19. Bastien
Chapter 19
Bastien
We drove down the country road at full speed, a hundred and twenty kilometers an hour in the pouring rain, the tires unsafe on the slick roads. If we died in a crash, I wouldn’t be able to save her, but if I didn’t haul ass like this, I wouldn’t be able to save her either. “Turn right.” I looked at the phone, seeing the dot on the map out in the middle of nowhere.
Even though there was no road and it was just a field of dirt, my driver turned and drove over the dirt and mud.
“Keep going.”
It was a bumpy ride, over rocks and mounds of dirt, the SUV shifting and shaking from the uneven terrain.
The dot came closer. “Alright, stop.”
He hit the brakes.
I got out of the SUV so fast I nearly tripped. I sprinted forward, spotting the fresh grave immediately, a pool of water sitting on top of it. “No.” I grabbed one of the shovels Oscar’s men had left behind and speared it into the mud. I worked fast, throwing mounds of dirt aside, moving quicker than I did with my sets with the bar and weights.
Adrien grabbed a shovel and joined me, and then the driver did the same.
“Fleur, I’m here!” I threw the dirt aside, coated in mud and sweat in the pouring rain, all of us working and panting to get the dirt off as quickly as possible. But the deeper we dug, the more the water pooled, and I realized her coffin was already fully submerged. “Fuck!” My fingers found the locked hinges, and I snapped them free with my bare hands before I pulled off the lid.
She was fully underwater, her body floating.
For the first time since I’d found out what happened, I let the fear hit me.
I was too late.
“No…” I scooped her from the water, her limp body ice-cold to the touch.
Adrien froze at the sight of her, in so much shock, he fell to his knees.
I laid her down on the earth and immediately started chest compressions, tears pooling in my eyes. “Sweetheart, come on.” I pushed hard on her chest and didn’t care if I broke her ribs. I pushed and pushed then sealed my mouth over hers to force the air into her lungs before I pushed on her chest again. “Fleur, come on. Please…fucking come on.”
Adrien sobbed just like he had at the house. Fucking useless.
She suddenly jerked to life, gasping for breath as her eyes snapped open. Then she coughed, expelling water from her lungs.
I immediately rolled her over so she could get it out and not swallow it again. I held her there, her face away from mine, and that was when I felt the tears burn my eyes and break free. I listened to her cough and gasp, coming back from the dead because I’d fucking begged God to let her stay.
When her coughing subsided, she rolled onto her back and looked at the sky, feeling the rain pour down on her face. She turned her head to lock her eyes with mine, and she released a shaky breath, her eyes watering at the sight of me.
I scooped her into my arms and pulled her close, feeling the pulse in her neck against my thumb. I held her in the pouring rain, my chest aching from the way I breathed so hard, and I forced my tears to stop.
“I knew you would come for me.”
We pulled up to my estate, Adrien still in the car with us.
Fleur said she didn’t need to go to the hospital. She just wanted to go home, and by home, I assumed she meant mine.
Adrien stayed in the car, and I helped her to my bedroom. She was covered in mud, and so was I. Whatever clothing she wore before was impossible to decipher now because it was thoroughly destroyed.
She headed to the bathroom first and started to drop the muddy clothes on the floor.
I stayed by the door. “I’ll be back.”
She turned her head so fast. “You’re—you’re leaving?” Her tone was packed with ice-cold fear.
“I’ll be back in an hour.”
“But I want you to stay. I need you to stay…”
I couldn’t stay even if I wanted to, not when I was so angry I could tear down his house with my bare hands. “I have to, sweetheart.”
“I almost died?—”
“And I’m going to kill the assholes who are responsible for that.”
She finally understood and didn’t ask again.
“Turn on the news when you’re done in the shower.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to see what I did to them.”
Adrien and I returned to Oscar’s residence. My men still maintained control of the perimeter, and the police didn’t interfere. Luca was there when I showed up, in his vest and with a shotgun. “You got her?”
I nodded. “If I’d gotten there a minute later…”
He gave a nod in understanding. “How do you want to play this?”
“Execute the men who buried her. Oscar is mine.”
“Let’s do it.”
We strode into the house, the marks from the explosion still visible on the walls. His men were still dead on the floor, having bled out and marked the rugs and furniture.
Oscar hadn’t tried to run and was where I’d left him, sitting in the armchair with dried blood on his face, like he hadn’t even gotten up to clean it. He was holding his shoulder at a weird angle, like his collision with the wall had broken something. “Did you get her in time?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “I’m glad to hear it?—”
“You violated the code, Oscar.”
“I didn’t know she was your girl, Bastien. I thought she was Adrien’s.”
“Whoever she is doesn’t matter. Because the code pertains to all women, regardless of which man she’s in a relationship with. You may not like how Adrien conducts his business, but that doesn’t give you the right to abandon the code you vowed to honor.”
Oscar got to his feet so he could meet my gaze. “Adrien had the chance to spare her, but he chose not to.” His eyes flicked past me to where Adrien stood behind me.
I slowly turned to look at him, eyes narrowed. “Explain that.”
Adrien shifted his gaze between us. “He said he would let her go if I gave him all of my clients.”
I tilted my head, expecting a better explanation than that.
Adrien continued. “But if I did, my clients would come for me and my entire family, including Fleur. There was no way I could save Fleur, no matter what I did.”
“You agree and then come to me. You don’t let them bury the woman you love.”
“It all happened so fast?—”
“ I should fucking kill you too .” Fleur had endured all of that because her piece-of-shit ex was too stupid to think on his feet. “She almost drowned in mud, and you’re equally responsible for that.”
“Bastien.” Oscar addressed me gently. “I never would have come for Fleur if I’d known.”
“What kind of fucking excuse is that?” I turned back to him.
“Yes, I violated the code, but I never would have touched someone who’s important to you. You know I speak the truth. It was an honest mistake.”
“No such thing as an honest mistake.” I turned back to Adrien. “You cheated because you wanted to cheat.” I looked at Oscar again. “And you almost subjected an innocent woman to a brutal death for your own agenda. Those are not mistakes.” I stepped away and motioned to Luca. “Take him to the car. We’re going to Notre-Dame.”
Oscar didn’t know my plan, but he knew that was where he would die. “Bastien, we’ve known each other for years?—”
“Shut up, Oscar.”
The guys grabbed his arms, and Luca zip-tied his wrists together.
“I’m sorry.” He tried to come toward me, but the guys pulled him away. “I said I was sorry.”
“ You’re sorry ? My woman almost fucking drowned, and you’re sorry?” I came at him and punched him so hard in the face I bent his nose in the other direction. More blood poured down his face and seeped into his mouth until he coughed it up. “I will burn you alive as you hang from Notre-Dame, and all of Paris will see you die the death of a traitor.”
They started to drag him away.
“Bastien, please.”
I ignored him and stared at Adrien, my next victim.
“The Aristocrats will have your head for this!”
“Then I’ll burn them next.” I continued to stare at Adrien and listened to them drag Oscar out of his own house and into the car.
I would thoroughly enjoy ending Oscar’s life, but I hated Adrien far more. “If it weren’t for Fleur, you’d be hanging right next to him, charred to a crisp and being pecked by the crows.”
He held my gaze with a lack of confidence, and when the anger in my stare became too much, he looked away.
“You better get on your knees and thank her.”
His ankles were secured to the rope that was tied to the gargoyle statue on the very top of Notre-Dame. We made the climb to the top, no one to stop us from doing whatever the fuck we pleased.
“Bastien, don’t do this. How long have we done business together?”
I ignored him and grabbed him by the back of the shirt.
His hands were bound behind his back, so there was nothing he could do except twist and turn hopelessly.
“Bastien, please don’t do this.”
I threw him over the edge.
He screamed as he fell fifteen feet, face first toward the street.
It was five in the morning, so we only had an hour or two before sunrise. We had to do this now, to make sure the fire would burn bright like the anger in my heart.
“Bastien! My wife. My kids.”
“You’re lucky I won’t do to them what you did to mine.” Luca handed me the canister of gasoline. I twisted off the cap and poured the contents down the rope, watching it seep down until it splashed on his boots then doused the rest of him.
It got in his mouth and nostrils, and he did his best to spit it out, making his body sway slightly. “Bastien, come on. Don’t do this. Don’t fucking do this.”
I pulled out the pack of matches from my pocket then lit one, a little flame at the tip.
Oscar had to crane his neck to look up at me. “No. Bastien, no. Come on, I’ll do anything.”
I dropped the match on the top of the rope, and instantly, the flames broke out and sped down the fibers toward Oscar. The blaze was ravenous for fuel, charring the rope. The second the fire hit his boots, he screamed, and then the fire engulfed the rest of him.
His earsplitting screams reached all of Paris, begging for it to end even though there was no going back now. He burned alive as he hung from Notre-Dame, a fire in the City of Light, a bonfire of treason and betrayal.
I stared down at him and watched him scream as he burned, felt the rage in my heart burn brighter as I watched him suffer, knowing my girl had suffered the same way when she’d run out of air and inhaled the water into her lungs. I felt nothing as I watched the flesh char over his bones, felt nothing as I started a war with the Aristocrats, my former allies.
I’d declare war on this entire fucking city for her.
He finally went quiet, his body still on fire and slightly swaying.
Luca came to my side and stared down at his body. “The rest of them will come for us.”
“I don’t care.”
His hand moved to my shoulder, comforting me like I’d lost Fleur…because there was still a chance I might. I might have saved her, but I didn’t save her soon enough, and whatever we had might not be enough reason for her to stay.
I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to leave.
I wouldn’t stop her if she walked out the door.
I’d let her go.
The story of Bastien and Fleur continues in the next installment of the Fifth Republic Series: The Saint.