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“Don’t do that,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “Don’t pretend that this is okay. It’s not.”
Locke sighed, running his hand through his hair. “I came here to tell you something else. I decided to finally look into who killed your father.”
My heart stopped.
“I’ve been keeping my head in the fucking sand for far too long.”
My ears rang. My throat closed.
“You deserve closure. You deserve to know the truth. We both do.”
My stomach churned.
“I found out who did it,” Locke said, his voice low and serious.
My blood froze as I looked up at him.
He reached out to touch my arm, but I didn’t flinch this time. Instead, I let him touch me, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine.
“My goal was to kill him. Make him pay. Do what I should have done the minute it happened,” he said, his voice fierce. “I had two goals in mind. Making sure you’re safe. Making sure justice is served.”
My mind raced, trying to process everything he had said.
“But I found out today that someone got to him first. Someone already killed him shortly after Gabriel’s death.” Locke’s eyes were on me, waiting for my response.
“I know,” I finally said, my voice barely above a whisper.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “What do you mean you know?”
I parted my lips to say the words I never thought I’d tell a single soul, closed them, but then finally said, “Because I was the one that killed my father’s murderer.”
Locke’s eyes widened. “What?”
I nodded slowly, feeling the weight of my confession bearing down on me. “I killed him. I found out he was the one responsible for my father’s death, and I wanted to make sure he’d pay. I wanted revenge, and I couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t going to allow my father’s murderer to walk away.”
Locke’s expression was unreadable, his eyes dark and intense as he absorbed my words. “You killed him,” he repeated, as if trying to wrap his head around the idea.
I nodded again. “I did.”
Locke stepped back, shock evident on his face.
“I didn’t know who to turn to, who to trust. I couldn’t even talk to you about it because I was afraid of everything and everyone. I was angry, and like my father… impulsive.”
He shook his head, looking at me with disbelief. “Why wouldn’t you come to me? To Merrick, Soren, or Braken. We could have helped you. We could have—”
“It was something I felt I needed to do. I needed to take control. Me. So I went to Apollo and asked for his help to find out who the killer was. Once I knew… well…” I didn’t want to tell the story. I didn’t want to relive that awful night. But I also wanted to finally be honest with Locke. “Once it was over, I no longer felt afraid. I no longer felt so out of control. My father no longer haunted me.”
“Are you fucking crazy! You could have gotten yourself killed,” he boomed.
“Stop!” I shouted at him, leaning in and stabbing my finger into his chest. “Stop treating me like a child. I don’t know what I have to do to prove to you that I am not some innocent little girl that needs your fucking pampering. I did something that none of youmendid. I took control. I wasn’t going to wonder who and when. I found out. I took care of it. Is that the actions of the sweet, innocent child you’ve always considered me?”
Locke’s eyes narrowed, his jaw tensing as he glared down at me. I could feel the heat radiating off his body, his anger boiling just beneath the surface. “You’re right, you’re not a child. But you’re as fucking reckless as your father and look where that landed him. And you don’t get to decide to just step into this dark world he lived in and then act like all is fine afterwards. That’s not how the world works. There could be ramifications for what you did.”
“Apollo said he’d handle it. He told me I was good and to not worry.” I hated telling Locke that I had turned to someone else besides him for protection, but I had.
“You should have told me.” Locke’s voice was deep, serious, and I could see a fire burning within his eyes.
“Yeah, well,” I said between clenched teeth, “there were a lot of things you should have told me too. Clearly, you and I like to keep secrets.”
