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It’d almost killed me losing her before.
I still had fucking nightmares at what they did to her and how I was almost too late.
The thought that those cunts could take my child too?
Fuck no.
Brother or no brother. Blood or no blood.
He meant nothing compared to Tess and Lino.
“You can increase his odds, you know.” She hugged another cushion. “Train him. Teach him. Give him time to prepare—”
“There’s no preparing for acting like a raping motherfucker. You either are one or you’re not.”
She stilled, hearing the truth in my callous tone. “And there it is.” She shook her head and dropped the cushion, adding it to the graveyard of all the others. “You don’t think he’s redeemable. You think he’s your father. And just like you killed your father, you’re willing to kill your brother too.”
“And any other sibling who comes asking for a home.” I balled my hands. “I know what lives inside him, Tess.” I thumped my chest. “I feel it every damn day, every fucking second. Right here. Deep, deep within. I’ve only lasted this long because I have you. He has no one. There’s no fucking way he’ll have the strength to fight those urges for much longer. I’m surprised he’s lasted this long. We’re at different stages of our sickness, esclave. I know what he’s fighting, and I don’t want him anywhere near my family. If by some miracle he’s successful in infiltrating The Jewelry Box, he’ll lose himself the moment he steps foot in there.”
“Then why the hell did you ask him to do it?” she snapped.
Unbuttoning my shirt, I kicked off my shoes and padded in my socks to the bathroom. “Because I’m giving him what he asked for. He wanted something to care about. I’ve given it to him. Tomorrow, I’ll set him up with enough funds so he can play the part of sadistic sociopath, ensure there are no loose ends that link him back to me so he’ll be safe, and tag him with a tracker so I can monitor his every move, but then he’s leaving and never coming back.”
Shit.
I hadn’t meant to say that.
“Never coming back…? What do you mean, never coming back? Oh my God.” Her eyes flew wide. “You’re just using him as bait. You figure you can have him lead you to where Victor Grand’s sex island is and then clean up the mess.”
“It’s late, Tess—”
“That’s why you went into such detail at dinner. Why you spent an entire evening going over where Victor was last spotted hunting and the names of those in cahoots with him.” Anger laced her words. “You know he’ll do anything to get you to accept him and you’re using that for your own gain.”
“Not my own gain, wife. Their gain. All the slaves currently serving in that hellhole. I’m using him to free them.”
“You could free him at the same time.”
“There’s no freeing a man like that.” I tore off my shirt, revealing my heavily tattooed chest covered in sparrows. “There’s no freeing a man like me.”
She shook her head. “You are free. If you can be happy…he can too.”
I sighed heavily and went to her. She swayed backward but didn’t fight as I wrapped her in my arms. “I’m not free, esclave. I’m leashed and collared. I have faith in you to keep me in-line. Je suis ton maître, mais tu es le maître de mon âme.” (I am your master, but you are the master of my soul.)
Pressing a soft kiss on one of my inked feathers, she murmured into my chest, “Then help him find his own master. Someone who can leash and collar him too.”
Resting my chin on her head, I let silence settle around us.
I didn’t share my true thoughts with her.
I didn’t admit that I had a suspicion I’d be the one who would end up killing him, in justice or in mercy.
I didn’t confess that I hoped Henri took the money and was smart enough to run far, far away.
Maybe if he kept running from temptation, he would survive.
He didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to be the broken hero.
But if he accepted my suicidal request—if he infiltrated The Jewelry Box and vanished into a world of sin—then the next time I saw him, I had no doubt blood would be spilled.
