62. Cassandra Walker
Iwas in love with Theodora Fairview.
There was no point in denying it anymore.
I fucking loved her.
So much so, I’d literally almost told her during the kinkiest sexcapades I’d ever had the privilege of participating in.
She knew I’d been about to say it too, and the look on her face when I’d pivoted at the last second had nearly shattered my damn heart…. But…
I’d only ever told one person I’d loved them before… and that person, unfortunately, had been my mother. I’d been four. And instead of telling me she loved me back, she told me I was a stain on the world and locked me in a literal cage in the basement for the first time.
After that pleasant experience, I’d sworn I’d never love anyone again.
But… I’d been wrong.
I’d realized it abruptly as Theo had crawled over me and looked at me with so much trust in those big, sorrowful eyes of hers.
At that moment, I knew I would happily spend the rest of my life doing everything in my power to deserve that trust…
I would give up anything to make sure this woman was never abused again.
Even my own happiness.
And you just didn’t do shit like that for people if you didn’t love them.
So yes.
I loved Theo.
I was in love with Theo.
But I sure as shit wasn’t going to say I love you to someone for the first time in my adult life when I was two seconds away from getting railed with a strap-on.
No.
Theo deserved… I don’t know what she deserved, but she deserved better than that.
She deserved flowers or… a great romantic gesture or… I don’t know.
Theo deserved the whole fucking world, and I was going to be the one to give it to her.
But I needed to do it right.
‘Maybe I’ll tell her at a nice dinner or something?’ I mused to my monster as I packed up my laptop for the day. I was leaving early for a Monday, but I couldn’t find one single fuck to give. Not when I had the most perfect, adorable, sweet, amazing woman waiting for me at home.
‘Surely you can do better than that. That’s almost as pathetic as Nolan’s cliche bouquet of roses.’
‘How is taking her to dinner pathetic?!’
‘You’re a vegan. Are you going to admit your undying love over a chickpea soup to a woman who still sneaks cheeseburgers in the shadowy corners of the underworld? Sounds like a wonderful night for our sweet street fighter.’
‘She likes vegan food!’
‘You like vegan food, and she eats it because she knows it makes you happy. What makes her happy?’
I frowned as I pressed the button for the elevator, and I mulled this over.
What made Theo happy?
She liked playing that violent cartoon game.
She liked fighting… I think. I wasn’t sure if she actually liked the sport, or if it was simply a means to an end for her… which wasn’t something I really wanted to dwell on.
Me.
She liked me.
But did she love me?
My monster rolled its eyes.
‘Don’t be daft.’
I smiled.
Okay. She definitely did.
Maybe a night at home with greasy cheeseburgers, Smash Bros, and… me? It didn’t seem like much, but maybe that was all Theo really needed to be happy…
Just then, my phone vibrated, and I slipped it out of my bag to see who was messaging me. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it was Vox.
‘Oh fuck. He has something!’
‘Open it,’ my monster urged, peeking curiously through the bars of its cage as I clicked open the encrypted messaging app the mercenary had installed on my phone.
My frown deepened as I realized he’d sent me a link to a digital folder full of video files.
The first one was titled Meredith.mov
One of the girls who had come forward with accusations was named Meredith. She was nine years old.
My blood turned cold, and I knew even as my thumb tapped the link that whatever I was about to watch was going to make me want to scrub the inside of my skull out with fucking bleach… but still. I needed to watch it.
I needed evidence, and Vox had sent it to me in a neat little digital folder.
The elevator dinged, but I ignored it.
All I could do was watch as my client’s voice echoed out from my phone.
‘Very good, Meredith. See? You’re a lady, and now you look like one, too. You look so pretty in those heels.’