He stands, his body radiating with anger and tension as he hits me with a dark, pleading look. “Now all the light does is burn.”
Chapter 24
Kortez
Evie is different than the girl I left behind all those years ago.
We both grew up in an orphanage, and I knew she was touched by pain then, but this is different. This is pain without someone to share it with. Sure, she had Lurie, the woman at the center and later this Vivianne friend that I need to look into, but those early years she spent fighting her demons alone.
I once swore I would always be there at her back to pick her up when she fell and to protect her when she was wounded – not because I thought she was incapable but because I knew she was so fiercely independent that she would rather bleed out in the dirt than to ever let someone know she’d been hit.
I broke that vow, though. She bled in the dirt and had to crawl to safety on her own. Hell, she created her own sanctuary amongst the brambles.
Where does that leave me, though? Does she need a partner anymore? Has she lost faith in me?
Or am I too broken to be of any use.
I feel the warmth of her body when she joins me bythe window, my eyes watching as her son – Atlas’s son – cheers as he makes another goal against an imaginary foe.
“He has your eyes.” It’s the first thing I noticed when I saw photos of him hanging on the fridge this morning.
She laughs, the sound somehow familiar and strange at the same time. She’s my Evie, but different. Grown. She’s got thorns when before she was all soft petals and delicate morning dew. I’m not afraid to bleed, though. Especially not for her.
“He may have my eyes but the rest of him is all Atlas. The Italian blood is thick in that one.”
She sighs, turning around and leaning against my side. I don’t know if she means to or if it’s her body’s subconscious way of telling me it still needs my touch. Either way, I don’t question it. My arm wraps around her waist and pulls her close as I drop a soft kiss against her temple. “I’m sorry I left you.” My arm squeezes her tighter and eyes harden instead of letting the tears fall. “I thought of you every day. We tried to find you, but Aldo didn’t let us out of his sight for five years…by then we didn’t even know where to look.”
The only sound in the house is the shuffling coming from Atlas still digging through her shoebox of memories, nose purple and swollen from where Wylder broke it.
Wylder sits on the couch, his fingers flying over his keyboard as he sends a message to someone. I’m too far away to see the screen but it’s a subtle enough reminder that I need to get a tap on his phone as soon as possible. Roman may trust him but I don’t. I can’t afford to.
Where the hell did Roman sneak off to anyway?
An arm slides around my waist as she squeezes meback. “I didn’t want to be found.”
I can practically see the wheels spinning as she turns her head toward me, the sunlight from the window shining behind her and making her look like an angel come to save my soul – if that’s even possible.
“What happened in those first five years, Kor?”
I see Atlas look up at me, his eyes silently warning me to keep my mouth closed. He doesn’t want to scare Evie, but he doesn’t realize that she doesn’t scare easily. He still wants to protect her when all I’ve ever wanted was to fight by her side.
“Aldo wanted to mold me in his image. He said Atlas was too soft and he thought he could have a do over with me – and it worked to a point. He didn’t realize that if you back a wounded animal into a corner that it will learn to attack anytime it’s confronted. He didn’t realize he was turning me into a savage rather than a soldier.”
I feel Evie shaking in my arms and look down to see tears streaming down her face, her teeth biting down on her bottom lip to try and muffle her sobs. “I should have tried to find you.”
Atlas joins us by the window as he crowds in on her other side, a hand going to her back to rub in soothing circles. “Reginetta…”
She breaks away from us, walking back to the center of the living room where Wylder is now standing with a hard look in his eyes. “I was an idiot for thinking Atlas killed you. I owed it to you both to do more than just run away. To…to wish death upon the man I loved.”
My heart constricts in my chest as her words hit me.The man she loved. Man. Loved. Does she still love him? Does she love only him?
She wipes her face, laughing at herself as sheshakes her head. “I became a lawyer to get in with the criminal world.”
Wyld grabs her hand and whispers something in her ear. She gives him a subtle nod before continuing. “I knew one day the Valente name would pop back up and I would have my chance to get retribution.” She looks up and I feel Atlas tense at my side as she meets his gaze. “I was going to kill you.”
He crosses the room and grabs her right out of Wylder’s arms; his voice is barely loud enough to hear as his face leans down to get right in front of hers. “What a wonderful way to go.”
He swoops down and kisses her, their bodies going taut as their lips meet in a violent collision of a decade old passion. My eyes meet Wylder’s as Evie’s low moan meets my ears and I see the mutual understanding shining back at me in his golden orbs. We’re all in this together. None of us willing to give her up.
