’t once hint at it. Leave.”
“No.”
She dove for me, but I had her on her back so fast, Penelope was trapped. She tried to buck and twist me off, but I used my weight, holding her down. My lips crushed into hers and pain sliced into my lip at her bite. I jerked back, tasting blood.
“You could die for that.”
“Kill me or leave, because if you do that again, I will rip your lip off.”
Tears raced down the sides of her face, and the sob had my grip loosening.
“You are so angry, Penelope. What did she do to you? What did Katia tell you about me?”
Blue eyes cut over to meet mine. “She told me what you should have said from the beginning.” Her lip trembled following the new sob. “I trusted you. I believed you. It was all lies.” Another sob.
“What lies? You were not ready to hear my story.”
“You took me. You’re forcing me to be your queen.
I deserved to know I wasn’t… special. That it was all about blood and power and nothing about me.
You lied to get me to comply, just like you lied to the half dozen other women you took and killed.
Did you do it for her? For your mistress, Bella?
You loved her, did you not? You really wanted to marry her, but you couldn’t because she has no royal or noble blood. Did I get that right?”
I should have felt angry. I had when she’d brought up Bella before. All I felt at seeing her pain was… sadness. Not to mention, astonishment at the lies. The combination had my heart constricting. I let go of her hands, using the pad of my thumbs to wipe the tears.
Shifting, I eased my weight, keeping my place on top of her.
“Penelope, I’m considerably older than you. A little over a decade. I’ve done things I’m not proud of. I’ve made mistakes.”
“So, you’re admitting it?”
“No. Not even close. Katia lied to you. She did her best to turn you against me, and she damn near succeeded. I didn’t tell you about Marian because it wasn’t the time, not to mention they would have known it was me.
I didn’t do it to try to hide it from you.
I told you now. I was honest. I will never lie to you.
Secrets between a king and queen could result in death.
” I lowered, kissing her forehead. “I want you as my queen more than anything. I love you. That’s the truth.
” I cradled her face with my palm. “Let’s start from the beginning. How about that?”
Skeptical blue eyes studied me as I eased half of my body from hers. I kept one leg between hers as I brushed back her hair.
“You’re not going to lie to me, no matter what I ask? You’ll be brutally honest, even if it hurts my feelings?”
“You have my word.”
She sniffled, nodding.
“You say you love me. Is that real?”
“I’ve never loved anyone like I love you. It’s not even comparable. I thought I loved before—”
“Bella?”
I nodded, squinting my eyes through the distasteful memories that flooded me.
“Penelope, I met her when I was nineteen. The circumstances…” I stopped, twisting my mouth. “I don’t want to jump around. Let’s start at the beginning, okay?”
She nodded, and I braced myself for my past.
“My mother died when I was five. Someone from the king’s secret guard came into our home one day, murdered my infant sister, and slit my mother’s throat right in front of me and my father.”
“Vaughn.” Horror had her lips parting. “I’m so sorry.”
“My father was devastated. He loved my mother. He held and rocked her for hours before he made any calls. I… I had Katherine in my arms. She had only been a few weeks old. She’d been stabbed repeatedly.
I… I didn’t know what to do. All those hours, I kept looking to my dad for direction.
I didn’t dare interrupt his grieving. He was crying.
Sometimes screaming. And then… he snapped. ”
Colors morphed, blurring together. “He called my uncle—my mom’s brother—and dropped me off.
It was a few days before I saw him again.
No one knows what he did or where he went.
The funeral came—” My breath came out broken up.
“We went home. It was… horrible. So empty and… quiet. It wasn’t much longer after that, a few days after my sixth birthday, that someone executed my father in front of me.
Blood, brains… I wasn’t sure whose I was covered in.
The man barely finished pulling the trigger when my uncle put a bullet in his head. He raised me after that.”
“Vaughn. I had no idea. I am so sorry.”
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. Life with me will not be any easier. It is the reality of this war between kings. Everyone is collateral. No one is safe.”
“I’m starting to see that. So, your uncle raised you?”
“Yes. He took over The Order, and my childhood was spent running down these halls. For years, we didn’t leave.
It wasn’t until I got into my teens that my uncle had Redmond step in.
We started traveling everywhere. We were never in one place too long.
He brought in tutors, experts in different martial art fields.
He wanted me prepared for anything that may come my way, and I was natural with the violence.
It came easily after what I’d been exposed to. ”
I picked up a lock of Penelope’s hair, twirling it around my finger as my past poured from me.
“Bella was one of my tutors. She was older than me. Pretty much my age now, and I was just a few years younger than you. I was a kid. Nineteen, like I said. She was teaching me Italian. We spent three years together, off and on. I thought I loved her. She wasn’t like the other women who threw themselves at me.
She was quiet but funny. Until she wasn’t. ”
Penelope’s head tilted. “What do you mean?”
“She played me. I was drawn to her because she never wanted anything but my time. She pretended it was me she enjoyed, and it wasn’t the money or mystery of my title.
Maybe I knew something was… off. It started with her playing on my jealousy.
She’d flirt openly with men, mostly those who were older than me.
Then came guilt. ‘If you really loved me’, sort of talk.
She wanted expensive gifts. Once, she even tried to convince me to murder a man who she felt was mean to her. ”
“Did you?”
My lips pulled back as I traced my finger along Penelope’s cheekbone.
“I did not. I never killed anyone for Bella.”
“Katia said you killed slaves for her. That you loved her more than the other girls you’d chosen and killed.”
My head shook through the lies and anger that came with them.
“It’s not true. None of it. I told you, there was only ever one, and that was a mistake.
She died, and I knew in my gut that she probably would.
I just… I just thought that if I got the marriage part out of the way, I could focus on the evidence and—I didn’t want to marry, Penelope.
I sure as hell didn’t want to marry for love.
But…” My finger traveled from her cheek to her lips.
Penelope’s mouth parted as her breaths deepened.
“I loved you the moment I handed you that dress. Seeing you in pictures nearly did me in, but in person, I never stood a chance. If you only knew how hard it was for me to leave you there, then. It was unbearable. I watched you for a long time before I called. I couldn’t stay away from you.”
“Vaughn.”
“It’s the truth.” I wiped the tear away as one slipped free down the side of her face. “I only want you. If I wouldn’t have gotten you back, I would have never moved on. I can’t be without you, Penelope.”
“Why would she tell me all those lies? Why—I don’t understand. She had stories. They were so real. She said she’d been tracking you for years. I believed her.”
“And she’ll pay for that. But you have to know the truth.
What she told you isn’t it. I never killed girls just to kill them.
I didn’t date. Yes, I had… affairs. They’d last a few weeks, and I’d lose interest and never see them again.
No, I did not date. I didn’t have girlfriends.
I was never serious with anyone. You’re the one for me.
The one I choose. I want you to choose me too. … But only inside this room.”
Penelope reached up, gripping to the finger I was using to trace along her jawline.
“I don’t understand.”
“Outside of this door, you have to pretend to hate me. Fear me. We already made the mistake of showing The Order our love. We can’t do that again.
It makes us weak. Vulnerable. I can’t lose you like my father lost my mother.
God, I can’t do it, Penelope.” I kissed her finger.
“Love me fiercely but hate me publicly. It is the only way we survive this. I want us to survive. That crown is mine, and we’re going to take it back. Together.”