She was quiet, so I looked over at her. She was biting her lip, tears pooling in her eyes as she asked, “Of what?”
“I’m fucking terrified you’re going to leave me. I just fucking got you, and I’m afraid you’re gonna run. I know you don’t believe me when I tell you that nothing about the way I feel for you has changed. That’s okay. You have to work through that. I just need you to promise me you’ll stay long enough to do that.”
She pulled her hand back, and I rolled to my side. Catching her hand in mine, I placed it over my heart and held it there.
“You feel that, baby? It’ll stop beating if you leave. I can’t live without you, Grace. It’s why I couldn’t let you go.” I closed my eyes, knowing what I was about to say could be the end. But I needed her to know. “I wasn’t honest with you, Grace. Steele wasn’t the reason I wouldn’t claim you. Not the only reason.”
She tried to pull away, and I held her hand flat against my chest. “Not yet, baby. Let me say it, and then you can kick me out. Just please don’t leave.”
She didn’t say a word as a tear slipped from the corner of her eye and traveled over the bridge of her nose. I wanted to reach out and kiss the path it took, but I knew better. It would likely be months, maybe years before Grace let me kiss her again.
If she ever did.
“What I told you before about Steele. I knew there might come a day that I needed to make a stand.” I took a deep breath. “That I might need to take him out. I couldn’t let anyone think you were the reason I did that. I needed to make sure that I had the proof I needed, and I got it; otherwise, I never would have confronted Steele. And if you and I were together, it wouldn’t matter what proof I had; people would always believe I did it for vengeance because he’d abandoned you.”
I watched her face. I saw the moment she understood. It still sucked, but it made sense.
“It was always about protecting you, Grace. But it wasn’t just about Steele. I knew once I claimed you, there would be a target on your back. You would always be in danger because you were my old lady. When all this shit started back in December, it reinforced that. And then yesterday...” I couldn’t say the words. I knew this was my fault. I should have let her go. I should have kept her safe.
“He said something to me,” she whispered. “Right before he...”
“Baby, you don’t have to do this.”
“I do. I need to know why.” She closed her eyes, and I saw the pain, the humiliation. I wanted so desperately to shield her from this shit, and I made it worse by not letting her go. “He said this all could have been avoided if you’d just given him what he wanted.” She looked up at me. “What did he want, King?”
“He wanted Indie.”
Grace blinked at me. Confusion washed over her, and her brows crinkled together. “Indie? Why?”
I rubbed the back of her hand. She hadn’t pulled away from me and a spark of hope lit up in my chest that she’d one day forgive me and be mine. I blew out a breath.
“Indie is Vulture’s daughter.” Grace gasped. “But that’s not why he wants her,” I quickly added. “Indie was kidnapped when she was a child. It was just before she was supposed to start kindergarten. She grew up at a place called the Trick Pony until she was rescued by a Nyght Nymph. We learned something about Indie though. Something even Indie didn’t know.”
Grace stared at me. I knew the story I was about to tell her was unbelievable, and if I hadn’t seen what she could do with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it either.
“While she was at the Trick Pony, she was hypnotized and trained to be an assassin.”
Grace’s mouth dropped open, and for a moment, the dark clouds that haunted her disappeared, and I caught a glimpse of the woman she was before her life was turned upside down.
“He’d tried to trade for her when he had Banshee. But he underestimated us. I never would have traded Indie for Banshee. So his bullshit to you was just that. Bullshit. It was a way for him to get inside your head. It had nothing to do with Indie or you, and everything to do with me.”
She shut down again in an instant, and I knew I’d risked losing her by telling her the truth. But I didn’t want any more secrets between us.
My phone took that moment to ring, and I hesitated to pick it up.
“Answer it,” she said as she stood and moved into the bathroom. I watched her close the door and then rolled onto my back to glare at the ceiling.
Answering the phone, I barked, “What?”
“King, they’re gone.”
“Who’s gone?” I asked, sitting up.
“Stone, Ballistic, and anyone loyal to them,” Zombie said.
“How many?” I asked, climbing out of the bed and reaching for my jeans.
“A dozen.”
