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“Get your girl down here, brother,” Dante informs me. “Because I can’t keep Harper from killing her all day. Make it quick.”
He reaches for Harper’s hand and tugs her past me toward the door. She offers an innocent smile when she looks over at me, and I wonder just how broken this girl truly is, and if my brother can save her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CAIA
The knife presses against his flesh. I can feel their eyes on me, burning into me as they watch me take his life. His eyes are wide with shock, but I feel no remorse, no guilt at what I’m doing. He deserves what is happening, and I find my mouth kicking up into a smile. A happy grin as the blood drains from him.
Harper’s soft giggle is the only other sound besides my father whimpering and pleading with me to stop. He’s finally the one in agony, and it makes me happy. I can see how people get addicted to murder, how they bask in the power they hold from taking someone’s life in their hands.
He’s shuddering as I watch the vital fluid drenching my hand. It’s sticky, the scent metallic and strong as it invades my nostrils. It’s the only thing I can smell.
“This is for all those young lives you stole,” I tell him. “And this,” I press the blade against the vein pumping wildly, severing the flesh as the silver edge drags across the wrinkles. “Is for me and Harper, your daughters.”
“Caia.” Drake’s voice steals me from the memory, and I glance up to find him standing behind me. I’m seated at the dressing table in his bedroom, staring at myself in the mirror. “We need to decide what to do with your mother.”
“And we need to find out why my father did what he did,” I tell him. I need to know how a man who is meant to love his daughters can do something so vile.
I rise, turning to face the man who holds my heart. He pulls me closer. Leaning in, he presses his lips to mine. For a moment, I feel him. I feel his emotions — guilt, fear, love, anger, rage — whirling through him, and they tumble into me.
I’m the one to break the kiss before I offer him a whispered response. “She doesn’t deserve to live, but I need to say goodbye,” I tell him.
He laces his fingers through mine, and we make our way down to the dungeon that brings back memories I had long-since buried. I always knew this place was here, but since I’d been back in Drake’s life, I never ventured down here. I didn’t want to see it. But once you’ve purged yourself of the past, it’s remarkable how differently you feel about things.
“Hello, Mother,” I offer as soon as we step into the familiar room. She’s bound, but her mouth is no longer covered with tape.
“Baby girl,” she utters, and her voice sends me right back to being ten years old and listening to her read me fairytales before bed. The same woman who taught me about dragons and princes was the same woman who let me be stolen.
“I’m no longer anyone’s baby girl,” I tell her. “You made sure of that.”
Shaking her head, she meets my angry glare with a sad gaze of her own. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she whimpers. “Your father . . . He’s always had . . . He’s been a bad person for a long time.” Her words tumble freely as she confesses. “His own childhood was filled with darkness.”
“So you decided to leave your daughters with a fucked-up monster?”
“No, I . . . I didn’t have a way of taking you with me, and he would’ve found me. I allowed him to rule my life.”
“Why Malcolm?” I question, needing to know for me, for Drake, and for Dante. “What did Malcolm do to Hamish that he could blackmail him into starting this horror show?”
The door clicks behind us. Dante and Harper stroll inside, and I know we’re nearing the end of my mother’s life. My sister is raging, her eyes wide, darkness swirling in them, and I’m certain she’s as ready as I am to move on.
But I want answers. I need them.
“Tell me,” I hiss, stepping closer to her. My face right in hers, and I see it. I see Harper and me in her features. We’re her daughters, there’s no doubt about it. “What did my father have over Malcolm Savage?”
“When Malcolm was at college, he and your father were best of friends. Until one night, they had gone to a frat party.” She finally sighs, and my heartrate only spikes at the revelations. “Malcolm had a girlfriend who was . . . She wanted to do drugs with him while partying with boys who were far too old for her.” My mother lowers her gaze for a moment, and I wonder if she’s stalling. Then she looks up at me again as tears trickle down her cheeks. “Malcolm gave her some pills she swallowed without knowing what they were. Hamish found her on Malcolm’s bed. She died.”
