“Who’s Damian?”
I looked at Ryan, and despite the fact that I knew I would do everything in my power to protect him from the man who had stolen my life, I felt a small shiver of fear pulse through me.
I didn’t want Damian anywhere near Ryan… but I just didn’t feel like I could lie to him about this. Damian was such a huge part of my life, and he was directly the reason I couldn’t stop killing people, even if I wanted to. Ryan needed to know.
“Damian Ryker is my… boss, I guess, for lack of a better word. He runs an underground organization called Apex.”
“And you work for this organization? Apex?”
I nodded, tonguing my lip ring. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if I don’t, Damian will kill my sisters.”
Ryan’s facewas so white that the makeup Naomi had put on him was no longer matching his skin.
“W-what?”
I nodded. “You heard me.”
“Why don’t you… go to the police?” He gasped.
I chuckled at how cute and innocent he was. My little ginger snap still believed that the world was an inherently fair place, where the good guys always won, and the bad guys always went to jail.
He didn’t know that the bad guys were usually posing as heroes.
Why do you think heroes always wore masks?
A part of me hated to be the one to take this comforting belief away from him. For a split second, I wished I had nevermet Ryan Fairview, and he could have just lived his life happily without me.
However, the thought was fleeting. I was a selfish fucker at heart, and now that I had found Ryan, I was never going to let him go. No matter how much it would be better for him if I did.
“Apex is…big,Ryan.It’s bigger than you can imagine. Damian’s influence runs deep. He has Supreme Court Justices on his payroll. How do you think he was able to walk into a soft room of a literal police station and obtain custody of me?”
Ryan blinked as he processed my words. I saw it the moment he realized what it was that I was telling him.
“How old were you when you met Damian, Cal?”
“Ten years old.”
“And what did… What did Damian do to you after he took you out of the precinct?”
I gestured to the room we were sitting in.
“Well, first, he took me here. Cass and Naomi came too. He set us up with a guardian and had Cass enrolled in school. Naomi was still too young, but when she was ready, we got her set up in a nice private school as well.” I grinned, remembering Naomi’s first day in her adorable little outfit. She hadn’t been nervous at all. Not like the other kids. She dove headfirst into the crowd of students, informing me that‘she was off to make some besties.’
I frowned at Ryan’s expression. “Don’t look so sad, ginger snap. This was the best thing that could have happened to us. If you saw where we lived before this, you wouldn’t be looking so upset,” I said, feeling terrible about makinghimfeel terrible.
Ryan swallowed so hard I could hear it. “And what about you? Did you go to school?”
I wanted to brush off that question. The answer was no, and I knew Ryan wouldn’t like that.
But the truth was, it wasn’t important what had happened to me. What was important was that Cass and Naomi got to go to school. Cassandra was so freaking smart. Even after missing out on her formative years of education, she still clawed her way into an Ivy League school and became the badass, high-powered lawyer she is today.
I gave her a hard time, but I was so fucking proud of her. She blew me away every single day.
And Naomi… She was this creative little social butterfly that got along with everyone. Even though she had this huge group of friends, she still always made time to stay home and spend time with me and read her books. Being able to watch her spread her wings and brighten the lives of those around her felt like such a privilege to me. I rarely thought about the fact that I hadn’t had a chance to go to school because it had never mattered to me.
