My eyes burned instantly, and when I glanced toward Kane, his were glassy too, the two of us sharing a tortured look over Rafe’s bowed head. I swallowed down a sob as Kane lifted a shaky hand and returned,Yeah, Rafe. Our little flame is better than okay. She’s going to kill Viktor. Won’t that be something?
After a week of silence, days of wondering if he was still trapped somewhere we couldn’t reach, Rafe huffed around a proud smile and flicked the cigarette to the ground, crushing it under his boot. It was the first pieces of him that came back, the piece that was grieving Thorne, the piece that loved Creed, and the piece that wanted Viktor dead. It was the same pieces that came back for all of us, really. Thorne…it wasn’t just missing someone; it was like missing a limb, such a vital fucking part ofour bodies that there wasn’t much we could do except stitch it back on with the blood of the man who’d set all our tragedies into motion.
It was why I preferred an ending of retribution instead of revenge. Revenge is personal. It’s about satisfaction. Retribution…it’s restoring balance. Killing Viktor was rooted in personal trauma for all of Creed, but it was so much more than that. It was about stopping an injustice that the world had decided to turn a blind eye to. We were Death, but we were no longer expensive. At that point, anyone hurt by S.I.N. could’ve simply just looked our way, and I knew we’d only pose three questions. Kane would ask if they were ever hit when they couldn’t fight back; Rafe would ask if they were ever forced to do anything they didn’t want to, like having a rifle held at their head; and I would ask, without an ounce of hesitation—how alive do you want them to be when they start to burn?
Viktor’s trail led us toward familiar places, and the second the three of us realized the ugly truth, we no longer looked for leads. We knew where he was. He’d never fucking left. As if we were stillnothingto him. I ripped through bend after bend in the roads that had risen my price, Thorne’s eighteen-year-old ghost flickering ahead. We passed the lot where he’d given out assignments to the thieving crew; past the place in the city that I knew would take us to that overlook where I had my first real kiss; and we didn’t slow until we approached those iron gates, allthree of us switching our headlights off. The estate glowed with vibrancy at the top of a hill, the winding driveway filled with luxury cars.
Viktor Shaw knew we were coming for him, and he didn’t fucking care. He didn’t bother to move or hide, and I couldn’t help the sick I felt. A few weeks. That’s all it took to trace him back to that fucking hell, and yet the authorities had left him untouched. Eight fucking extra years of tormenting kids, picking up little Leahs and Ardens and Rafes and Kanes and Thornes all across the country. He wasn’t eventryingto hide in the slightest, and every fucking car in that driveway belonged to a Buyer. They were in that house raping kids and stealing light andno onehad done anything to stop it.
“I don’t know about you,” Kane said suddenly, his boots planted on the ground as he straddled his bike, cracking his knuckles and gritting his teeth. “But I’ve got eight years of torment in desperate need ofexchangingand it looks like we just got really fucking lucky.”
I placed down my kickstand and swung off my bike, shoving a hand into my pocket and skimming my fingers over Viktor’s lighter. “Agreed,” I said and walked to the gate, grabbing the handle and yanking it back.
It wasn’t even locked.
My rage flared to a newfound height, but I forced myself not to be impulsive. “Just remember…” I turned back to them, and my eyes caught Rafe’s. It was the most present he seemed since we rescued him, the black in his eyes not hollow butstarving. He looked between me and that estate, and he reached for the rifle stashed in his bike’s compartment. It was disassembled one second, then whole in the next. Even with his fragile hands, he put that gun together like his life depended on it. He’d stolen it at a comboGas and Gunsonly a few days earlier. He’d gotten a gun for Kane too, since I still had my Glock, but Kane refused andthrew his into a ditch as we drove away. I was worried, at first, about Rafe having a rifle in his state, but if anything, the thing was like a safety blanket. Just holding it seemed to bring those gold flecks in his eyes back to life.
I signed,There’s kids in there. Innocent kids. We can’t just storm this place.I looked between them.We get the kids out or at least all in one area that we can contain. Then we fuck up their party.
We might lose Viktor, Kane said.He’s still at this estate because of ego, but if he catches wind of actually being found, he’ll run.
Then we’ll hunt, I promised,but we will not let those kids get hurt any further. Swear it. If you can’t go in there with a level head, then you sit this out.I gave Rafe a firm look.There is no shame in staying out of the fucking way to save an innocent life.Then I glared at Kane.Do not be selfish. Not right now.
If I was selfish, Kane said, signing slowly and locking his cold gaze with mine,I wouldn’t have tossed that gun aside.
I dipped my chin and we both looked to Rafe.
He was glaring past me at the estate. Then he cocked his rifle and dragged his eyes to mine. The tiniest bit of steadfast love leaked from him as he signed,Lead the way, Mrs. Creed.Pain broke across his face, his wrapped fingers shaking with the words.We have your back.
It wasn’t lost on me that he’d said the same only minutes before we lost Thorne, and I knew that history was repeating itself, but so had pain and sorrow and sometimes by some miracle, hope. We lost a limb that day, but what was a limb to corpses? What was a body or even a heart?
Viktor, I decided as I thrust open the gate and strode up that driveway, had taken enough from us. He bred monstrous products, and we would make good on his investment.
?Arden?
Viktor Shaw’s estate was exactly as we remembered it: perfectly vile. The lawns were trimmed within an inch of their lives, the hedges sculpted into obedient lines, gravel paths raked smooth. The light of the chandeliers glowed from tall windows, music drifting through the open doors of the main house where Buyers laughed and drank. The three of us slipped in from the back without breaking stride. The steps leading into the basement creaked in the same places they always had, and I felt my chest tighten when we crossed the threshold, nightmares pressing in on me from all sides. Viktor had taken the large open space beneath the house and converted it into tiny rooms housing tinier cages, metal bars bolted into the stone floor, children curled inside them. It was heart stopping to see, to imagine that I had been one of them in the beginning, helpless and afraid.
I dropped to my knees beside one cage, my breath stuttering as I whispered to the children, telling them we were there, that they were leaving. Rafe moved among them carefully, havingyanked the keys from their hook by the basement door and unlocking cages, his expression dark but controlled. Kane lifted the smallest kid without comment, his arms cradling them and his fury packed tightly into his body.
There were at least eight times the amount of kids in those cages since we’d last been at the estate. The next rooms were worse. Overcrowded bunks, thin mattresses pressed shoulder to shoulder, kids who smelled of bleach and sweat and soil from the gardens they’d been forced to tend, hands roughened by labor that kept the estate pristine for the people drinking upstairs. They moved when we told them to, trained to obey. They were all so tired when they looked up at us, and I imagined that Creed looked just as exhausted. Maybe that was why they took our hands so willingly; we recognized each other in the infinite chasm that was our loss of innocence.
Creed worked fast but not carelessly, guiding them out through the same service corridors we’d once been marched through ourselves, the party above us growing louder, oblivious, Buyers celebrating while their investments disappeared beneath their feet. We directed the kids to the courtyard and the gardens, telling them to crouch into the shadows and remain quiet. By the time we reached the last room, my chest ached with the way that place had shaped us and continued to shape others long after we’d escaped it. The basement was clear, but there were still the main rooms upstairs. I double-checked that my gun was tucked in my back waistband, exchanging a determined look with Rafe and Kane before a firm hand took hold of my elbow.
I’ll…Rafe signed, looking down at the ground as if ashamed.I’m going to stay with the kids outside. I’ll cover them in case someone notices.
I stepped closer to him, ducking my head and catching his gaze. I nudged my knuckle under his chin, forcing his eyes to lock with mine, his grip on my elbow faltering.Are you sure?
His eyes flicked over my face before he nodded.I don’t…trust myself. Please.He sucked in a breath.Be safe.
I won’t let anything happen to her,Kane promised.You have my word, brother.
Rafe trembled slightly when Kane squeezed his shoulder. I wrapped my arms around his waist at the same time, letting myself tuck against his chest in a tight hug. Rafe’s grip on my elbow shifted when I did, his arms folding around me and clutching me, his fingers curling into the leather of my jacket. Kane released a long exhale, the three of us quiet as we stood in Viktor’s courtyard. For a second, I felt like a kid again, my rusted switchblade in my grip. That day, I fought until I couldn’t fight anymore, and even then, somehow, I kept going. We all did. Despite Viktor. Despite Halden. Despite the world. Only a bullet seemed to be able to stop any of us, but, well, fuck that, because Thorne was there, loving always.
I pressed onto my toes and kissed Rafe’s cheek, cupping his face softly with a small smile before I stepped back. His dark eyes glimmered in the moonlight when he watched Kane and I walk backwards toward the front doors. I hated leaving him there, but I loved him for knowing his limit, for putting aside his pain and choosing to protect, becausethatwas my Rafe. Protector. Savior. I felt nothing but immense pride at the way he jogged to those gardens and hunkered down with those kids. This wasn’t a job for our sharp shooter anyway. No one in that house deserved a quick death except the innocent children tied down to the beds upstairs.
“I’ll go to the rooms,” I said. Kane and I stopped outside the double front doors, our arms brushing.
He cracked his neck to the side. “I guess that means I’m distracting.”
