Right. Received the message loud and clear, you psycho.
“Haven is safe with me,” I promise.
Connor raises his eyebrows. “What about Killer?”
Good question. “I don’t want to hurt him.”
That much is true.
“That’s easy. Then don’t.” When I open my mouth, he holds up his hand. “I’m not telling you to go right back to him. Me and Haven opened up our doors to you. Take a day. Take two. I’m gonna have to deal with this anyway,” he says, gesturing toward Tony. “When you’re ready, I’ll tell Dallas you’re here. I’ll tell him about what this bozo said about Reese, too. And then… just don’t hurt him. Got me?”
I glance at the bloody blade he’s twisting around his fingers absently, not even looking to see if the metal will nick him.
I gulp. “I got you.”
TWENTY-THREE
PERFECT
DALLAS
Two days.
Two fucking days.
That’s how long Lucy’s been gone.
I’ll admit, I didn’t take it that well. When the security team admitted that she snuck out in plain sight, getting into a car, and driving off, I figured that was it. My buried suicidal ideation returned full force for the first time in a month, and if it hasn’t been for Adrian, I… I think I would’ve done it. Really done it. Maybe I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger myself, but I would’ve let them end me.
Only it wasn’t the old guard who took advantage of Lucy’s vulnerability and her hurt at finding out I lied to her for so long. While I was right and there were some of them who knew that I had her, that I planned on making her my wife instead of that perfect Offering, none of them had gotten to Lucy.
Oh, no. It was one of my motherfuckingbrotherswho picked her up and brought her home with him.
Luckily, it was Connor. Knowing him as well as I do, when he finally called me and let me know that Lucy was safe and sound,I couldn’t blame him. He said the magic words—Haven asked me to do it—and I knew that it wasn’t a matter of him betrayingme. His wife could hand him a button that would blow up the entire Fortress and bat her eyelashes and he would, then look like a forlorn puppy dog and say, “Haven asked me to do it.”
In the years after Lucy left, I couldn’t understand how he could let his obsession with one woman derail his life like it did. Of course, that was bitterness talking. Now? Lucy could ask me for the fucking moon and I’d figure out a way to pluck it from the sky and offer it to her.
But she doesn’t want the moon. She wants…fuck me.I don’t know what she wants, but the moment Connor’s call comes through, telling me where she is, telling me that I can come and get her, it doesn’t matter. I’ll give her whatever she asks for, whatever she wants, whatever it takes.
When I arrived at Connor’s place, I work hard to shake off my nerves. I had grabbed the keys to my truck before I flew down the elevator, ignoring the questions from the Order’s security team about where I was going. Another reason I hate being the fucking King. If I want to go out for a drive or find my Dandelion, I don’t want to answer to anyone. I just want to go and, flipping them off, that’s what I did.
Besides, most of them worked for Jack; if I dismissed every one who was an Order employee during the decades he was King, the damn Fortress would be empty. As a snot-nosed kid, I flipped them off. I’m sure most of them expect no better from me now I’m in charge.
I don’t want to be in charge anymore. I never did.
I just wantLucy.
Connor told me the door was unlocked, that they would be waiting for me in the living room. Hopping up the porch steps in my haste to get to her, I throw open the door and march downthe hall. The echo of my boots hitting the floor is almost as loud as my thumping heart as I make my way to the living room.
For two days, I convinced myself that she was so far out of my reach, I’d never see her again. I thought she was gone. I thought she wasdead.
But, no. There she is, nestled on the edge of the couch, wearing the same outfit she had on two days ago. I’m sure Haven must have offered her a change, but Lucy seems to have refused, and I only hope it’s because those are clothesIbought for her.
Haven is curled up on the other end, her oversized hoodie stretched out over her knees, covering her all the way to her toes. She gives me a speculative look, then a small nod. I guess she’s decided that, if Lucy is willing to put up with me, she will, too.
In between the two women, there’s Connor. His arms are spread out along the back of the couch, legs spread just as wide as he leans against it. When he sees me, he lifts up his hand. “Hey, Dallas.”
I ignore him. All of my attention is on Lucy, and as she looks up at me shyly, it feels like my chest is about to cave in.
