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To my dearest fiancée,
You took everything away from me.
And it’s time we made things even.
I’m coming for you, Nova.
And I won’t stop until I’m finished.
Everything you love will be taken from you.
An eye for an eye.
Love
R.G.
“Oh, my God,” Juliet choked out as she gripped my hand in a vise, her nails digging into my fingers.
‘Oh, my God’ was fucking right.
I’d known it. I’d known Dr. Loomis had been wrong, and Ryzen wasn’t far away on an island somewhere. No, he was right in our backyard. But I had a big surprise for him this time. My hand instinctively went to the knife in my pocket. If he wanted to come and get me, let him. I would not live my life in fear anymore.
An eye for an eye was right. But this time, Ryzen Goodacre was going to get what he deserved.
A one-way ticket to hell.
Chapter Five
Nova
Cold water sprayed over me in the shower, the sensation jarring, but more than welcome. Dr. Loomis had told me once that a cold shower was supposed to help reduce your stress, but I just wanted to feel numb for a moment. No, I wasn’t going to have a pity party in the shower. I was… so damn angry. Angry thatsomeonethought they could do this to me and get away with it. Angry that someone was trying to take my power away from me, especially after I’d worked so hard to get it back. But I wouldn’t let the fear eat at me. If I did, then they would win. Ryzen would win. Piper would win. All the crazy, delusional people who thought I deserved what had happened to me would win.
And I would not let that happen. Hell, no.
I was angry, and more than a little frightened, but I wasn’t weak. Not anymore. I was a badass dildo-making queen, and nobody was going to make me feel like I didn’t have control of my life.
My phone beeped with a voicemail, and I stepped out of the shower, wrapping myself in a towel. I pressed play, my lips set in a thin line at Delove’s voice. He rambled on that the handwriting analysis would take a few days to get back, but that the red marks on the dress were blood. Human blood. The knot in my stomach grew, and I squeezed my eyes shut. He said the same thing Cian had last night: we didn’t know if it was Ryzen. It was probably just a crazy person who had heard about my story.
They said it as if that was supposed to make me feel better. Newsflash: it didn’t. I threw on a skirt and tank top and plopped down on our leather sectional in the living room. Cian had insisted I stay at home today until he finished with his meetings, after which he’d promised me a nice romantic evening cuddled up on the couch with a bottle of wine. It wasn’t like I wanted to be stuck in my apartment all day while everyone else was out there living their normal lives, but he’d had a point. I needed to relax and regroup.
I had sent Valik to the office to watch over Juliet and the girls. We had plenty of security at the store, and would add more, but I knew it made them feel safer when he was there. I’d made Juliet and Thora promise not to tell Sophie. There was no reason to make her worried over something we didn’t even have a grasp on yet.
My head rested on the back of the couch, and I stared up at the sparkling chandelier above my head. Cian had mostly decorated the penthouse, and I was happy to let him. For a man who claimed he was content living in a cabin in the woods, he sure had exceptional taste. The entire unit was decked out in black and gray tones, with luxurious custom-made furniture everywhere you looked. He had even bought a giant clear quartz crystal that was over six feet tall and two feet wide that sparkled in the most beautiful way when the sun hit it. Thora had convinced him we needed it to make sure all negative energy would be kept at bay. I laughed at the memory, because she’d convinced him she needed one in her apartment too. He would have bought her ten if he’d thought it would have made her happy, though. That was what I loved so much about him; he was always making sure everyone was taken care of and that they were comfortable.
The morning went by quickly and I kept busy by cleaning everything in sight. I was sure that hadn’t been what Cian had meant when he said I needed to relax and unwind, but I couldn’t help myself. Idle hands were the Devil’s plaything, as the saying went.
In the afternoon, I decided I should organize Cian’s side of the closet by color—and by closet, I meant a giant room that was bigger than Juliet’s and my dorm room in college. Fancy furniture and plush fabrics had never been anything I had been excited about, but a closet that had remote-controlled shelves? Hell yes, that I could get into.
In the center of the closet was a gray and white marble-top console that held all our jewelry, watches, sexy toys and special gifts Cian had gotten me. And there were a lot of them. I pressed play on the overhead TV and let the reality show wash away all my worries as I started organizing his dress shirts.
I had already finished with the black, gray, and white shirts and was moving on to the red ones when something caught my attention at the top of his shelf. It was on the level that didn’t move, so I reached up on my tiptoes and tried to grab what looked like the edge of a bubble envelope. When I couldn’t reach it, I grabbed a leather spanking paddle and was able to knock it down. It landed on the floor with a thump, like something heavy was in it. Guilt coursed through my veins for a moment. It wasn’t like I was snooping or like I didn’t trust Cian. I trusted him with my entire world.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I unfolded the flap, dumping the contents out on the console. My eyes widened as a knife clattered against the marble top, along with some newspaper clippings and some old, tattered photos. I thumbed through the photos of a young Cian and his foster siblings. There was a picture of his mom holding him as a baby. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and I could see the resemblance to Cian immediately. On the back was a hand-scribbled note in delicate writing that read “Baby Cian on the happiest day of my life.”
Cian never really talked about his mother, and what he had said was the complete opposite of what the picture showed. According to Cian, his mother was a terrible person who had only fostered Eros, Orin and Thora for the money. She had sat idly by all those years as his father had beaten not only him, but her as well. Something wasn’t sitting right with me about this. I unfolded the newspaper clippings and gasped at the headline. “Mysterious Death at Old River Forge.”
Cian’s father.
