“You don’t understand!” she screamed, the sound raw enough to make me flinch. “You don’t remember, but I do.”
“Mum—”
“Do you not get it?” she cried, her voice breaking. “That’s what he wants. For you to go to him.”
I bristled. “I’m not going to him.”
“You stupid child!”
“Don’t speak to her like that,” Ryder growled, stepping between us.
“You want a bad guy? Then I’ll be the bad guy. But you’re done, Violet,” she said, ignoring him entirely. “It’s too dangerous.”
“They’re never going to stop, are they?” I shot back, my voice rising until it echoed through the room. It wasn’t until I caught movement in my periphery that I remembered we had an audience. Roman and Maxim, both watching like this was some tragic play.
Mum didn’t even glance at them, her attention and rage concentrated on me. “You only think the world is safe because of whatI’vedone to protect you.”
“All you’ve done is hide me!”
“Hiding is better than dead!” she screamed, her frame trembling. “Or worse, and there is far worse out there, Violet.”
Silence punched between us, thick and suffocating.
“Please, flower,” she said, calmer this time. “We can run again. Just you and me.”
“Forever?” I asked, the word splintering. “What kind of life is that?”
A single tear slipped down her cheek, tracing the lines of exhaustion. “I just want you to be safe.”
“I will be.Wewill be, but I also deserve the truth,” I said, stepping closer even as she shrank away. “I deserve to control my future, not spend my life terrified of someone fromyourpast.”
Mum laughed, the sound unhinged as her eyes never left mine. Even as the rest of her tears fell.
“Shit… mum, I’m sorry.” I went to reach out, but she stepped back. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
“After everything I’ve sacrificed,” she whispered, turning her back on me, “you want freedom? Then take it.”
Chapter 52
Ryder
If you’d told me six months ago that I’d be wearing a fancy tuxedo to an event where I was looking for a potential sex trafficker, I’d have said you were crazy. Unless I was there specifically to steal some snob’s family heirloom, of course. Where else would I be?
“It’ll be okay,” I said, holding Violet’s hand so she’d stop picking at her nails. “We’re just going to go in, have a look around, and leave. Okay?”
Violet swallowed and looked up at me with brown doe eyes. It threw me every bloody time, seeing her with dark contacts and a brunette wig. For a second she looked almost like Greta… if you ignored the very obvious detail that she wasn’t her biological mother.
Plot twist of the century.
Violet’s nod was jerky, her knee bouncing as she sat beside me in the car. It had been almost a week of planning, of studying the building and potential guest list. Violet had a front row seat to my masterful prepping skills, and if that didn’t make her all hot and bothered, nothing would.
Leaning over, I slipped my arm beneath her and drew her firmly to my side. She was startled for a moment butrelaxed as I settled my hand along her hip, fingers finding the edge of the high slit in her gown.
Aeris had chosen our outfits, my standard black tuxedo and Violet’s matching floor-length dress. Classic. Elegant. Meant to let us blend in without drawing attention.
The masks, though, had been a surprise. Mine hid my entire face, a stark, predatory thing with hollow mesh eyes and jagged, sculpted teeth. Violet’s was the opposite, a delicate slip of lace that covered only the top half of her face, softening more than it concealed.
I wanted her to stay at home, but unsurprisingly, she’d refused.
