Willow sat there for a moment, overcome by everything she’d just heard and seen.
Emotion bore down on her, leaving her feeling as though the dam she’d erected to keep all of her grief and anger and confusion at bay since Laurel’s murder was suddenly blown to pieces.
A sob wracked her, jagged and raw.
She got up from her seat and hurried to the door of the den, clumsily throwing it open and racing out before the tide of her pain and sorrow drowned her.
CHAPTER 21
“Fuck.”
Razor popped the flash drive out of the laptop and jammed it into his pocket as he vaulted off his chair to go after Willow.
Knox and Leni were still in the kitchen with Riley and Shannon. Judging from everyone’s concerned looks, Willow had already run through the room on her way upstairs to the attic guest room.
“Why’s Willow sad?” Riley asked, frowning at Razor.
Knox’s furrowed brows seemed to indicate the same question, although he didn’t say a word as Razor rushed past them all. He took the steps two at a time, reaching the closed door at the top of the stairwell in seconds flat. He knocked lightly on the wood panel and it creaked open.
Razor entered, his chest squeezing to find Willow seated on the end of the bed, weeping into her hands. Closing the door behind him, he went to her, gathering her into his arms.
She gave him no resistance, as if the weight of her emotions were too heavy for her to bear alone. He held her in a loose grasp, stroking her back as her sobs wrenched out of her and hot tears wet his chest through the flannel of his shirt.
He’d never seen her so openly distraught, not even on that first night they spent together in the Cheyenne motel, when she’d cried herself in and out of sleep. He hadn’t known what to do for her then, so like a coward he’d simply let her hurt alone.
He didn’t know how to lessen her pain now, either, but holding her through it was as much for himself as it was for Willow now. He couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering, emotionally or physically. Her pain was his, even though he had always assumed it would take a blood bond for him to connect on such a profound level with a woman.
He didn’t need a blood bond to know that how he felt about Willow would be part of him forever. He’d been falling in love with her little by little from the moment they met. Longer than that, because he’d known in his veins that she was his even when he could only watch her on his drone camera from afar.
He held her until her tears dried up and the sobs that had wracked her body subsided. Even after she was all cried out, her breathing resuming a normal tempo, she still clung to him. Razor dropped a kiss onto her soft brown hair.
For a long while he said nothing, giving her time to decide what she needed from him. Finally, she shifted in his arms, then slowly drew back enough to lift her gaze to his.
“Are you all right?” he asked her, his voice rough and quiet. He couldn’t resist reaching out to brush away some of the wetness from her reddened cheeks.
She inhaled a shaky, but steadying breath. “I don’t know what I am right now. Shocked. Sad. Horrified.” She let out a small, bitter sound. “I’m just so damn furious with her, Razor. I hate that Laurel didn’t think she could tell me any of this while she was still alive. Maybe we could’ve done something together to fix this.”
Tenderly, he stroked the side of her face. “Your sister was ashamed of her work, even though she believed she was doing it for the right reasons. You were the only safe place she knew to run to, but telling you what she’d done meant risking that she’d lose you if you knew the truth.”
Willow shook her head. “Instead, she kept me in the dark. She denied me the truth, which is as good as a lie. She denied me the choice when she should’ve given me the chance to know what she’d done and let me decide for myself.”
Razor struggled to keep his own guilt in check as he listened to Willow’s rightful anger. The lie of omission that had been gnawing at him all this time burned like acid on his conscience as he held Willow in his arms and tried to console her over losing her twin and the secret that had sent Laurel to her grave.
He hadn’t known what to expect when they opened the flash drive. Certainly not the explosive revelations that Laurel Townsend had delivered. Not only had she been involved in developing a cure for the Breed’s most feared ailment, but she had also inadvertently created a serum that in the wrong hands could be used as a tool for committing a slow-motion genocide on the entire Breed population.
Now, the fate of both those scientific developments lay in Willow’s hands.
If Laurel was correct, then now it was Willow’s blood that was the key to either saving the future for the Breed or risking its end.
“Laurel left you with another choice to make instead, Willow. What do you want to do with the information on the flash drive?”
She studied his face, those soul-searching green eyes reaching deep inside him. “What do you think we should do?”
He stilled at the question, and the weight it carried. “I can’t tell you how to decide that. You have to do what you believe is right.”
“Laurel seemed so certain she was close to success with her formula. What if she’s right? What if she really was on the verge of creating a true cure for Bloodlust? You said yourself that’s something no member of the Breed would turn their back on.”
He nodded grimly. “That’s right.”
