Rex walks over to the door, standing in front of it as they wait to hear back from Victor or Julian.
“He almost found me,” Alice says like this is just a day at the park. She doesn’t sound nervous or upset. She still thinks she’s going to get out of this alive. Fear grips my chest.
What if she does? What if Nix lets her go? I can’t live the rest of my life constantly looking over my shoulder.
“But I was able to disappear for a couple of years, so the trail he was on came up empty.” She sits on the bed that’s in the middle of the room and crosses her leg. “Then I heard you bought McKenzie, so I came out of hiding. Did she tell you the message I gave her the first time I took her?”
I pull my bottom lip between my teeth.
“She did.”
She looks at me, her eyes raking over me. “It’s about time.”
“You are a nasty human being.” I gesture toward Phoenix. “This man loves hard and you’ve missed out on it, but I haven’t. You’ll get what’s coming to you, whether it’s by my hand or his. You will never see another sunrise.”
Alice makes a cat fighting noise and smirks. Nix grabs my hand and turns me around to face him, ignoring her. He leans down and kisses me softly. “I love you,” he whispers against my lips.
I grip his waist. “I love you.”
He exhales, his breath washing over me. “I don’t deserve your love.” He swallows and closes his eyes.
“You do. You deserve all the love in the world, and I will give it to you for the rest of your life. I promise.” I kiss him again.
“I’ve calmed him down somewhat. I told him he can come in, but only him. He agreed,” Victor says.
Nix takes a deep breath and turns to face Rex, giving him a signal to let his father in. Nix pulls his gun out of his holster.How are they going to do this?I don’t think he’ll be able to torture his mother the way he tortured Bill. I don’t expect him to.
I glance at Dick. Him on the other hand? I wonder if Nix will let Rex do whatever he wants. When Anna and I were talking last night, I reminded her about us talking about killing him together, but she said she couldn’t. She’s not ready for something like that yet. I hope once she knows the people who hurt her are gone, she’ll be able to come out of her shell a little more.
Nix’s father enters, his eyes frantic as he searches the room. His eyes land on Alice and he sucks in a breath. “You’re not killing her, Nix.”
Nix places one hand in his pocket, keeping the other out as he rests his gun against this thigh. “I am, and there’s nothing you can do about it. She has hurt so many people, including my wife. She will pay for her sins.”
“Nix, I love her. I can’t live without her. If you kill her, you’re killing me.”
Nix shrugs. “Would she do the same for you, dad? Ask her.” Nix’s dad looks like he’s aged twenty years. He has dark circles under his eyes, the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth are pronounced, like they’re etched in stone.
He turns to Alice. “Alice, dear. Tell them you’d save me. Tell them.” She gives him a bored look and my heart breaks for him. I cover my mouth. “I’ve spent over a decade looking for you. I thought—”
“Shut up! You know I left. You made all this up in your head. You knew I didn’t love you, but you couldn’t let it go. You put this idea in Phoenix’s head that it was Marcus that took me, but youchose to be blind. You knew what I did and yet instead of being a man and telling your son, you turned him against a man that probably would have helped him.”
My skin tingles like a thousand tiny needles are poking me everywhere as Alice’s words sink in. He knew this whole time. It wasn’t a recent discovery.
Nix swirls on his father, his face red and his eyes blazing. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I told you…” Nix’s father stumbles over his words. “I told you she left.”
“But you knew what she did. You knew she killed McKenzie’s mother, and you did nothing about it. Why did you want me to hate Marcus so much?”
“He had the love of the woman I wanted. That’s why! I knew the day she walked down the aisle she didn’t love me, but I thought over time maybe she’d love me. Maybe. But she’d go into these depressive episodes, all because I wasn’t enough. We weren’t enough.” He rakes his hand over his beard.
“Then why would you want to save her?” Nix asks softly.
His shoulders slump in defeat. “Because as much as I try not to love her. I do.” Dick groans, and everyone’s attention snaps to him as he regains consciousness. His eyes widen slightly when he sees Nix’s father.
“Him, I don’t mind if you kill.”
Rex scoffs. “Oh, I will.”
