Chapter 77 Black Like My Soul #2
“I know enough! I know that the choices you made when you were alive led to you almost losing your brother. The consequences of those choices cost you your life, for taking my daughter!” He dives for the gun.
I follow after him. He reaches the gun, but I’m faster and push it out of reach by the tips of my fingers.
He elbows me in the face and scrambles forward.
I grab him around the waist and pull him away from the weapon.
“Stop! I don’t want to hurt you. I just need you to listen!” I shout.
He twists around and knees me in the chest, knocking the breath out of me.
Despite the pain, I lean forward, covering his body with mine. I punch him in the ribs, hearing the crack when my fist connects.
He roars in pain and falls to the tiled floor, clutching his side.
We both pant from exertion our bodies can’t handle.
But I know Anders. He won’t give up. I gulp down some air, ignoring the pain in my chest. I climb onto the bed and retrieve the gun.
This time, I remove the bullets, toss them to the far side of the room, and throw the gun in the opposite direction.
I offer him my hand to help him up, but he snarls at me. I slide to the floor next to him. “How did you know?” I ask.
“How did you keep that a secret from Tyler?” he counters.
“You told Tyler that the investigation of my death was a dead end. You lied to him.”
“Answer my question.”
“You first,” I challenge.
He groans, shifting his weight to a more comfortable sitting position.
“When Tyler first asked me to look into it, there wasn’t much to report.
The investigation concluded that the explosion was due to mechanical failure and a possible fuel leak.
In truth, the investigation died because they were paid off to look the other way.
Since you were an asshole when you were alive, no one really gave a shit about what really happened.
But I felt for Tyler and wanted to give him some answers. So, I looked into it myself.
“At first, I was led astray. The more I looked into it, I learned it was a hired hit. The only ones I knew who would accept a job like that were those kids from the slums. But a couple of them were your friends, and they even helped to save Tyler. It wasn’t likely to be them. Like I said, it was a dead end.”
Anders’s explanations are usually more direct. He’s hiding something. He knows exactly who killed me. “You’re covering for someone. Otherwise, why else would you be so determined to come at me?”
He turns away, but not before I see a flicker of emotions cross his features. “It was my mate.”
“Your mate?” How could she possibly have known it was me?
The guards watching over her were paid off to look the other way.
For insurance, I used my magic on them, threatening to make their worst nightmares come true if they ever told anyone.
Thinking on it now, I later learned that those same guards were murdered by a prisoner who escaped… Oh!
His breath catches. “I put her in that hell, when I accused her of murdering the Alpha King, based on false information. I wasn’t sure how true this information was either or if it was another attempt at setting her up. So dropped it. I owed her that.”
He stares at the wall with a faraway look. The whites of his eyes redden.
“If those two guards were still alive today, I would be looking for them right now, just so I could kill them with my bare hands—those fucking traitors. I didn’t know she was pregnant and that she gave birth while in captivity.
When I realized my mistake and went to release her, it was too late.
They were already dead, and she was gone,” he whispers, almost to himself.
He blinks several times before refocusing on me.
“When I recently learned that my daughter had been taken during my mate’s captivity and raised in Territory Two, the truth became impossible to ignore. This time, I’m certain she did it.”
I drop my chin in defeat, knowing I deserved her vengeance. But Anders doesn’t understand that I did it to protect Tyler. “I didn’t have a choice,” I explain.
“Everyone has a choice! You chose wrong!” Anders yells, grimacing in pain.
I rest my head back against the mattress of the hospital bed and close my eyes.
“Why can’t you just listen? When Wade found out that Tyler had magic, he used that as leverage against me.
Tyler is my weakness, and he knew he could control me to protect him.
I kept that memory from Tyler because I didn’t want him to know I involved him in taking her.
Wade made me use his magic to breach the prison to take her.
” I wait for another explosion, but he just sits there and closes his eyes.
“I spent years gathering as much information on Wade and everything Resistance-related I could get my hands on. I was going to use it as leverage against him to keep my brother safe. I always had intentions to take them down. I just needed to play the part Wade wanted me to play.”
Anders remains silent. The air between us hangs thick with tension for several long minutes before he speaks again.
“I want your word that you will stay out of Jessica’s life.”
“I can’t,” I say softly.
“I’m not giving you a choice! Stay the fuck away from my daughter!” He grabs onto the bed to pull himself to his feet.
“I can’t!” I shout at him, “She’s my true mate! Mine! Not Tyler’s, mine!”
Anders eyes widen in surprise. “No,” he whispers. His eyes dart wildly around the room. He starts to spin around.
Slowly, I stand before him, words tumbling out before he can say anything else. “I never intended to leave her in Territory Two. I just needed time to get what I needed so I could save both of them.”
He ignores me, eyes scanning for the scattered parts of the gun I’d disassembled. I can’t look at him.
I remember the first time I cradled her in my arms. She smiled at me, and in that instant, our bond clicked into place.
I was a teenager, and she was just a baby.
I had no idea what that connection would come to mean.
For the first time in my life, there was another innocent life besides Tyler that I wanted to protect.
“My soul recognized her the moment she walked through the door of your office. I knew exactly who she was before Tyler could even grasp what was happening. She’s mine, Anders.”
“I don’t care what she is to you. I need you to stay away from her!”
Limping forward, I place my hand on his shoulder, needing him to look at me. “I’m already putting some distance between us, but it won’t last long. Tyler needs her in his life.”
Anders’s face screws up in anger. “I don’t want him near her.” He shoves my hand away and turns.
I grab his upper arm and squeeze tight, forcing him to face me.
“His love for her is beyond a true-mate bond, beyond anything I have ever seen before. Despite his memories being taken away, his love for her still remains strong. He didn’t save you because of an unspoken bond you share.
It was because you are important to her.
It’s why he hesitated to kill her. In the last moments when he was dying, he remembered her.
If you stand between the two of them, then all hope of him returning is lost.”
“I’m removing Tyler from the guard. He’s fired! Done!” He yanks his arm out of my hold.
“Losing the guard, you, and Jessica will destroy him. He loves you like a father. Don’t do this to him. It’s not his fault!” I plead.
“This conversation is over!” he growls, limping his way to the door.
I hobble after him and drop to my knees. “Please!” I shout at his back.
His hand hovers over the door handle.
“I know I will never be worthy of your trust. I know that the person I was will never be worthy of Jessica. Despite what you think of me, I will do whatever it takes to protect both of them.” I drop my chin.
“I love them. They both mean everything to me. Please, don’t turn your back on me.
Don’t give up on me, on Tyler. I need your help… I’m scared.”
Tears glide down my cheeks, and I swallow down the knot in my throat. “I’m terrified this plan will fail, and that both Tyler and Jessica will suffer for it. I need you, Anders—more than I ever needed anyone.”
He shuffles his feet.
“Please,” I beg.
When the door closes behind him, I slam my fist into the ground. The world around me crumbles to dust.
“Anders!” I scream.
Once I thought I was a king—that nothing could break me. I was wrong. I see that clearly now.