The name-calling must have shaken everyone into reality because we all stop in our tracks, but Sable. My mouth waters as I watch her take a knife strapped to her leg and sneak behind Arabella. I’m so fascinated, I forget to be scared for her. It all happens too quickly. Arabella is trying to open the door, Sable is silent as she approaches with the knife, and in one second, Arabella is complaining about her task, and in the next, Sable slashes her throat.
Soren’s rapist falls with a thud, blood pooling around Sable and ruining the beautiful gown Orion designed for her. We will certainly hear about it.
“Ara? Are you doing it?” Cillian cries from the closet.
I sigh and wait as Parker hands the key to Sable, and she opens the door with one clean swing.
“Sorry, Ara can’t talk right now.”
She’s a sarcastic goddess, and I’ve never been so fucking hard in my life. I’m never getting over this woman, that much is fucking obvious. I’m marrying her as quickly as I can. I need to be sure she’ll never leave me.
“What the fuck did you do to Arabella?” Cillian asks even though he knows the answer.
Sable doesn’t answer. Instead, she shows her knife, still shining with Arabella’s blood, and smiles so innocently it aches. Fuck me. She’s a wonder.
Our guest doesn’t look good. Every inch of him is covered in sweat, and his long hair has fallen loose from its tie in his effort to escape. For how hard he tried, he hasn’t made any progress. He breathes slowly, trying not to let us see just how tired he is now. He’s already worked himself out of energy before we even get started. His eyes are hard on Sable. The hate he lived his life carrying around now aimed at her.
“You shouldn’t have involved anyone in this, Cillian,” I say, and his eyes snap in my direction.
“Arabella knew this was risky. Playing with the four families always is,” he says, trying to justify her death.
“Yeah, you shouldn’t feel so guilty.” Sable shrugs. “I’d search for that bitch high and low to kill her for what she did to Soren. She just made things easier. Hadrian, please add a check beside Arabella’s name on our list.”
Hadrian laughs and makes a check in the air, keeping up with the joke. We are all crazy at this point.
“Let’s start with that one, Cillian. Why did you decide to help her drug and rape Soren?” I ask.
Sable flinches with the word, but there’s no other way to put it. If he was the mastermind, that’s exactly what he did.
“Rape?” Cillian laughs. “Please. He was always fucking Arabella. Are you going to pretend you didn’t want that?” He aims the question at Soren who’s face crumples.
“I didn’t want her!” Soren finally explodes, stepping forward and punching Cillian.
The pathetic man is too weak for this, but I don’t stop Soren as he goes for another punch and another. Blood drips down Cillian’s now broken nose, and Soren’s anger is not close to being quenched, but he steps away.
“Care to answer now?” I ask, tipping my head to the side.
“Sable shouldn’t be here. She’s a bitch, but it’s wrong to bring a Colefax as the Offering. The four families were making amockery of our family names, and she was tainting our name by letting you do the same. She’s a Colefax heir!”
Sable shakes her head. “So because you thought it was a disrespect to keep a Colefax as the Offering, you made a plan to rape someone, you vile piece of shit?”
“I knew if you saw him with Arabella, you’d leave for good.” Cillian shrugs as if it’s not a big deal. “And you were standing in my way.”
“And you were the one watching all the time. The cameras, when Arabella went missing,” Parker takes a guess.
I wondered if Cillian wasn’t going to resist talking to us, but the smug expression on his face tells me everything I need to know. He’s waited his whole life for this kind of attention, and even though he’s bound and minutes away from his death, it’s worth the spectacle.
“Of course it was me. I had to know everything you morons were doing.”
“You’re the one who thought the four families would open their arms to you.” Sable scoffs. “Who’s the moron?”
Cillian’s face is swelling more by the second. “They couldn’t argue for much longer. If you hadn’t killed them, they would have come around.”
“They would have killed you. You’re one man claiming space at the table. If you wouldn’t shut up, they would have killed you and finished the conversation.”
The reasoning doesn’t work for Cillian. It’s sad, really, working his whole professional life under my thumb just to see his big finale wasted so easily. I’d feel sorry for him if I didn’t hate him so much.
“Did you really think this was going to work?” I ask.
