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That answer makes me turn and look at her face. No, she seems fine. Normal, calm even. “Because we’re torturing a man in our living room while practically naked.”
She glances down at her blanket shroud. “I’m not naked.”
It’s not what I expect her to linger on, but I don’t push since our guest is waking up. “How ya doing? Want to go one more time?”
He shakes his head, tears tracking down his cheeks. “No, please, no.”
“You know how to stop this. Tell me who tipped off the council, and I’ll just kill you quickly. You won’t even feel it before you’re dead. Trust me, I’ve had a lot of practice.”
He swallows hard, and I move the poker down to touch him again, but he screams. “Okay, okay. Just stop.”
I hand the poker to Rose, who returns it to the fireplace. “Did you have an answer for me?”
He breathes heavily, and I let him take his time. When he catches his breath and settles himself, he says, “It was from another council. Someone ratted you out, saying it would help their career.”
I shift on the table, not giving anything away, at least not to this asshole. “Good boy. Now, let’s get this wrapped up. We have a helicopter to catch.”
His eyes fly wide, and he ping pongs his gaze between us. Rose steps forward and raises her gun again. When her hands shake, I stand and come behind her to steady her grasp. “You don’t have to do this. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of this.”
“I didn’t get to end old man Novak, and I didn’t get to punish Sal for what he did to me. I need to do this.”
I lean in and whisper, “You don’t need to do this. Dead is dead either way. No matter who pulls that trigger, I promise, he’ll never be back again.”
After a heartbeat, she releases her grip on the weapon, letting me take it. I step toward the man, him begging under his breath.
“Don’t bother. This is for her, and I hope when you see your brother in hell, you tell him who sent you.”
I pull the trigger with zero remorse.
Behind me, Rose gasps. I spin to make sure she’s not about to faint on me, but she just stares at the man and wrinkles her nose. “How do you get brains out of leather?”
16
ROSE
Some distant part of my mind tells me I should be scared. But I just watched Kai shoot a man in the head, and I felt fine about it. Hell, I felt good about it. One more child predator taken out means the children of the world are a tiny bit safer.
What I do regret is not pulling the trigger myself. As Kai handles the mess, I head up to my room and continue packing. I don’t want to leave, but now that the serenity of this place has been interrupted, I can’t stay here any longer.
The first thing I do is get dressed. I stare at myself in the mirror, not because the man called me fat, but because I wonder what Kai sees when he looks at me. Then I remember the scars, so much of my skin flawed and flayed his view. The rational part of my brain tells me he has seen it all before since he’s the one who got me out of the house that night. The newly awakened part of my brain whispers, What if he doesn’t like what he sees?
Shutting the voice out of my head, I grab more clothes to add to my suitcase. Then I survey the books that Kai didn’t even think about packing. I can’t think about them either because none of them will fit as it is.
Once I’m all packed, I drag my heavy suitcase down the stairs. Kai comes from his bedroom with his own suitcase. His hair is wet again. He probably needed another shower after he got rid of Sal’s brother.
I’m standing by the door considering disposal methods when Kai reaches me. How did he get rid of the man when several feet of snow was on the ground? “Are you okay?”
I shrug. “I guess? I’m not really sure how I feel. Or if I’m supposed to feel a certain way. Mostly, I feel all right about it.”
He only nods, not making me elaborate.
I step out of the way, and he grabs my suitcase as if it is nothing. I layer up and wait for him, staying here in the warm room until he’s ready for me to come out.
When he returns, he grabs his own coat and gloves and then leads me outside. The snow reaches my knees, but I ignore it until I spot a snowmobile parked on the edge of the property. Our bags are strapped to the back.
Kai hands me a white helmet and then straddles the machine. I scramble behind him and wrap my arms around his torso. His muscles flex with every movement, and each one sends shivers through me.
He pulls away while I wrestle with the fact something has changed between us. Maybe it’s because I feel like he treated me like an equal for the first time. It wasn’t him against me. It was us against them.
