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Keegan would take care of her. She’d be safe. It would give me time to do what I needed to do before I went to her.
Raphael clapped Keegan on the shoulder. “That’s your cue. Be careful—she’s a real peach tonight.” Then he turned to me, and our gazes collided. “It’s good to be home, brother. I look forward to catching up.”
Something thrashed and howled inside the barren halls of my chest. The monster knew that after tonight, everything would change.
Willa
We sat in the Hummer under the fluorescent beam of the parking lot lights at the Hess gas station.
Keegan offered me a plastic shopping bag filled with ice from the fountain soda machine and a sympathetic smile as I pressed it to my neck. The chill immediately relieved the sting, but nothing could soothe my loathing for Raphael and my self-hatred for allowing that bastard to walk away unscathed.
Though I’d come terribly close to wounding him with something far more impactful than my fist. The truth.
Not my truth—Lucifer’s.
The monster had made Lucifer reenact my father’s gruesome murder. If it’d been a few years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to reduce my reaction to mere tears. I would have been hysterical and vomiting at best. But I’d hardened a hell of a lot since my sixteenth birthday. Tiernan had done his worst to me, and I was the one still breathing.
My resilience had been forged in my own personal hell long before the devil shredded a man in front of me.
I didn’t know Zoto from Adam, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been strictly collateral damage. A fallout from Raphael’s sick vendetta.
But Raphael’s plan had backfired—at least where I was concerned.
The experience was disturbing, and he’d given me new nightmare material, but his true goal—for me to see Lucifer as a vile butcher—had been foiled.
All I saw was a man plagued by a vow and duty that didn’t deserve him.
I saw a man who’d promised me with his penetrating stare that he’d protect my soul if I gave him the chance.
My eyes never left Lucifer’s emotionless mask as he’d obeyed Raphael’s commands. He’d offered me his silent strength, and I’d devoured it like he’d met me starving in the pits of hell and handed me pomegranate seeds.
But then Raphael touched me.
He’d fucking touched me. And like an unstable grenade, I’d detonated.
In my triggered state, I’d foolishly shown Raphael my trump card. The one I’d never intended to play unless it was my only remaining option.
With a malevolence so cold that it had crystallized the blood in my veins, Raphael had whispered in my ear that if I dared utter another word, Zoto’s execution would look like child’s play compared to what he’d do to Lucifer.
So, I’d surrendered. A temporary cease-fire while I regrouped.
“You’re in charge of surveillance, right?” I asked.
It may or may not have sounded like an accusation.
Keegan nodded. “I am, but Raphael didn’t see anything he wasn’t supposed to—it’d already been handled. Lucifer made sure of it.” Keegan’s amber eyes burned with a loyalty that was undeniable. “Raphael may be my boss in name, but Lucifer is my brother by choice. I know Liam and Finn feel the same.”
My teeth sank into the inside of my lower lip while I considered my next words. “Raphael confronted me about it. He knew that Lucifer and I . . . that we’d spent time together while he was away.”
Keegan sighed and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his hands on his thighs. “I didn’t say he didn’t find out about the two of you. I just know he didn’t find out by watching the surveillance footage. That doesn’t mean someone didn’t tip him off.”
Fucking Cillian. Or could it have been Hannah?
Keegan cleared his throat. “No offense, but you’re just a character. You could be swapped out for just about anyone, and if that person gave Lucifer the time of day, and Raphael found out about it—he’d be out for blood. He’s an arrogant prick when it comes to anyone choosing his brother over him. Me. Liam. Finn—we know this, so we don’t fuck around with it and Lucifer understands why. It usually works. But Raphael turns into a whole different kind of beast when a woman is involved.”
“Their mother ... ,” I murmured.
Keegan winced, and I knew he really didn’t want to be having this conversation with me. Letting him off the hook, but not entirely, I asked, “Who was Zoto?”
