Jude grins, nodding with enthusiasm, and Lily rolls her eyes, relaxing back in her seat.
This time, it’s me who lifts our joined hands, pressing my lips to the back of Lily’s hand, her blue eyes locking with mine, filled with love.
When the twins fall silent, I glance at them, and they do that creepy fucking twin thing, lifting a single brow in unison at the way I just kissed their mum’s hand.
I bite back my grin.
We’ve all got a long way to go, but I have hope that in the end, we’ll all be more solid than ever.
It may be a long time coming, but fuck, I’m a patient guy. Look how long I waited to have Lily.
I love her. Such a dirty little thing. And fucking deadly.
Fuck, she’s dirty, deadly, andallmine.
CHAPTER 46
LILY - TWO MONTHS LATER - AUSTRALIA
Tropical North Queensland is something else. Something so far from even what England’s summer can offer. I know the constant sunny days and steady heat will vanish when we relocate to Victoria, so for now, a balmy twenty-six degree winter day is feeding my soul.
Resting back on one hand with my feet dangling in the cool water of the pool, I grin as Asher swims past again, doing another lap.
He loves it here, and I can’t blame him. I really have missed the Australian sun. Maybe not so much the spiders though, something that Asher has found fascinating for the two months we’ve been on Australian soil. He especially loves the hairy ones, which I find terrifying.
No spider should be hairy! Or that big!
Glancing down at my phone screen, I continue scrolling through the news articles from England, and how the search for the Crimson Angel and Lily Tipping-Bennett has dried up.
The fact that all digital footprints and known images of Lily and her twin sons have mysteriously vanished, has put a massive hole in the investigation. The twins are still sulking about having their online presence completely deleted and not being able to be, and I quote, ‘online hot boy sensations’.
My brothers and cousins have had their teams workingbehind the scenes to delete our past, while I’ve had AJ’s team keeping an eye on Alexander.
He’s still kept his word and hasn’t spilled anything about the day we killed his wife together. The bobbies think it was the Crimson Angel, and as far as all reports go, Alex and Melanie are moving on.
A message pops up on my screen then, and I quickly click into it.
AJ: Here are the medical records for your sisters and cousins you were curious about. I added an extra bonus at the end.
Frowning, I click on the attachment and start reading…
My blood turns to ice as I scan the documents with dates, the words ‘voluntary hysterectomy’, the doctor’s name, which is the same on all of them, and at the bottom of each record is the financial statement, and guess who paid? Ewan fucking Marx.
Then, my hold on my phone turns to a death grip when I read the last document… the bonus AJ was talking about.
It’s for my cousin Quinlan, and it’s a booking form for a hysterectomy early next year with a note:
Patient will be brought in for the pre-surgery consultation the morning of the procedure and consent forms will be signed at that time.
Anger courses through me, and I feel like screaming, yet I can’t bring myself to disturb the tranquillity of this luxurious private house Barrett owns.
I may not be able to reverse what was done to the other women in my family, but I sure as shit am going to do everything I can to stop Ewan from forcing Quinlan to have that procedure.
“Hey,” Asher’s voice startles me, and I nearly drop my phone in the pool. “Whoa,” he chuckles. “What’s got you so locked in?”
His cool, wet hands run up my legs to my hips as he steps between them, looking sexy as sin, all wet and lickable.
“AJ sent those records I asked him for.” I show Asher my phone, and he shakes some of the water off his hand before he takes it and reads the files.
