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Reiner. Her father.
Identically leaning on the thick cut stone on either side of the doorway, arms crossed, like the overprotective gargoyles they were.
She darted past them, spinning back toward them in the middle of the corridor. “You bastards—you listened in.”
“We don’t have bounds when it comes to protecting you, Vicky. Don’t ask us to.” Reiner said.
Both pushed off the wall in unison, moving toward her.
Her breath seethed. “Until Rafe is unchained and free from that monstrosity in there, I don’t want to hear a word uttered from either of you. And don’t even think about killing him, or you will lose me forever.” She spun away, her feet quick, but her father’s hand was quicker, grabbing her at the elbow and stopping her. He rounded her, blocking her path, and she was sandwiched between them.
He heaved a sigh, then set his gaze directly on her. The swirls of colors in his hazel eyes searched her face, taking in the blood smeared about her forehead, her hands. Rafe’s blood.
Her mouth pulled into a tight line.
Reiner stepped next to Desmond, aligning their shoulders, and her father opened his mouth, his voice gravelly. “Do you truly love him?”
Her breath caught in her throat.
Her fathers. Both of them standing before her, that one question raw in their eyes.
Reiner. The man that had raised her, but didn’t know how to love her for the first nine years of her life. The man that had given her the moon and stars once he’d finally learned how.
Desmond. The man that had given her life, but hadn’t shared that life for eighteen years. The man that still couldn’t hide the sadness that flashed in his eyes every time he looked at her, who had been driven by so much guilt he tried far too hard to love her a thousand times over in the last three years.
Both incredibly imperfect loves.
But both had loved her. In their own way. In their own time. Imperfect, but there all the same.
They’d taught her that love was messy and inefficient and misguided and overbearing, but just because it was a disaster, that didn’t dim the reality of it.
What she had with Rafe was beyond chaotic, fraught with lies and half-truths. But at its core, love like she didn’t believe existed burned, searing all the doubts around it to ash.
Her gaze shifted from Reiner to her father, her stare resolute. “I do. I love him. With all the wrong and right that entails. I love him.”
Desmond stared at her for a long moment, then turned his head to Reiner.
The men locked eyes for excruciating seconds, severe intention passing between them.
Reiner gave Desmond the slightest nod.
Desmond returned it.
She expelled her breath.
All would be right.
She just had to wait.
{ Chapter 34 }
Survive it.
A simple order from the one person he was willing to take orders from.
The one person he would do anything for.
It wasn’t an easy task.
