The killer part? Obviously. But there wasn’t anything cold about him.
“And that whole time, I never forgot about that girl battered on the floor. I used her memory to spur me into action, giving the one thing that I thought I had to offer.”
Stunned, I gazed at him. Drank in every foreboding, beautiful facet of his face. Of his soul.
“I can’t believe it was you. But how—” My brow pinched as I tried to piece the details together.
His jaw clenched. “I never forgot about Kent Ellison, either. I was sure he still didn’t know my identity. He had no idea who was coming for him that night. So we moved to Northern California so I could try to get closer to him. Penetrate his organization and fully end him. But I was a fool, not realizing that I was putting my family at risk. The bastard used Elena’s vulnerability to get to me.”
He paused, teeth raking his bottom lip, before he rushed, “This guy showed up at the shop in Moonlit Ridge. I recognized him as one of Kent’s men, and I had my gun crammed down his throat in a second flat. But he came with information on how to get her out. Swore that he was telling the truth. He told me he wanted to help me ruin Kent. Only thing he asked was that I keep his sister safe.”
My spirit moaned.
Dereck.
“He went back to get revenge for me,” I murmured.
I hated that he’d been so reckless, but that didn’t mean my heart didn’t swell. Mended in the truth that he did care. He hadn’t been taking advantage of me the way I thought.
Silas offered a slight nod. “Yeah. He never told me that, but it’s clear that was his own mission. Looking for his own way to take Kent and his empire down.”
Silas’s hands tightened on my face, and his thumbs stroked along the hollows beneath my eyes.
“I didn’t recognize you when you stepped out of your brother’s car, but I know now that my soul felt you. I should have known there was a reason I couldn’t stay away from you. You burned up every belief I had, just like you did that night five years ago.”
“I felt you too. You were this magnet. A beacon I couldn’t resist.”
His smile turned soft, though his nod was sad. “But Phoenix did. I guess he got a look at you that night. And in his cynical mind, he couldn’t fathom how it was a coincidence. He thought I was blinded, and you’d purposefully been sent to hypnotize me. That Dereck was after me for some reason or really was loyal to Kent. I doubt he’ll ever forgive himself for going behind my back, but I need to know if you can forgive him?”
I gulped around the emotion that overflowed my throat, but my chest was already too full.
In it, I was unable to find any anger remaining.
Phoenix was only protecting Silas.
The way Dereck and Silas had been trying to protect me.
“I think the real question is if you can forgive me?”
Air puffed from Silas’s nose. “I was never even mad, baby. Just terrified that I lost you. But I should have known better, shouldn’t I? Because you’re a fighter. The strongest person I know. But now you know you don’t have to fight me. We fight this shit together. That’s if you’ll still take me?”
“Still take you?” I blinked at him through bleary eyes. “The second I jumped over that wall, the only thing I wanted to do was crawl back to you. Because the most inner part of me knew.”
My fingers scratched over the middle of his chest. “It’s your heart.”
He pressed my hand flat over it. “And this heart belongs to you.”
SIXTY-FOUR
BRINLEY
The sun climbedabove the landscape of peaked mountains as Silas turned his bike through the Crimson Crows’s gate.
Oranges and pinks were strewn into the sky. Colors that painted over the darkness and drew hope across the heavens.
After Silas had pulled off the road, I’d switched spots, and I now was wrapped around him from behind.
Fully and wholly attached.
