After we hang up, I think about the red dress I plan to wear. I really wish Amos could come—even though that makes me a coward. Just thinking about seeing Nora and Ramon again makes me want to hide at home.
“This will be the last one I attend,” I promise myself.
I can make a generous donation next time, but there’s no way I’m spending the rest of my life helping my mother pretend we’re a happy family.
Chapter 45
I’m mentally exhausted and wondering when this hell will finally be over.
Once again, the sons of bitches slipped away. The lead came too late. It’s like they can anticipate our every move.
At least there was one positive thing in this week from hell: Blood just informed me that the FBI discovered it was a nurse who tried to poison the children. Apparently, he had ties to the pedophiles—he himself was a small link in the chain of sick bastards, since the Feds found a significant amount of child porn on his laptop.
This time, I had to fly out to the West Coast, but I’m planning to get back in time for that viper Nora's party tomorrow.
All I want is to go home and lose myself inside her body. To feel her arms around me and forget all the shit surrounding us.
My phone rings just as I’m getting ready to leave the hotel, and I see it’s Ethan calling.
I haven’t heard from him in weeks, but I knew everything was fine, or our men would’ve found a way to make sure any bad news reached me.
“We’re done here,” he says without any greeting, as if we’d spoken five minutes ago.
“One less,” I reply flatly. I’ve never lost a minute of sleep knowing monsters were being killed.
“One less,” he confirms. “Any news on Maria and Jonathan? Was the new lead promising?”
I run a hand through my hair and sigh, annoyed. “No. They slipped away again.”
“Damn.”
I know he’s just as frustrated as I am. Ethan doesn’t know the full extent of what I went through at the hands of those two, but he knows me well enough to understand how much it shaped who I am.
“What do you plan to do when you finally catch them?”
“Blood said he’ll give me a place where I can resolve thisproblemonce and for all,” I reply carefully—because even though our phones are untraceable, I’m naturally paranoid. “But I won’t take as long as I originally planned, because some things have changed since then.”
“What could’ve changed enough to dull your thirst for revenge?”
“I never said I’m giving up. Nothing’s changed. They will both pay.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. Taking them down isn’t the center of your life anymore.”
“No,” I admit—because for the first time since I started hunting this child trafficking ring, hatred isn’t the driving force controlling me.
Lilly—and everything we’ve experienced together, her limitless surrender—has come to mean infinitely more.
I’ve always killed without remorse, and with every bastard taken out, I felt better knowing I was saving the defenseless from their claws. But unlike before, Maria and Jonathan are now just another job. A duty to fulfill, not the thing that defines me anymore.
“How’s my sister?” He suddenly shifts the topic, and I wonder if it’s just me or if there’s tension in his voice.
Like me, Ethan doesn’t trust anyone. Maybe he sensed something.
“She’s fine,” I reply cautiously. This is the moment I should tell him everything, but even though it goes against my nature, I promised Lilly I’d let her talk to Ethan first.
“Have you been seeing her?”
“What the hell are you trying to ask, Ethan? Just say it already.”
