I pull away and walk off to grab all the gear I brought. “Time for my next kill.”
I march up the steps and get out of the cellar, closing the doors shut behind me. But after two seconds, the door already opens up again, and Xavier suddenly grabs my arm. “Sunny. Wait. Let me come with you.”
“I need to do this one on my own,” I reply. “No offense.”
“Why won’t you let me help? I thought we were finally past this.”
My eyes narrow. “You heard Foley. They’re coming after me. I don’t want you to get caught in my web.” I put everything I need in my bag. “I’m going alone. End of story.”
“Are you sure about this?”
I frown as I turn to look at him. “Of course, I’m sure. What kind of question is that? Let go.”
His fingers unfurl from my arm, but I stay put to listen to his answer.
“When is it going to end?” he asks with a genuine voice. “When will it be enough?”
“When I’m finished.” I sigh out loud. “Look, are you ontheirside ormyside? Because if you’re with the cops now, I need to know, so I can cut you from my life as well.”
His eyes widen, and he vehemently shakes his head, as if the mere thought of betraying me wounds him. “No, no, no. Of course not. I would never. I just … want you to stay safe,” he mutters.
My lips part, but I don’t know what to say. He’s been so worried about me despite the fact that I’m a killer. I’ve never had anyone in my life carethatmuch. “What does it matter?”
People like me cannot ever be safe.
I don’t know how he could think of me as anything other than what I am …
A heartless, soulless monster.
“I don’t want you to get caught,” he says, his brows drawing together in a way that makes my heart feel squishy.
Even now, after everything I’ve done, he still … wants me here. But why?
How could anyone want something so treacherous as a siren like me?
“I’m going to finish what I started. No matter the cost. We all knew where this was going to end,” I say, pushing the emotions to the back again, just like I always do. “Now are you on my side or not?”
He nods a few times, but the pain in his eyes still gets to me. “Of course. I will always be on your side.Always.”
My heart throbs like lightning just struck me, and it confuses the fuck out of me.
Why does he invoke these emotions?
I didn’t ever ask for them to be there.
I have no room in my mind, no space in my soul left for anyone else to reside there.
It’s too twisted. Too heinous for a precious soul like his.
“But what if Atreus is right? What if they capture you? What then? I don’t want you to end up in jail.”
I shrug. “Then so be it.”
It doesn’t matter to me.
It never did.
I just want to have what I’m owed.
