“Do you believe in soulmates?”
“With all my heart, little star.”
I begged my mind to stop. To stop haunting me withhim.
“You weren’t there, Owen.” He didn’t see the Grayson that I knew. He didn’t see the way Grayson looked at me, touched me, longed for me.
“You know how smart the guy is, Ava. You don’t think he’d mastered the art oflove? You don’t think he figured out what to say, how to act, how to touch, to make you think he’s head over heels for you? To make you think you’ve got somethingspecial?” Owen scoffed. “I can tell you of two different heists where he didexactlythat. And I’m sure if you ask those women, they’re still pining after him.”
Just like you,his silence insinuated.
“I know it hurts to hear, Ava. Butplease! You need to snap out of it. You need to admit the truth. Somewhere deep down, you know this already,” he added quietly, pleadingly. “He’s donenothing but drain the life from you. He doesn’t deserve your love.”
With every word Owen uttered, my rage increased, boiling over till I wanted to claw at his face.How dare he?was my first instinct, but it crumbled away under the weight of his words.
A heaviness settled into my gut. A heaviness that I knew would stay with me for the rest of my days. Accompanied by the stench of death that would forever linger in my nostrils. It would linger around me, inside of me, until this body gave out.
“I know.” It was barely audible, but it was all I could muster.
Owen let go of my arm and reached up to wipe my cheek.
“He was supposed to be my soulmate,” I admitted my stupidity.
“He could never be your soulmate, Ava. He’s incapable of loving as deeply as you do.”
A flash of Grayson, driving an axe into the chopping block with the setting sun illuminating him from behind, crossed my mind. The night he had finally decided to let me go home. The night I had all but decided to stay, yet, not brave enough to fully admit it to myself.
“You deserve someone who can love you tenderly, sweetly, warmly, honestly. And I’m incapable of such things.”His hands were rough on my face, calloused, but sweet, tender.“Forget about me, Princess. Go find someone who is worthy of that magnificent soul of yours.”
Was he hiding his true feelings in plain sight? He liked to do that. Play with words. Play with their meaning. Twist them. Make them feel like one thing while veiling something else. He never lied. He never had to. He was too clever with words. A sharp weapon he wielded on unsuspecting prey. But he never used it against his family. And I had stupidly thought I also fell under that category.
“You’re right.”
“I’m sorry, Ava.”
I looked at Owen. His face was pained. And dreadfully tired. His words had been cruel, cutting through the bone, but it had been necessary. It was time to wake the fuck up. Before I lose my friend.
Grayson had taken enough from me.
“If you are hell-bent on still going after the devil, then I’m staying.”
Owen’s face hardened. “There’s no way I’m letting him get away. Not after tonight.” His gaze flicked to my neck, the muscles in his jaw tightening. “I’m taking him down, Ava. Even if it’s the last fucking thing I do.”
I sighed, collapsing back on the bed, feeling the last of my life force leave my body. “You mean, the last fucking thingwedo.”
Owen wrapped his arm around me. “I can’t stop you from staying, can I?”
“If you stay, I stay.”
Owen scoffed. “How romantic,” he replied sarcastically. “I can always kick you off the team and force you to go home, you know?”
“Nah, I’ve got Director Devereux in my pocket. He calls me by my first name and everything.”
Owen’s laugh turned into a fit of coughs, then curses as he jostled his hurt shoulder.
“Besides, you’re in no condition to wrangle Liam into submission right now. You need me.”
“I can still take him,” Owen declared, jokingly affronted.
