“It’s Marshall,” I say, my voice flat steel. “I need the jet. Wheels up in an hour. Flight plan San Diego.”
“I’m coming with you.” David says pulling out his phone.
I grab my keys and my jacket, my movements sharp. My chest is a cage too small to contain the fury tearing through me. All I hear is my own pulse, pounding like war drums.
We walk out of my office, our steps fast and purposeful. As we pass the assistants' area, I see him.
Julian.
He’s at his desk, head down, absorbed in his work.
I stop. The world turns silent around me.
David pauses a few feet ahead, watching.
I walk slowly, deliberately, to Julian’s desk. He looks up, and the color drains from his face when he sees the look in my eyes. He starts to stand, to stammer an excuse.
I lean down; my voice a low, venomous whisper meant only for him.
“You… snake.”
My stare pins him, sears him, strips him bare.
His breath hitches. Before he can react, I snap my fingers at the two men in black stationed by the elevator.
“Take him,” I say, my voice devoid of all emotion. “No phone, no computer, no contact. Keep him in the security room. He breathes. Nothing more. Not until you hear from me.”
Julian’s eyes are wide with pure terror as two guards flank him, lifting him from his chair.
They escort him away without a sound. It’s not a scene; it’s a silent, bloodless execution of my authority. A necessary precaution.
We don’t break stride as we head for the elevator.
David looks at me, the question in his eyes. “Dorian…”
I press the button, the doors sliding open. As we step inside, my voice is the promise of a reckoning.
“She thinks she can hurt Della to get to me. She’s right.”
I pause and turn to David. “But I swear to you, David… that’s the last mistake she’ll ever make.”
Chapter 23
WHERE THE LIGHT ENDS
Not all darkness is born in the absence of light
Della
SeaWorld Rescue Center has a wild energy. The air is alive with sounds of marine animals—playful chatter of dolphins, barking calls of rescued sea lions. The rhythmic splash of water against the pools completes this concert.
I close my eyes, inhaling the salty smell of the Pacific as the sun’s warm, healing touch makes me feel a world away from the shadows of Chicago.
A genuine smile—the unfakeable kind of smile, stretches across my face. It feels strange yet wonderfully familiar, like returning to a girl I used to know.
For once, my head isn’t a battlefield and my body isn’t tense. I can just… be.
No Dorian, no Leah, no ghosts. Just me, the sun, the water, Silvia and the crazy, beautiful pulse of marine life all around me.
