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A tremble took up in the base of my throat and I focused all my effort on flattening it. Did Rupert mean what I thought he meant? “It is a kind of bomb?”
“It doesn’t matter what it is, Vivian,” Rupert said, softly. “When you press this, it will all be over.”
My heart rate sped. “When I press this? Are you insane?”
Suddenly it made sense, and Marcia’s words from inside the lab became crystal clear. Less than an hour ago, they’d been a total blur, overshadowed by the presence of a man who’d not only tried to kill me, but had tricked me into a sexual act.
Rupert took one of my hands in his. “Remember the first time you came here? How you felt when you discovered what we were actually doing? Now’s your chance to end it all.” He placed the button in my hand and curled my fingers around the smooth surface. “Press it,” he whispered. “You earned this.”
My gaze drifted from the button in my hand to his determined features. “Hector and Arran… Did they leave?”
“Yes,” Rupert replied, a sense of urgency colouring his tone.
“Are you sure no one else is on the site? I can’t be responsible for any more deaths.”
Rupert blinked. “You aren’t responsible for any deaths. What are you talking about?
I sighed and dropped eye contact. “I know he was a horrible person and probably deserved to die, but Ossian would still be alive if it weren’t for me.”
Rupert rested his other hand over mine. “That may be true but he’d have continued to beat Marcia; he’d have gone even further with tricking people into taking opioids. He was a bad man, Vivian. There are many, many people who’ll be glad to know he’s gone.”
Rupert checked his watch and I caught a glimpse of security footage from the perimeter being swiped rapidly. “The place is deserted,” he said. “I promise you. End it now, Vivian. If you don’t I will, but either way, we need to destroy this place and move on. As soon as Sinclair finds out about this, I’ll be on a one way ticket to the mainland, and there are still loose ends I need to tie up.”
His eyes bore into mine, waiting. My head told me to think twice before hitting a switch that would destroy forty acres of land, but my heart – the same heart that took every person’s pain to its core and my love for Rupert through to my very bones – told me to do it.
I nodded once and pressed down hard.
We waited in deathly silence for several long seconds, then as though it had been hit by a nuclear bomb, the landscape lit up in a blaze, sparks exploding for as far as the eye could see, around the outer fence, across the land. Not a space was spared.
“What about the chemicals?” I asked, alarmed.
“You mean from the surgical equipment?”
I nodded, unable to take my eyes off the blaze.
“The flames will only eradicate what’s on the surface. When the fire has died down, we’ll need to send in excavators so all the waste products can be disposed of properly.”
I could feel my heart beating beneath my hand. “It’s over.”
Rupert breathed out slowly. “I wish it were, but I have a terrible feeling it’s only just begun.”
I wished the feeling that coursed through my veins at the sight of forty acres going up in flames was one of sadness. An entire landscape was being destroyed. But I couldn’t feel anything but complete elation. I felt like I was floating.
Without thinking, I pulled back the door handle and stepped out of the car. I walked the few metres to the chain-mail fence and pressed my face up against it. The flames were so close they warmed my cheeks. Another source of warmth pressed against my back and Rupert’s hands stroked around my ribcage, coming to rest on my stomach. Blood rushed to my core, making my knees weak.
Rupert’s breath caressed my ear. “How do you feel?”
I paused. The most obvious word was hot. I was steaming hot in more ways than one, and the rigid cock pushing into my back told me he felt the same way.
“Restless,” I said with a tight sigh.
He dragged his cool lips down my temple – the very one Ossian had held a gun to. “For what?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, honestly. All I knew was I was itching for something; I just didn’t know what.
Rupert stayed silent and instead ran his hands slowly down over my stomach to the waistband of my jeans, where they rested, only to scorch my skin with suggestion.
I realised he was waiting for some of sort of signal. Things were not the same between us. Not yet. Ossian might no longer be a physical threat but he was still very much alive in my mind.
