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Edmond Dantès was the only true hero—any sane person knew that.
Lucifer
While Raphael went on a fucking road trip to New York, I’d spent the past three days putting out all the fires he left behind in Boston.
We were feuding with the Russians, but our boss had abandoned his territory with only Liam at his side. It was negligent for him to disappear without warning, and there was no logical reason for it.
On a slightly less fucked-up front, Willa hadn’t made anyone bleed in the last few days. A fact I was certain of because I’d been stalking her on Keegan’s feeds ever since she’d gone emotional terrorist on me.
My only regret from that night in Willa’s bathroom was my inability to confirm who’d killed her mother. Did Willa even know? The means at my disposal had proven useless thus far. All digital traces of Willa’s mother, Valentina Clarke, had disappeared after 2012.
I trudged into the dimly lit mansion well past midnight, my lids heavy and my body protesting the lack of care I’d been giving it.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t see Willa until I’d nearly tripped over her.
She sat on the edge of the first landing with her elbows propped on her knees, resting her chin in her cupped hands. I glanced over the top of her head at the Virgin Mary statue, and a tsunami of dread and foreboding washed over me. I took a step back, reaching for the railing to steady myself.
Fuck me.
Willa jumped to her feet, her hypnotic gaze finding mine as she chewed on her thumbnail. I’d caught her nail-biting habit on camera on more than one occasion. In recent days, she’d been moping around the house—and pouring thousands of dollars of Raphael’s liquor collection down the kitchen sink—suggesting that she felt guilty about her drunken behavior the other night. But my walls were built to last, and after the sting of her verbal blade had worn off, I’d moved on. She’d spoken the truth, and I’d rather be on the receiving end of one of her triggered reactions than someone who would retaliate. Someone like Raphael.
“Quit hanging out on the fucking stairs,” I growled.
She frowned. Disappointment followed by sadness moved behind her eyes, and I instantly regretted the tone I’d taken with her.
“Why?” Her voice was barely above a whisper and raspy with emotion as though she’d been crying.
“Because there are safer places to spend your time in this house.”
Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and I didn’t like the way her silent reaction sent tremors under my skin.
I moved closer until she was poised a couple steps above me and we were at eye level. That’s when I noticed how pale she’d become since the last time we’d stood this close. Her cheeks had lost their fullness, and dark shadows had emerged beneath her lower lashes.
Her eyes—the ones that made me believe in ghosts—were drowning in sorrow.
She crossed her arms over her chest in a protective gesture. The disarrayed knot on her head danced, mocking me for ever believing I couldn’t care for Willa because her last name was Brennan. And then, as though she and her questionable hairstyle were in on some conspiracy, she exclaimed, “I have no other way of contacting you, Lucifer. I was waiting for you to get home. I really, really need to talk to you.”
Her declaration wrapped around my heart and squeezed.
When she wasn’t putting on an act or losing her shit, she really was just a young woman, born into a corrupt world that didn’t deserve her.
“Why?”
Her lips formed a tiny grin. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of relief it offered me. “Now who’s asking why?”
Tedious banter. Willa’s first language.
An odd ache formed across the right side of my face. Willa’s eyes grew wide, and she let loose an honest smile.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” she blurted, then clasped her hands over her mouth. She stared at me with the same innocence she’d shown at seven years old.
The sensation in my face turned into a dull throb.
She dropped her hands, and her teeth sawed at her bottom lip, which I’d just realized was sinfully plump. “You’re—like—almost smiling. Well, kinda.” She drew a circle in the vicinity of my face. “I think that’s what’s going on there anyway.”
I ironed out my expression.
Willa rolled her eyes. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
