My heart hammers in my ribcage. “Okay. This is happening.”
“Breathe,” Kaya instructs, and the tone of her voice makes me listen to her blindly. I suck in a sharp intake of breath, before slowly exhaling. “Good. The rest is up to you. I’ve told my men to give him a gun with a singular bullet, and the moment you pick the location, the game begins. Are you ready?”
My stomach twists and turns in something I can only describe to be anticipation. A shiver runs down my body, and I swallow all the excitement that starts to rush through my veins. With a deep breath, I nod.
“I’m ready.”
The truth is, this is something I’ll never be truly prepared for. Despite taking years to carefully plot and plan, to think of what I would want to do to the man who ruined me, now that the time has come to turn it all into reality, I’m uncertain which path to take.
Whichever I choose, I know I’ll make the right choice for myself.
This man will be dead before the week ends, and his death will be making all the headlines. He’ll be taken out publicly, just as he deserves. He’ll be surrounded by people, and no one will be willing to help him. He’ll rot in hell, and I’m certain that’s where we’ll meet again. He can wait for me there, he can wait for the day I come to him again, to do it all over again.
I’m fucking ready. Or, as ready as I’ll ever be.
TWENTY-THREE
Raven is tied to a chair in one of my favorite playrooms on the property. There’s nothing but pitch black tiles all around him, not even a window. There’s only a little lightbulb above his head, and the sound of water dripping onto the tiles is enough to make him go insane.
He hasn’t tried moving. He knows there’s no way out. The poor attempt at gaining advantage of the situation by kidnapping Theodosia has massively backfired, and Raven isn’t a moron — he knows the only way he’ll leave the room is in a body bag.
His expression is blank, the bags under his eyes a proof of trying to stay awake throughout the time I left him here. It was on purpose, though. Enough to drive him insane with all the questions, yet not enough for him to start wilding in the chair and trying to find a way out.
Not that he’d find one, anyway.
“Do you think he has a solid reason for doing this?” Mom asks.
“No,” I respond immediately, staring at Raven through the one-way window. “It doesn’t matter either way. He knows that the moment he was mentally checked out, it was over.”
Mom hums, sipping on something that suspiciously looks like alcohol. I’d question it, but after the last couple of hours we’ve had, I don’t dare to. For what it’s worth, she looks better. Her complexion is slowly returning, and she’s able to move more.
“Hey, Arlo.”
“Yes?” I glance away from Raven, looking at Mom and giving her full attention.
“I’m sorry,” she says, the sincere words catching me off guard. “About what happened at Luna’s grave. I don’t blame you, don’t think that. I’ll never blame you. I’m blaming this fucking life.”
I smile. “Thank you.”
“While you’re busy with Raven, I’ll go to the room next to his.”
I straighten up, lifting a brow. “You’re going to kill Nelson.”
“Of course I will.”
“Are you physically okay to do that?”
She waves a dismissive hand in my face. “The doctor cleared me.”
I blink. “What sort of doctor would clear you for murder?”
“A good one,” she snorts. “I’m going to need an axe, though.”
“Fun,” I muse. “There’s one in the storage room upstairs. It’s sharp, too.”
“Perfect. Have fun.”
“No,youhave fun,” I chuckle.
