Chapter 43
LOCHLAN
“You have any idea how long you’re going to owe me for this?”
I roll my eyes at Ronan from the stern of the small boat, where I’m steering the piddly little outboard motor.
“I feel I don’t actually have to thank you,” I say tightly. “Since you’re my brother and helping with shit like this is sort of expected. Still—”
“Hold up.” Ro turns to smirk at me from the bow of the small boat. “Are you saying it’s expected for me to help you remove and hide a body that your girlfriend is responsible for—”
His mouth snaps shut when he sees my eyes turn to lethal points.
“Just fucking with you, Lochie,” he says, quirking his eyebrow. “Take it easy.”
“Not the time,” I growl.
He nods, any trace of humor gone from his face. “In all seriousness, I’m obviously taking this to my grave.”
“Appreciate you.”
“I know,” he chuckles.
The small motorboat Ronan and I just “borrowed” from the Knightsblood University boathouse near The Spire putts closer to the jagged plateau of rock just above the tideline.
After I found her, I scooped Galina up into my arms and carried her back to my room at Kingsward Hall. She told me that right after I took off at a dead run, Nacho started to ramble about his infatuation with her, saying he was going to take her to his family estate in Mexico and marry her.
Then he tried to kiss her, and she fought him off.
He got angry and tried to push her down and climb on top of her, which is when she reached for the rock and smashed it against his head.
She panicked and ran, and he chased her down the cliff path until he made a lunge at her, missed, slipped, and went over the railing to the rocks below.
I just held her and told her I loved her, and that she was safe now.
Then I tucked her into my bed and went straight to Ronan’s room.
“There’s a body we need to take care of?”
“Whose car we gonna take?”
I grin as I replay the exchange in my head. I mean, it’s a line from the Ben Affleck movie The Town, but Ronan and I use it with each other all the time as code for “ride or die”.
The boat bumps up against the rocky plateau with Nacho’s broken, shattered body crumpled on top of it. I get us parallel to the rock. Then Ronan grabs Nacho’s wrists and I take his ankles, both of us grunting as we swing his body into the bilge where it lands with a dull thud.
“So…Galina?” Ronan prods.
I nod as I turn the motor back on and steer away from the rocks, out toward the open Sound.
“Yeah,” I growl. “And?” My eyes level with him, waiting for a snarky comment.
Ronan just shrugs. “Cool. I like it.”
My brow furrows. “What. No biting sarcasm? No jokes?”
He chuckles. “Nah, man. I don’t know her very well, but I think I like her. And if she’s the reason you’ve been less of a prick recently, I like her even more.”
I grin and flip him off as we navigate across the inky black water, surrounded by the hazy, moonlit fog. When we’re about five minutes out from the cliffs, I kill the engine and tie two cinderblocks to Nacho’s belt loops.
There’s a dull splash as we heft him over the side. The cinderblocks plunge in next, and in seconds, Nacho’s body sinks beneath the surface and fades away.
“Hey, Ronan…”
“Just you and me, brother,” he says quietly. “And Galina, I guess. I don’t think anyone else needs to know about this one.” His face darkens as he nods his chin at the waves that just swallowed Nacho Castellano. “Not with that fucker's family.”
This isn’t going to just be forgotten about, of course. The Castellanos are one of the most powerful cartel families in the world, and there is a less than zero chance they won’t react violently when they find out their son and heir is missing.
But the cinderblocks will keep his body at the bottom long enough that even if it does float free at some point, the ocean and marine life will have erased any possible chance of knowing what actually happened to him.
Plus, he does still have that bottle of alcohol in his pocket, and if his body is ever discovered, that’ll paint a pretty good picture.
“Just the three of us,” I agree. “No need to involve Achilles or Drago.”
He nods, his brow furrowing as we look into the inky darkness splashing against the side of the boat.
“Hey, Loch.”
“Yeah.”
“She worth it?”
I smile as I crank the outboard motor back on. It sputters and churns to life as I turn us around and head back toward the boathouse.
“She’s worth everything.”
Galina’s not in bed when I get back to my room. I automatically tense, my pulse spiking wildly before I hear the shower running in my ensuite bathroom.
The held air in my lungs exhales and the tension in my body releases.
She’s okay.
But when I poke my head into the bathroom to check on her, I hear soft sobs. She’s standing facing the water, her palms against the tiled wall and her shoulders shaking as she trembles.
I shed my clothes in seconds. Galina doesn’t turn when I open the glass shower stall door and step in behind her, but when I wrap my arms around her body, she unclenches a little. She drops her hands from wall and turns to look up at me with tearful eyes.
“I—I did that,” she rasps, her face white. “I’m responsible for—”
“No,” I growl as I reach up to cup her face, stroking my thumb over her jaw. “You’re not responsible for anything. That was you surviving. You chose to fight, and you don’t ever have to apologize for that.”
Her brow knits, her gingery red hair plastered to her cheeks as she looks up at me with so much vulnerability in her eyes.
“Is…is he…”
“He’s gone,” I murmur quietly. “Ronan and I took care of it.”
She chews on her lip. “Is…I mean, will anyone ever—”
“No, baby,” I tell her as I slide my hand around her waist and pull her close, smiling softly as I lift her gaze to mine. “This ended tonight, and it won’t ever be coming back. Least of all to you.”
She lets loose a breath I swear she’s been holding for an hour. Her whole body crumples against mine, her shoulder sagging, choking out a tired whimper of elation against my chest.
“Hey, Lochlan,” she says, smiling a crooked smile at me. “Could I stay here tonight? With you?”
“I don’t think you’ll ever be staying anywhere without me again, little villain,” I murmur as I pull her closer, lower my mouth, and kiss her softly.
“Can we…” Her brow knits. “I mean…” She takes a breath and then exhales, looking up into my eyes as the water streams down her cheeks. “No more masks, maybe? I don’t mean online, but—”
“You asking if I’m ready to tell people we’re a we, little villain?” I grin. “Baby, I’m going scream it from the rooftops and tattoo it on my fucking forehead.”
She smiles as she sinks against me, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“I love you,” she chokes into my lips as she clings to me.
“I love you too.”