“I’m sorry,” Angel offers, and I believe he truly is. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t get my revenge,andI just got hit with an emotional right hook, or two…”
He glances at the floor, radiating a similar sort of heartache, only I can tell it’s from the opposite side. He’s the Byron in his relationship, and his heart’s been buggered to hell by his own tall, pale, menace to society.
Bollocks… Am I as bad as Manuel Blanco now??
“It doesn’t,” I grunt. “But for what it’s worth, I think maybe you dodged a bullet, yea? I mean, I understand the premise offalling for your captor, but I think it only ever ends well in works of sexy fiction.”
He snorts, but shakes it off, forehead lining as he peers at me. “You still haven’t told me how you got the key…”
“I lifted it from the evil son of a bitch’s pocket.” I smirk, holding up the skeleton key. “Pretty brilliant, I know. Not to toot my own horn, but I haven’t picked a pocket in well over five years, so the fact that I’ve still got it was quite satis—”
“What’s going on out there?” He impatiently interrupts my nattering on. “Why are the lights out?”
“I’m not entirely certain, but I think the power was cut as a sort of distraction,” I tell him. “The Governor was on his way here, and it wasn’t a good thing for… well, anyone, really. I can only hope they made it out safely…”
My chest aches even more fervently at the idea of Byron running around in danger. Of his being caught by Governor Russo, the man responsible for ruining his life.
I wish I could go after him. Iwould, if I didn’t think it would upset him even more than he already is. But maybe I still should…
In case he needs a human shield or something.
Knowing him, he’d hate that too. My sweet fury is so very stubborn. He’d rather take a bullet than let me take one for him.
God, I miss him already.
It’s been less than an hour since our relationship ended, but it already feels like an eternity. We were just getting bloody started… It wasfinallyevolving into something real, and I ruined it in spectacular fashion, as I do.
How am I going to get through the rest of my life without him?
“Wait, were you and Byron being held prisoner here??” Angel squeaks, a look of horror on his perfectly symmetrical face.
“No…” I sigh. “Well,yes. It’s complicated. Technically we weren’t allowed to leave, but it had been our decision to come here in the first place.Mine, that is. Byron only went along with it for me, but I knew all along he wanted to be with his mates, in the prison. It was my fault they’d been separated… Me and my bloodyrevenge.”
“I take it you didn’t get it either?” He blinks.
“Oh, I got it. Turns out you were right. The best revenge is not needing it. Wish I had listened to you before I spent a week torturing Lemuel over some petty toss…”
Fucking hell, I really hate myself. I should just throw myself over the cliff and be done with it.
“Hang on, were you the one who tied up Felix Darcey?” The subtlest of smirks graces his lips. My head cocks, and he snorts. “Wow, that’s funny. I’m sorry, I’m the one who let him go.”
“That’s fine.” I wave him off. “He didn’t deserve to be tied up like that, anyway. Well, he probablydid, but not by me. It was all just a big misunderstanding. But it’s alright because Lemuel is free, and so is Felix, and they’re probably reuniting right now, snogging it up like a couple of randy sailors…”
Angel is gawking at me like I’m speaking Klingon.
“Sorry. I get extra British when I’m jealous and heartbroken and fucking miserable.”
He pouts. “What did you do…? To make him kick your ass and leave you behind?”
I huff, shaking my head. “I lied to him. About something so bloodystupidand unnecessarily hurtful.
“I’m sure you had your reasons…” he hums. “Even if they were petty and ridiculous, they still mattered to you in the moment.”
I stare at him for a few seconds, considering this.He’s actually right…
Sure, my reason for not telling Byron that his best friends were actually alive was immature, selfish, and downright idiotic. But at the time, while it was happening, it made sense to me. It’s not as if I wouldnevertell him the truth, I just… withheld the information longer than I should have because I was afraid of what it would do to our new relationship, which was already so weak it was basically in an aqualung.
In my efforts to protect it, I wound up pulling the plug myself.
