Chapter 12 #2
"Peyton, you’re breaking our agreement,” I reach for her arm in a desperate attempt to remind her that she’s supposed to stick close to me no matter what. There’s still a huge possibility of danger tonight. Silas is still at play.
She jerks away like my touch burns. “I said, don't touch me. The one true thing Edmund said tonight is that I can’t trust anyone. You played me, Blake Delano, but I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
I lie for a living and have never felt any sort of way about it, but in this moment, I feel like complete shit. I’d been avoiding this conversation, this confession, since the moment I spotted her on the terrace. I’ve never regretted anything more.
"Stay away from me, Blake. I mean it. This partnership…it's done."
She walks out.
I move to follow, but Edmund's voice stops me.
"Let her go. She needs time to process and realize that her only real option is to accept my offer."
"She'll never accept it."
"She will because the alternative is elimination, and despite her brave words, Peyton wants to live." Edmund pours himself more scotch. "You, on the other hand, your uncle is waiting. You should go and see about him.”
My patience for this arrogant son of a bitch has come to an end. I pull my gun and aim it at his head. It would be so easy to shoot him and put him six feet under. The world would be a better fucking place for it.
“You should be more worried about where my uncle is than me,” I tell him coolly.
“You want to shoot me, Delano?” He doesn’t even flinch.
“You’ve threatened her life twice tonight. It would be my honor to pull the trigger.”
“She's safer in my ballroom tonight than she is with you." He mocks with a cruel smile. "After all, you're the one with a history of getting the women who trust you killed."
The words hit like a physical blow because they ring true. My mother trusted me to be strong after my father died. She drank herself to death while I was off trying to be the man the family wanted. Lila asked me to help her. She died alone because I was too indifferent to act.
And now Peyton—
"Get out of my house, Blake. Go back to your uncle and play whatever role he's written for you. But stay away from Peyton. You've done enough damage."
I step closer to him and aim the gun at the center of his forehead, pressing it into his skin. “No, you stay the fuck away from her, or I promise you, I will burn all this shit down with you in it.”
I leave the study, move through corridors that feel like they're closing in, and emerge into the gala where Christmas music plays, and people laugh, and nothing looks like the nightmare it is.
I scan the area for Peyton, find her near the windows with Helena. The Frost Society matriarch has her arm around Peyton's shoulders and is speaking quietly, intently. Protecting her. Good. If she doesn’t trust me, at least there’s someone she can lean on.
Talia appears at my elbow. "What happened? Why is Peyton over there, and you are over here?”
"Edmund told her something about me that she’s pissed about.”
“What?”
“I met her mother.”
“You what?”
“Before I left town, I met Lila. She came to me for help regarding this Kingsley shit, and I turned her away."
"Jesus, Blake." Talia's voice is pained. “Have you fucked her?”
“Yes,” I exhale harshly.
“When the hell were you going to tell her about her mother, Blake? After you got her pregnant?” she scolds.
"I was going to tell her. Eventually. I just didn't know how. Didn't know when." I run a hand through my hair. "And now she hates me. And I can’t blame her. I deserve it."
"What you deserve is irrelevant. What matters is keeping her alive." Talia's pragmatic, always has been. "Silas is here, somewhere in this estate, and the fact that he’s not walking around, politicking, is a red flag."
“How do you know he’s here?” I don’t see him or any of his flunkees.
“Because Luca’s here.”
Our little brother.
Shit.
Talia notices my face drop. I hate that my brother could be part of an off-the-rails plan that Silas thinks he can actually pull off.
“Okay, plan adjustment,” Talia says. “You protect her from a distance." Talia's jaw sets. “I’ll find Silas or corner Lucas, and we’ll stop whatever he's planning. That way, we keep Peyton alive whether she wants our help or not."
"Where's Nico?" I ask.
"Haven't seen him.”
“Which either means he's avoiding us because he knows the setup failed, or he's wherever Silas needs him to be."
“Or he gave us the intel and got out of dodge because he doesn’t want to be part of it like he said.”
“Wishful thinking, T.”
My phone buzzes. Unknown number.
Unknown: Second floor. East wing. Come alone. We need to talk. - Silas
I show Talia.
“Nope,” she says immediately.
"I need to know what he's planning. Need to buy time for Helena to get Peyton out of here."
“We don’t even know if Silas is actually planning anything.”
“That’s what I’m going to find out, and based on this text, I’m sure he’s dying to tell me. Stay with Peyton. Text if you need me. That's all that matters now."
“Be careful.”
I head for the east wing, toward whatever trap Silas has waiting, and hope that this time, I can talk him out of a scheme that will destroy the Delano name forever.