Finally, Simon turns to face me. His eyes hollow, bloodshot from crying. Empty. But a single tear tracks down his cheek, followed by another. I go to wipe them away, but Simon manages to slap my hand away, not with strength, but with a revulsion that hurts me more than any punch.
“I trusted you,” he rasps. His voice low and raw, like he hasn’t spoken in days. “You let them do this to me.”
My heart cracks wide open. “What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t do anything. Do you think I enjoyed it? I wanted to rip out their hearts for what they did.”
“You let them,” he says, voice rising, not loud, but sharp. “You stood by and watched. You watched me disappear and did nothing.”
“I didn’t have the power?—”
“Don’t lie to me.”
The room pulses with grief.
Simon is now fully focused on me and the pain in his eyes is hard to take.
“You promised me that you wouldn’t let anything happen to me. That you wouldn’t allow it. That you would burn this whole fucking place down if they touched me.”
The only sound in the room is the hum of the lights. I can’t breathe. I can’t speak.
“But you didn’t protect me. The man I trusted the most here became another ghost in my life, standing on the edge, doing nothing.”
“Simon, please, you need to understand—” I say, reaching for him again, but this time, with a hiss of pain from his back, he shuffles away.
“I will never forgive you.”
The words pierce through me like a dagger.
“I don’t care what you do now, Carlos. Who you kill, who you betray. You don’t get to fix this. You don’t get absolution.”
My body shuts down at his words. I want to punch something, scream at him to listen. But I don’t. I let the hate and anger build a wall around me. Detach myself from the most painful moment in my life.
“You let them break me and something died in me tonight. Something I’ll never get back. I just want to go home and forget that you and this godforsaken family ever existed in my life.”
His stare is resolute. Hurt that has morphed into hate. All I can see is disgust and disdain at my presence. Wow. It feels like shit.
There is nothing more to say.
I stand and move away from the bed, from the man I’m pretty sure I’ve fallen for. But I will let him go. For now.
As I walk out of the room, the silence following me isn’t quiet, it screams.
Revenge.
When I have buried all that is here around me, I will get Simon back, whether he likes it or not, he still belongs to me.
In life or death.
I won’t let him go.
28
CARLOS
A s I walk back up to my room, I notice the blaring sunshine flooding through the windows. I’ve no idea what time it is. Time
has lost all meaning here in the last twelve hours. I need to get a plan together and meet Pedro.
When I finally arrive in my room, Lucas and Mark are waiting for me. Both of them look as exhausted as I feel. But we have work to do.
