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Esther sighed. “She has to do something with her milk when she’s not at the hospital.”
The words were another stab in the chest, a reminder of how wrong things were, of how my baby wasn’t home with us where she should be. I watched as she brushed past Sorin and walked up the stairs.
When she was gone, I gestured toward the den and he followed me.
“Those fuckers are gonna get what’s coming to them,” Sorin said, pacing around the den with the pent-up energy he’d thankfully managed to suppress while with Fawn.
I stared at him, and he stopped, looked back at me. “What are you waiting for? It’s already been days. You have to hit and now!”
“What have you and Priest found?” I asked, surprised I managed to say anything at all. When I wasn’t thinking about Maria, hoping with a fervor that almost scared me she would live, vengeance was at the fore of my thoughts. It wouldn’t take away Maria’s pain, Fawn’s, even my own, but it would set some things right, and I nearly salivated at the thought of getting it.
“Ashmore.”
Just the sound of his name sent me into a near blinding rage.
“I’d assumed as much,” I finally said. “He had help.” I knew that had to be true as well because Ashmore wouldn’t have risked it alone, but I wondered who else I would soon make suffer.
“Yes he did. Seems your little meeting with Vargas was a distraction.”
“Vargas helped him?” I asked.
It didn’t matter, wouldn’t change either of their fates, but I wondered why. What made Vargas agree to forfeit his life for Ashmore’s gain?
“He owed Ashmore’s old man a favor. It has been collected.”
“Were any of the other clans involved? Anyone else?”
Sorin shook his head.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. So what are we going to do?”
I looked my brother in the eye.
“Kill them all.”
TWENTY-NINE
Fawn
After Esther left, I managed to fall into an uneasy sleep, probably aided by the pain medication. I awoke to find Vasile standing beside the bed looking down at me, his face that distant, unreadable mask that I’d seen far too much of, his body shrouded in the semidarkness of the bedroom. I felt the attraction I always did when I looked at him, but it soon dissipated in the face of overwhelming sadness. We’d gotten closer. He’d opened up to me, and now that connection had been severed, probably wouldn’t ever come back.
I reached for him, but he covered my hand with his and gently pushed it back down on the bed.
“Easy. Don’t push.”
His hand lingered on mine, and I wanted to grab it, hold it to me, but when I reached for him again, he pulled away.
“Vasile…”
He stared down at me, face now determined. I knew what would come next.
“You have to go?”
He nodded.
“Do you know when you’ll be back?” I asked, hoping he’d say it was soon, praying he would in fact come back.
