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Chapter 21
Kincaid~
It was the second week in November and the city looked beautiful with its fallen leaves and the scent of winter nearing in a few weeks. I loved the winter season and not because of the holidays. I loved the cold weather and how life seemed to stop with everyone nestled inside their homes, protected from the harsh weather outside.
Leaving Fox in the warm comfort of my bed this morning had been hard. My body had wanted to waste the day away being consumed by him, but my mind needed to regroup. Hastings’ concern for my parents had stirred something in me that hadn’t been there before. Even though I knew that my parents would understand my motives, not everyone was equipped to process or deny emotion the way I was. While my parents would understand, that understanding would do nothing to help with the pain of losing their only living child to prison or death.
So, after calling Saxton to let him know where I’d be, I’d taken off and had made the two-hour drive to my spot.
The cliffs.
Saxton and I had discovered this rural hideaway our sophomore year at HU. I’d been having a particularly bad week, and Saxton had kidnapped me as a public service to the polite public around us. After accusing me of behaving like a monster, we’d driven for miles until he pulled onto a dirt road that looked like there’d been some attempt to pave it at one time.
Still believing that I hadn’t been fit to engage with the public at large, Saxton thought a secluded place would be the best bet for me to get my shit together. So, after another two miles, we’d come upon the most beautiful vista overlook that I’d ever seen. The huge lake of water had been as blue as a sunny sky, and the peace of silence had been welcoming.
Getting out of the car, there’d been trees for miles, and it looked as if you could only see the water from the road. However, Saxton had found a trail of sorts that led to an expanse of hard rock and earth. The terrain hadn’t looked welcoming, but then I had noticed a smooth patch near the edge. Walking towards it, it was a simple cliff that dropped deep into the beautiful body of water around us.
Saxton hated when I came out here alone.
I wasn’t the suicidal type, but the cliffs were dangerous, and it’d be easy to slip and fall. That was one of the reasons that Saxton always made me check in if I was on my way there. I had to call or text him when I left, when I got here, and when I was leaving. The dude really was a mother hen.
There was also the text that I’d gotten from Fox on my way here. It’d been simple, but suspect. He had texted that he was going to go see his parents today, and because I had no idea if that was something he did often, I didn’t feel right questioning him about it. No matter how strongly we felt for each other, our lives for the past three years were a big unknown. I had no idea how Fox managed his time when he wasn’t in my bed. Sure, there was school, but outside that, I had no idea what he did or enjoyed.
Sitting on the cliff, my arms wrapped around my knees, I stared out into the water, and it would be easy to stay here forever. If it weren’t for food, water, the restroom, why would anyone want to leave this place? It was so beautiful that it made you forget how crappy the world was. It made you forget that good was constantly battling evil, even if we did see it.
Not only did I think about my brother when I was here, but I thought about my parents, too. I thought about how true peace will never happen for them in this life. Parents losing a child was something so unfathomable that it was a wonder parents survived the loss at all. What Donovan had done to my brother was so much more than just a prank gone wrong. He had destroyed my family. He had taken away pieces of our future.
My father will never have someone to carry on the Black name. If Fox was serious about building a future with me, our children will be Harringtons, not Blacks. He was never going to have grandsons with the last name Black to groom and share his empire with.
My mother lost out on all the grandchildren that she would have had from Apollo and his future wife. She was never going to know those children. She was never going to see what those children could bring to our family.
I was never going to be an aunt. I was never going to be able to see my brother’s children grow up to become the best parts of Apollo Black. My children were never going to have cousins on my side of the family. I was an only child now, and my future children weren’t ever going to know the magnificent person that their would-be uncle had been.
Donovan Cooper deserved to die.
He deserved to die and so did Alexander and Jacob. Donovan for playing with someone’s life, and the other two sonsofbitches for covering it up.
I wanted them dead.
I wanted them all dead, and I’ve wanted it for so damn long.
So. Damn. Long.
Then Stone had enacted that Hera contract, August had lost his mind, Fox had come back into my life, Rylee had become my friend, Saxton had fallen in love with Hastings, and they had all had my back after I had killed August.
Plus, if that weren’t enough, they had doubled up on their loyalty after I had confessed my plans for the organization and its members. I had told them that my plans were to kill whoever was responsible for my brother’s death, and not a one of them had so much as batted an eyelash.
So much had changed, and a part of me changed, too.
My phone chimed, snapping me out of my thoughts, and when I pulled my phone out, I automatically smiled.
SaxyV: If ur man asks about u, what do I tell him?
Me: U can tell him where I’m at
SaxyV: U good?
Me: I’m good
