Page 112 of Hide Little Traitor

“I think you have your answer, D.”

Cold blue eyes meet mine, a riot of emotions flickering through them faster than I can decipher them. “He’ll spend the rest of his life hunting us.”

“Not if we kill him.” I shrug.

“You want to kill our father?”

“If he’s a threat to Chloe, then yes.” I shrug. “It’s not like he’s been much of a father to us over the years anyway. He stopped treating us like his sons after Mom’s accident and started treating us like weapons.”

He considers me for a moment, gears turning in the back of his mind as he thinks through the options in front of him.

He can help me, or he can step to the side while I do what needs to be done to protect the family we’re building, but I won’t let him get in the way.

Not when the stakes are this high.

CHAPTER SEVENTY

CHLOE

NOW

Warmth surrounds my aching body as I’m dragged from my peaceful dreams.

I spent so many years trapped in a revolving door of nightmares, but each night I spend in their arms is like they never existed.

They don’t have the same hold on me as they did before, not now that I truly feel safe again.

Kingston presses a soft kiss to the top of my head, and I look up from where I’m resting on his chest. “Hey, Mama,” he murmurs.

“Have you been to sleep?” I yawn.

“No, I didn’t want to miss a moment of this.”

“Of my snoring?” I giggle.

“No, of having you in my arms like this. I spent years preparing my life for you, imagining what it would feel like when you were finally mine, and now that it’s here, I don’t want to waste a single second.”

My lips part but snap shut again when no words slip out.

I’ve never been rendered speechless so much in my life as I have been recently, and it’s all thanks to the four of them.

“I spent so many years planning and plotting, building what I thought was your dream life, but I should have stopped to ask what it is that you want. Will you tell me now?”

A smile tugs at the corners of my lips as I lay my head back on his chest, the steady thump of his heart the perfect background noise while I allow myself to imagine a future I never dared to hope for.

“I’d like a big house on a decent plot of land where I can have animals. Not a farm or anything, but just a couple of goats, maybe some chickens.”

A rough chuckle rumbles through his chest. “I can just imagine Ryker chasing around a herd of wayward hens.”

I scoff at the visual, but it just makes me want it more. “I want a dog and maybe some cats. And I’d like to go back to school. I don’t know what I want to do, but it just feels like something I need to do. For me, and for my parents.”

The admission falls from my lips, a thought I’ve kept to myself all these years.

“I used to feel like I was failing them by hiding away. They were so full of life and love, and it felt like I was doing them a disservice by spending my life too scared to truly live. I don’t want to feel that way anymore. I want to make sure they didn’t die in vain.”

Kingston presses a kiss to my temple, his arms tightening around me almost to the point of pain, but it’s what I need right now. “They would be so proud of you, Chloe. You were their greatest accomplishment.”

A tear falls against my cheek, my heart clenching painfully at the grief that still lives within me. I don’t think you ever recover from losing a parent, regardless of the circumstances of their death, but watching them die in front of me, watching them be tortured for days on end, I’ll never be able to get those images from my mind.