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Not at the fact Eric was corrupt, anyway. He’d obviously known about that.
No. This had been an elaborate illusion, from both sides.
Caelan had pulled strings to put out the fake story about Sherry.
Eric had come running once Caelan clicked his fingers. Falling right into Caelan’s trap.
Yet, Caelan had never, ever expected Eric to slaughter his way into our bedroom like this.
The men downstairs were no doubt all dead—a show of violence, aggression, superiority.
The true Eric Holmes.
Caelan had played his part just as well as Eric had.
The intent had been to show Eric that no matter what, I’d still choose Caelan. No matter if he did have a warped mother and no matter what we had to deal with together, we’d deal with it. We’d proved that, spending all this time locked up here and still liking one another.
Loving one another.
“Why, Eric?” I said, because that was my only question.
He stared at me with those empty eyes and that look inside them nearly made me tremble. It certainly made me want to cry.
“You said to me, Flora that you understand how difficult it is to be a good person when all you’ve ever known is bad.”
I nodded slowly. “I said that, yes.”
“Not everyone is as strong as you.”
I gulped hard. “Where did you get the money from?”
A laugh caught in his throat. “Breaking apart Sherry’s operation didn’t mean it all had to be destroyed now. Some of it I kept for myself.”
Caelan cursed under his breath and came back towards me, sitting on the edge of the bed so that he was somewhat blocking me from Eric’s line of fire.
“Those in Brighton, at the lodge, even the night you and Caelan hunted them…”
Eric gave a lopsided, sadistic smile. “Her network presented me with options, yes. And a cover.”
“So all those people still thought she was pulling the strings.”
Eric shrugged. “I guess so.”
“What is it ye want?” said Caelan coldly.
“Simple. Her.” He pointed at me. “We go, then you two can have your little father-son thing. But we go.”
My heart started racing. “Caelan, it’s—it’s—all right. I’ll go with him.”
“Nae,” he murmured.
“I’d have had to choose one of you at some point. This way, at least our son is safe.” I was praying my husband could tell I was faking and he had a plan.
“Nae, I wanna hear first if he’s gonna look after ye. I wanna hear that he does care for ye and isn’t planning to kill you, too.”
Eric laughed darkly. “Why would I kill the only thing that has ever loved me? The one thing that’s ever made me feel marginally better.”
What did he know of love? Nothing, I thought. If I was thinking that, I was fairly sure Caelan was too. Interesting that he would call me a thing. Twice.
