21. Chapter 18 - Hillary
C ontent warning: This chapter includes descriptions of sexual violence.
Breaking every speed limit in the county, Lucky arrived at the Palace in record time. His driving skills impressed me while I panicked beside him for three solid hours, even as my mind whirled with every single possibility.
I’d scrolled through the camera footage for hours in real-time, trying to get any clue how Alec did it. He’d disappeared from the corner camera for hours last night. Then, out of nowhere, all the doors to every cell sprung open.
Alec had immediately taken off down the corridor, seizing his chance to escape. Sandra had suspiciously peered around the doorways, tentatively moving down the hallway to the exterior door before racing in the opposite direction.
That was it—all the information I had. Alec must have been planning this for a while. However, I was determined to understand how before the day was out.
Now—now I had to decide the man’s permanent fate. Kellan’s call confirmed Sandra was no longer on this side of the dirt. No part of me was upset about it. If anything, I was relieved the decision to kill her was no longer in my hands, that the universe had taken care of that for me.
Well, the universe in the form of my broody Viking who’d scoured the woods on my behalf, then vanquished my enemy as if she was his own.
Gratitude replaced the fear in my heart for a moment. All three men had come to my rescue tonight. None of them had hesitated to leap into the fray when I came calling, and every one of them had followed through.
It appeared I had a few devils in my corner, after all.
I owed them an explanation. I eyed Lucky as we got out of the vehicle; he’d said very few words on the drive, proving he had the capability of being serious when the time called for it. As much as I didn’t want to bring him into this circle of trust, it was now impossible to avoid.
He had taken care of me in my most vulnerable moment last night, and he continued to do so into daybreak. Whatever this was between us, I owed him an answer as much as the rest.
After we dealt with Alec. The man was still breathing, according to Aaron’s last text, and I’d need to rid myself of his torment once and for all.
Lucky followed close behind as I moved down the dark hall and through the secure doors, abruptly stopping at Alec’s cell.
Aar on had situated Alec on the toilet in the corner, binding his hands and feet with some sort of string. Deep gashes trailed down both of our captive’s thighs, thick ribbons of…
Holy fuck, was that skin ?
Lucky let out a low whistle of surprise as we both stared, mouths open, at the scene beyond the room.
I’d known Aaron since we were children; his collected quietness had never been mistaken for weakness by any of our peers. Everyone took it for the warning it was; the man was a coiled snake, calmly waiting to strike when it suited him.
I’d seen him strike in the boardroom and in the bedroom; I’d never been on the receiving end of his spoken blows, but I’d always known he harbored a vicious darkness within him. Vicente and Veronica had raised a hardened wolf in sheep’s clothing; a brutal killer poised to take over a poisoned crown.
In all those years, I had never actually seen it, but I’d known, deep in my heart, what he was capable of. His sadistic energy called to me, like we were two parts of a whole.
I watched Aaron slice another strip of flesh, this time from Alec’s shoulder blade. His screams were barely audible behind the three layers of protective glass. My Knight carefully pulled the strip with his gloved fingers and tossed it on the floor.
“Sick fuck.” Lucky’s voice was barely audible beside me, but he failed to hide the awe in his tone. “Didn’t know Mr. Roboto had it in him. Malicious creature, in’t he?”
The entrance door to the corridor banged open; I turned to see Kellan limping down the hallway, the fierce frown on his features embodying a true Viking warrior in every way.
I raced to his side and threw my arms around his waist, breathing in the overwhelming scent of fresh mountain air and the faint residue of gunpowder on his skin.
“ Thank you.” I pressed my cheek into his chest, not bothering to swipe away tears as they fell freely onto his jacket. Strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me deeper into his hold. The palm of his hand cupping the back of my head, he gently tilted my face upward to stare into his eyes.
I didn’t get the chance to see any of the emotions swirling in the dark blue depths; his mouth descended on mine in a fierce claiming; my tears soaked into his beard as his tongue forced its way between my lips, as if trying to suck away every portion of my pain.
He stole the breath from my lungs, the thoughts from my mind, and every panicked modicum of fear from deep within my gut. His firm mouth molded into something gentler—the touch of our lips conveying far more than our words ever could.
“Good to see you, Big Guy.” Lucky nodded to Kellan in a rare show of deference when I pulled away from his hold. Kellan grunted in response, but it didn’t hold the typical ire usually reserved for our Irish companion.
As if an afterthought, Lucky added in a softer voice. “Thanks for protecting Mo Mhuirin .”
The phrase was smooth as melted butter on his tongue, but I had no idea what it meant. I quirked my head in question, but he didn’t indulge me, choosing instead to blow me a kiss and a wink before he gestured toward the window.
“Should we go rescue the fucker?” His brows rose as Aaron tore another, longer piece of skin from Alec’s calf, exposing a layer of grisly muscle beneath. “I’m all for a little blood play every now and again, but this is next level.”
The backlit greens glinted with mischievous energy as he sought our Viking’s gaze from the corner of his eye, the rest of his attention remained fixed on the gruesome tableau.
“Glad you didn’t choose that method of torture, Conan. Totally different type of edging, that.”
To my utter shock, Kellan let out a burst of deep, rumbling laughter; the abrupt resonance echoed off the concrete walls around us. The sound must have carried to the room beyond; Aaron’s head rose from his passion project. His caramel brown eyes were almost black as he stared back at us through the windowpane.
He slowly ambled toward the door—leaving Alec screaming in writhing agony—as if this were just another Tuesday. When he stepped out into the hall, I rushed to my dark knight and wrapped my arms around his neck, tugging his head down to mine for a brutal kiss.
He was covered in blood and all manner of human tissue, but I didn’t care. I’d bathe in every facet of filth with this man every time he brought justice to my enemies. The depravity in his method said he would burn the world down for me, without question, and punish anyone who tried to escape its raging fire.
Fuck if I didn’t love him fiercely for it.
Our tongues tangled with such desperation, it was like we were kissing for the first time—teeth clashing and lips everywhere, as if we would never feel each other’s bodies ever again after this moment.
“Thank you,” I whispered solemnly, staring into the dark eyes that filled some of my best dreams. “Thank you for your protection, mi caballero oscuro .”
“It is my honor to serve you, Mi Reina .” He bowed his forehead to touch mine, the gesture more intimate than any form of sex we’d ever had. I brought a hand to his cheek and swiped away a streak of blood before pushing around to face the others.
“Let’s go downstairs.” I grabbed Aaron’s bloody hand with my clean gloved one and waved the other two men to follow. “He isn’t going anywhere, and it’s about time I gave you an explanation for all of this.”
Ale c’s head lolled haphazardly to his shoulders, apparently having passed out from Aaron’s administration of pain. He was alive, but barely.
I’d researched the countless ways to kill a man, but “flaying alive” wasn’t in my repertoire of tricks.
“Will he bleed out?” I asked casually as I moved back down the concrete stairwell into the private oasis below.
“Unlikely,” came Aaron’s smooth reply. “It is supposed to prolong suffering for as long as possible. He will not die until you wish it.”
What a twisted, sadistic, thoughtful soul.
I led Aaron, Kellan, and Lucky back into the apartment and pointed for them to sit on the couches. Aaron raised a dubious brow, looking down at his sweater red-stained and flecked with what, I didn’t need to know.
“We’re going to have to abandon this site now anyway, Aaron.” I shrugged. “I don’t plan on salvaging the furniture.”
“And we’re going to need to get out of here as soon as possible.” Kellan’s gravelly tone brooked no arguments. “She made a call before I caught her, and I have no idea who she called or what she told them. We’re leaving by daybreak, no matter what.”
“I’ll be quick, then.” The smile I offered didn’t reach my eyes, the anxiety in my gut roiling like bitter acid as I prepared to tell them the story I never thought I’d tell anyone again.
The three men sat on the couch cushions—the same seats they’d taken during our Christmas festivities—a much more pleasant day. Instead of sitting with one of them, I leaned back against the wall and faced them fully.
“When I was in college, I met a woman.” I twisted my hands in front of me, the nervous energy in my veins leaking into my limbs. “At first she was just a friend, but over time, she became my lover.”
The jagged rock in my throat was nearly impossible to swallow, but I managed it, my audience patiently waiting for the punchline. I hadn’t allowed myself to think of Isabella in years, choosing to bury her memories under the load of my vendetta in her honor.
Unable to make eye contact, I cleared my throat and continued.
“Isabella was a spitfire. The most beautiful woman in the room. She came from a poor family and attended Barnard on a full scholarship, working her ass off to prove she belonged there.”
The bittersweet memories turned rancid the longer I held them on my tongue. My beautiful Carino . The girl who broke me.
“I was so young then, and stupid. A little rich white girl from a small town who’d never really tasted true freedom. Despite Daddy and Stanley’s arrangement to marry me off to Logan, I filled my days with studying, and my nights fucking and partying with her. We eventually moved in together in an apartment off campus.”
I realized in that moment that most of this information would be new to Lucky. My history wasn’t recorded in newspapers the way it was for some American heiresses; subconsciously, I’d let him into my life in its entirety—something I’d have to come to terms with, and confront him with—later. I raised my head to stare directly into the sea-green foam of his eyes; he stared back, conveying nothing but rapt attention, an unusually solemn spirit filling out his posture.
It gave me the reassurance to continue.
“We weren’t exclusive—we couldn’t be, with my fiancé at home, and two extremely homophobic fathers. So, we both agreed that while we loved fiercely in secret, we’d continue the guise that we were just best friends in public. And one day, she met a man that wasn’t just a beard—she fell for him.”
My bitter tone belied my unwarranted feelings of betrayal, even after all this time. I broke Lucky’s gaze and examined the creases in the floorboards, needing the distraction for what came next.
“It broke my heart, but the longevity of what we had didn’t exist. She would return home to Brazil when she graduated, and I was returning to Cascade Falls to work with Daddy’s companies, with plans to start my own.”
I filled my lungs with stale basement air and exhaled sharply—finally getting to the meat of the story; how my prisoner upstairs had come into our lives—the person who destroyed Isabella and took my innocence along with her. The man who’d changed everything.
“Alec Turner was handsome, charming, and successful, claiming to work as a hired contractor for a DC law firm. They’d met at a party and he’d immediately swept her off her feet. He was all she could talk about, but he never came around. I’d only met him a handful of times. He started giving me red flags when he didn’t want to join her and her friends, and she became more and more reclusive because of it. I’d raised it with her a few times, but every time she waved me off, thinking I was just jealous.
“I had been jealous. Isabella was everything I wanted in a partner—beauty, grace, poise, intelligence. Fiercely protective, and feisty as hell. But I was also right. With each passing week, she became a shell of who she once was.”
My audience must have forgotten to breathe. The apartment was as silent as a tomb, save for my lonely, shaking voice. I raised my eyes again, this time focusing on Kellan. The hardest man in the room to read on a good day, but the pensive look on his face felt like he was finally seeing me—through my bullshit, through my hardheadedness; just me in my rawest form.
I c ouldn’t delve deeper into that terrifying thought. Not now. I fixated on a point on the wall behind him instead. The slight crack in the drywall was far easier to speak to.
“Eventually, he wanted her to move in with him, and I begged and pleaded with her to stay with me. I didn’t trust him, or his intentions. When he came out with us, I’d watched him go off into dark corners of clubs to speak with known high-end gang members—the ones who peddled designer drugs and designer girls. I knew if she moved out with him, I’d lose her altogether.
“One night, she called me to come pick her up from a club. She was high as a kite, her dress torn in several places. I took her back to our apartment and cleaned her up, tucked her into bed, and promised to protect her.
“The next week, she disappeared with him again, and didn’t return until a few days later. I’d been ready to call the National Guard, and then she waltzed into our apartment like nothing had happened. There were faded bruises on her arms and legs, and two track marks in her arm that she insisted were bug bites.”
Aaron’s growl of anger broke my train of thought. My head whipped up to meet his vehement disgust, his pretty, pouty lips curled into a savage snarl.
He stared at me in challenge, as if taunting me to finish my story, so he could go upstairs to kill Alec himself; I had no doubt in my mind Aaron would strip the man’s entire skinsuit off his body if it would bring me pleasure. That kind of dedication was petrifying and yet so deeply comforting.
I unflinchingly met the challenge of his stare and kept speaking.
“I changed the locks on our apartment and kept a close eye on her, but it wasn’t enough. It happened again. She was flunking her classes and was clearly miserable. What I didn’t know was Isabella had been a victim of sexual assault as a child. An uncle. She was the textbook perfect victim for grooming, and Alec continued to make me out as the enemy, slowly working his way under her defenses with presents and nice words, and then threats of his disappointment when she was reluctant to do what he asked of her.”
Blistering heat crept up the back of my neck, and my throat tightened as I fought back the burning ache of tears. The shame had buried me under its weight all these years, yet still suffocated me as if it had been yesterday when I lost her.
How much hope I had in my heart that…
I swallowed the thorny vine that had crept its way up my throat and blinked back the haze of tears hovering on my eyelids waiting for gravity to take them.
“She was getting ready one night, and somehow, I convinced her to stay home and watch a movie with me. We drank two bottles of wine, laughed until our sides hurt, and passed out in our bed—the one we hadn’t slept together in in months—and I remembered feeling like I’d finally had my best friend back, even if we’d never be lovers again.”
Bile raged in my gut, the acid churning and biting viciously at my insides at what was coming; the strength of these memories was enough to knock me over with the lasting effects of disgrace, guilt, and scathing doubt.
Their expectant eyes on me, each man waiting for the terrible punchline to become their chant for vengeance in my honor. It would never be for my honor—I needed to honor Isabella. And all the women who’d fallen victim to scum like Alec. Like Alvarez.
“I woke up in the middle of the night with a man hovering over the bed, his hands wrapped around Isabella’s neck, strangling the life out of her. She barely fought back, her eyes glossed over with whatever drug he’d given her, and I struggled to move, incapacitated with whatever he’d given me, too. I was helpless, trapped in my body, as he raped her beside me, and then squeezed her throat until she couldn ’t breathe anymore. Until she never breathed ever again.”
The ravenous edge of that night’s terror trickled through me again at the memory. Terror of being helpless, of being useless. Terror I’d never hear her voice again.
The frantic need to control my limbs as he laughed at me, as he forced himself inside her, as we both lay helpless to stop him. How he’d angled me to my side, so I could watch the whole thing, how I saw the single tear escape down her face before all life left her tiny body.
My breath stuttered in my chest, the agony of that one life-altering night forcing its ugly head back into my heart. Isabella was the one person I’d ever loved—the one person I had allowed myself to love; without pretense, without an agenda—the most beautiful woman to ever cross my path. The last woman I’d ever allowed myself to touch; preserving her honor in some warped sense of duty. I couldn’t preserve her life, so I’d preserve who she was to me in death.
My will to defy gravity dissolved, and my tears slid down my cheeks in hot, angry rivulets of pain.
“A tox screen showed that he’d injected us with a paralytic used for anesthesia, but he left no trace behind, literally disappearing into the night. Daddy paid off the news outlets to keep any of this from the press, and her parents were told that she’d died from a drug overdose at a party. A fucking insult.”
Blind rage still overtook my senses every time I recalled her obituary. The most beautiful woman in the world never even had a proper burial service. Her parents couldn’t come to America for the funeral, so I had the body preserved and shipped to Brazil with my own savings. I paid for her burial plot, but I was a coward—in all the years after, I couldn’t bring myself to visit it. I couldn’t tell her buried bones I’d failed her.
Maybe one day I’d find it in myself to make the trek. Once she was properly avenged, and her memory was more than a solemn tale that filled my nightmares and walking daydreams.
I raised my wet eyes, braving their gazes for the faintest fraction of a moment before staring through the floor again: concern, anger, love.
They made no move to come to my rescue, knowing me well enough to understand my need for space to share this. If one of them held me right now, I’d shatter into millions of shards, and not one of them could glue me back together.
“He should have killed me that night, too. I don’t know why he didn’t—he’s never fessed up to it. Maybe because Daddy would have hunted him to the ends of the earth, and Isabella’s family would never have the resources to.”
I swiped my wet chin, angry I couldn’t hold off the tears. Angry the world was so deeply unbalanced, where the rich little white girl had the world in her pocket, when the equally talented, supremely intelligent Portuguese girl had been left to rot. Angry, despite how far I’d come, how many scales I’d tipped, these women and children still drowned in an ocean of inequity. I was a drop in the bucket, yet I had hung my life on the line on ill-advised hope that many drops would make the bucket overflow and eventually, I would win.
Eventually, she’d forgive me.
A deep, painful breath expanded my lungs and gave me the strength to finish the story—I wasn’t allowed to suffer a mental breakdown until the work was done. And the work would never be done.
“For weeks, I wished I was dead, too. I drowned myself in alcohol, locked myself away from the world. And then, I smartened up, and made it my mission to find him.
“When I did, he confirmed my suspicions. He was a trafficker. He located beautiful, exotic women on this side of American soil, groomed them, and then sold them to the highest bidder. Through my research, I fell into the darkest rabbit hole of sins. America had a mass network of women and ch ildren being coerced into sexual slavery. I needed to do something about it—to honor her. To atone for thinking I could handle it on my own—for not taking it seriously enough.”
I heard rustling from the couch. Then three masculine, looming presences got closer to me. I still couldn’t look at them. Not yet. They made no move to touch me, respecting the unspoken boundary as I let go of my heaviest secret. Another punch of gratitude hit my heart, warring with the immeasurable hole of loss.
“I built this place to hold anyone of Alec’s caliber, if I ever got my hands on them. I hired a network of mercenaries who could exact justice on the men and women who paid for the services of sex slaves. I invested in the system to protect the victims we could save.
“We’ve castrated over 100 men and saved over 500 children. And we’ve barely made a dent. I’m so tired of running around, pretending to play Batman, while these men continue to play God.”
A low whistle broke through my stilted declaration; Lucky. There. He finally knew who he was dealing with. The woman he’d been trying to steal from was actually a murderous avenger with a survivor’s guilt complex.
“I found out recently that Alvarez was running the girls back then. Alec reported to him. So, my nemesis of today is also the nemesis of my past. The universe is one hell of a bitch sometimes.”
My poor attempt at a joke fell flat. She was one hell of a bitch. This vendetta had become a life sentence, a torturous taunt of my worst nightmare on repeat—except it was no longer me trapped in my body, watching the woman I loved being raped and killed—it was the crescendo of silent screams of the many women being taken from their homes, forced to succumb to the same fate.
Chi ldren who became victims long before they experienced their first kiss, only to become perfectly groomed dolls, molded to meet evil expectations.
I finally found the strength to raise my eyes; terrified to see the cruel pricks of judgment or the simpering softness of sympathy. But when I searched the three men’s troubled gazes, I found neither; rich caramels lined with wrathful concern, dark navy icicles filled with brutal fury, and sea-glass greens with nothing but open compassion.
How different these men were, and yet—here they were. For me.
Salty drops slid down into my mouth as I pursed my lips and made my last plea. “This is deeply personal for me, and I need your help. I need you to help me kill him. For her.”
My eyes became the pathways to waterfalls now. Tears tumbled over my eyelids in rivers of pain I had never allowed myself to feel; the dam had finally cracked after too many makeshift repairs to salvage my sanity.
I sobbed and collapsed into a puddle on the floor; my resolve to keep my walls strong and impenetrable crumbled. Strong arms lifted me and carried me to the couch—the hard chest of citrus and amber let me know Kellan held me.
“I’m so sorry, Killer,” he soothed, stroking calloused palms down my back as he rocked me back and forth against him. “I’m so sorry.”
Gentle hands lifted my hair off my shoulders and moved to the base of my skull, massaging the scalp at the top of my spine. Lucky had moved behind the couch to offer his own version of comfort; I basked in his touch like a preening cat, desperate for their warmth.. A hand gripped my chin, tilting my head toward them; Aaron knelt at Kellan’s feet, leaning over both our bodies, his gaze held me securely.
“We will help you, Mi Reina . We will rid you of your first demon and then take over hell together. Yes?”
I hiccuped, the puff of air escaping in an embarrassingly girlish squeak before I burrowed back into Kellan’s chest.
Luc ky chuckled softly and placed a light kiss atop my head before standing, rounding the couch, and holding out a hand for me to take.
“Come on, Blondie. It’s time to let that peckerhead go. Roboto is going to lend you his little toy to take your pound of flesh, and then we’ll burn this dungeon to the ground.”
I leaned over to place a light kiss on Aaron’s lips, then let Lucky pull me out of Kellan’s arms. I stood awkwardly in their midst, feeling uncomfortable and exposed, my power draining from me with each admission of my most deplorable failures.
Aaron held out his hand and slipped the cool metal of a sharpened dagger into my grip.
“For Isabella,” he said firmly, then wordlessly he turned on his heel, leading us out into the cavernous basement.
Lucky wrapped an arm around my shoulder and steered me upstairs, Kellan on our heels, his commanding Viking presence protecting us at the rear. When we arrived at the last cell, Aaron held open the door and beckoned me in.
Alec lay on the floor shivering with shock, and a silky sheen of sweat beaded across the remaining skin of his body.
He was useless to me now—incoherent and bleeding out. Despite what Aaron thought, I was sure he’d die from shock within hours. I refused to let the luck of fate pull him from this world, not when I could take it from him.
I stood over his body, acknowledging it was truly time to let him go. Holding him in captivity to make him suffer had continued to make me suffer. I understood now that no amount of extended torture would bring back Isabella.
“For Isabella!” The words were a bitter declaration to lay my beautiful Carino to rest.
Without mercy, I drew back and thrust the knife with power into Alec’s chest, then twisted it sharply into his heart, exactly as he had done to mine. Blood poured from the wo und; Alec convulsed on the floor, twitching chest at odds with his frozen limbs.
I removed the dagger, then punctured his lung with another strategic stab, fascinated for a moment by the blood flooding into his throat and sputtering out of his mouth.
I withdrew the blade and cleaned it on the wool sleeve of my jacket. My gaze, though, never wavered from Alec’s eyes as life left them.
The grisly satisfaction I was waiting for did not arrive.
Not while Marco Alvarez still conducted the orchestra of unwilling women and children in our state.
Not while Antonio remained ready and willing to replace every aspect of Alvarez’s business with his own.
Not when there were more victims to avenge.
Nodding once, I spun on my heel and tossed the dagger to Aaron. He caught it deftly, spinning it on his finger. He bent down to Alec’s lifeless body and stabbed the knife into the man’s stomach.
“For Isabella,” he said solemnly, then handed the bloodied knife to Lucky.
The Irishman’s gaze was as severe as I’d ever seen it, and he didn’t break eye contact with me as he stabbed Alec’s corpse in the dick, wrenching it deep into the flesh before withdrawing the blade.
“For Isabella,” he said, then passed the weapon into Kellan’s waiting palm.
Kellan knelt over Alec’s face and plunged the stiletto into Alec’s eye. “ Som man b?ddar f?r man ligga, ” he spat, then yanked the grisly knife out of the man’s skull and wiped it on the blanket tourniquet across his thigh.
I grimaced at what was left of Alec’s body. The mangled, bloodied mess a scene out of Dexter against the stark white floor. I stared at it, cataloging every gruesome detail, determined to bring out this imagery every time my brain wanted to work against me with another nightmare.
It was sadistic and twisted and yet, the exact comfort I needed.
Alec was dead, and the burden of keeping him alive was no longer mine to carry. It was time to move forward with the rest of our mission. Sandra had made a call, and we needed to get moving.
Walking over to the corner of the room, I was determined to relieve myself of one more burden before we left.
How had he escaped?
Under the camera’s corner blind spot, I peeled back the padded framework to see a jagged hole cut out in the grouted tile, a series of electrical wires pulled down and sliced through with uneven edges—likely from sharp shards of the ceramic tile itself. It would have been painstaking work, and Alec wouldn’t have known necessarily what he was cutting into, but his persistence had paid off.
Until it hadn’t. Instead of being a captive in a warm cell with food and water every day, he was now dead. Served him fucking right.
“We’re going to need a fire.”
Back to bitch mode. There were plenty of villains still in this town, and we needed to get our asses moving if we were going to make every sorry fuck bleed through their eyeballs.
“Aye, that’s where I come in.” Lucky’s gaze strayed from the bleeding corpse on the floor to mine, a renewed light and purpose shining in his eyes. A little—well, a lot —of blood and bone didn’t affect him, apparently. “I’m a very skilled arsonist, Blondie. Leave that part to me.”
“Do what you need to do. You have ten minutes.” Direction delivered, I turned to my other two soldiers as Lucky scurried off with an excited whoop.
“Kellan, I need all records of this building destroyed. It’s registered under a shell corporation and won’t be easily traced, but just in case.”
He nodded and pulled out his phone, dialing a number quickly and moving to the corner of the room to murmur into the receiver.
Aaron stood in front of me, calmly awaiting my instructions. His once raging face was placid, as if he had already accepted this new direction of the plan, and was ready and willing to carry it out at a moment’s notice.
His loyalty and dedication to me pierced my heart like my dagger had pierced Alec’s, but I put the intensity of those feelings on pause for the sake of the mission.
“Aaron, grab whatever you need to bring with you from the basement. You’re going to stay with me. We’ll bring you into the building through my hidden entrance, and you’ll be on house arrest there for a little while. But you’ll have fresh air and lots of natural light, which is a little better than here.”
Guilt pricked the back of my neck that Aaron was exchanging one cage for another, but it was all we could do for the moment.
I made a vow to the universe I would get my Knight his life back. He would return to the company he’d built, the home he cherished, and the mantle he had been born and bred to lead.
We just had to kill Alvarez, destroy his parents, and go after Antonio, and then everything in our lives would go back to normal.
But most urgent—that call. Someone, somewhere, knew Sandra had been taken, and we had to find them before they found us. Or everything I’d worked so hard for to avenge Isabella’s death, the sacrifices I’ve made, the stains on my soul…
Would all have been for nothing.