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As far as me, the darkness in my head isn’t as dark as it used to be. Sometimes, when I’m alone, it’ll try to creep back up, but all I have to do is think about Rella and it recedes. I’ve got too much light in my life now for it to swallow me whole.
I look to the two-year-old Rella is currently kneeling in front of as she fixes the strap on her bathing suit. Cindy is the latest edition to our family. Remi, Eden, and Ellie claim it was fate that she came to live with us because of her name, which goes perfectly with Rella. The pair has been dubbed Cindy-Rella.
Unfortunately, Cindy’s life so far hasn’t been the greatest. According to witnesses, she and her mother showed up at a park, the mother played with her for about fifteen minutes, then went back to the car and shot herself in the head. The father’s place on her birth certificate was blank. Cindy came to live with us a couple of months ago. Angelina and Joseph accepted her instantly.
The sliding glass door opens behind us and Declan, Ellie’s uncle, appears. He’s quiet for several moments as he takes in the backyard full of people.
“There’s something you all need to know,” he states quietly. The serious expression on his face has me tensing.
He turns and faces us, his thick arms crossed over his chest. His eyes move to me and Trouble.
“I heard you and Trouble came across a woman named Melody Lancaster about a year and a half ago?”
His question catches me off guard, and my hackles rise. There’s no fucking way he should know that name or that Trouble and I walked into that bedroom only minutes after she shot her father. The only people who know are Melody, Trouble, JW, Judge, and me.
“How in the fuck to do you know about that?” I growl, taking a step closer to him.
His expression remains calm, and it only pisses me off. Declan moved to Sweet Haven almost two years ago. He and Susan, Trouble’s nurse practitioner, have been dating just as long. He’s normally quiet and stays in the background for the most part. We don’t know much about him, aside from what Ellie’s told us. There’s never been a question about if he could be trusted, because he’s Ellie’s uncle. He knows about our activities here in Malus and all the other shit we do. Thankfully, he’s never shown he’s had an issue with it.
“Because she told me,” he answers calmly, further shocking me.
“Explain,” Trouble grunts.
He sighs, dropping his arms and stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“I can’t go into too much detail at the moment. I will,” he adds when I shoot him a hard look, “just not yet. There’s shit that needs to be worked out first.” When I give him a clipped nod, he continues. “Melody is a client of the security firm I co-own with a few other people. While we do provide protection to those who ask for it, we offer a service that’s much more comprehensive. A service you can’t find anywhere else in the world.”
He pauses, letting us take in what he’s said so far.
“Did it ever strike you as strange that I never had a problem with what you do here in Malus or the people you hunt down and kill?”
“No. I assumed it was because of what happened to Ellie,” Judge answers.
He shakes his head. “The Raven Group was created before she was attacked.” Declan glances to each of us. “What we offer isn’t much different than what you four do. Short description: it’s vengeance. The longer, more complication description is, we offer the means to victims to serve their own revenge.”
“Shit, didn’t expect that,” JW mutters.
Neither did I. Between Ellie’s attack twelve years ago and the shit Sierra pulled, I put his easy acceptance down as wanting perpetrators to pay to make up for what happened to his niece. We all have the potential to kill someone, but I never would have pegged Declan as someone who does it regularly. Hell, owns a fucking business that encourages it.
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“There’s more to it than that—a lot more—but that’s all I can give you at the moment. I’m telling you this because we’ve run across an issue I need to speak with you four about.”
“And that is?” Judge bites out.
“Barry Switzer.”
I narrow my eyes. “What about him?” And how in the fuck does he know about him?
He blows out a breath, dropping his chin to his chest before lifting his head again. “I know you just recently uncovered his location. I need you to back off from killing him.”
Judge lets out a harsh laugh. “And why in the hell would we do that?”
Declan looks at him dead-on. “Because I’m asking you to.”
Judge grunts. “I’m glad you were there for Ellie and Maisy when I wasn’t. I’ll always owe you for that. And I like you. You’re not the asshole I originally thought. You’ve got my respect. But there’s not a chance in hell we’re letting him go. He’s the last person on our list. We want this shit over with, and it won’t be until he’s gone.”
“I never said he’d remain breathing. Look….” He glances over his shoulder to the occupants in the backyard before taking a step closer, lowering his voice “Barry… continued his activities after he left Sweet Haven. One of his victims contacted us, inquiring about our services. We want to give her the opportunity to do what she needs to do to move on. To exact her own revenge against the bastard who hurt her. The girl was twelve when he took her and raped her for two days straight. She’s twenty now and hasn’t left the house in eight years because she’s terrified he’ll find her.”
