AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He did what he came to do and left,” I reply.
Luca peers over my shoulder and does the sign of the cross over his chest. “May he rest in peace.”
Ruslan takes his leather jacket off and places it over my father. “He will be missed.”
“Your sister is with Gunn,” Luca tells Skye. “But you should probably go talk to her.”
Skye nods. She looks at me one more time, her gaze sad, before picking up her bag and heading outside.
“What do you want to do?” Luca asks. “I can have the scene cleaned.”
“There’s no point. People are already asking where Clive Maxton has disappeared to.” Besides, he deserves a proper burial. Not one done hastily in an unnamed tomb.
“The police must be called in, then,” Ruslan says.
“There will be questions,” Luca adds. “They’re going to put you through the wringer.”
“I have a good lawyer.”
Ruslan takes out his phone. “I’ll get in touch with the police chief. Keep this as discreet as possible.”
As he does that, I go to stand by the window. Skye is speaking with Gunn outside the Tahoe. Inside, Maisie is sitting almost catatonically. It’s going to be a long time before either of them get over this. Before I do.
“Will you keep them at Briar House until I can sort this out?” I ask Luca.
“Of course.”
“You’ll keep them safe?”
Luca nods in determined affirmation. “You’re part of the alliance now. We protect our own.”
I don’t tell him that Skye isn’t one of us because she’s not mine anymore. I don’t tell him, because in my mind, she always will be.
23
SKYE
It takes two days for Arran to sort out things back in Philly. He hasn’t called me once. Though I’m not sure I would talk to him if he did.
Carina has kept me updated on everything. He was obviously detained for questioning after Clive’s death. But things were quickly wrapped up when it was determined he’d also been a victim. Either way, the case will be open for a while. Now it’s just a matter of cleaning up the mess left behind.
What a mess it is too.
Never has my life made less sense than it does now. Never has it been so difficult to find my place.
While Carina and Luca have welcomed us into their home for as long as we need, both Maisie and I have had a hard time acclimating.
Maisie has yet to snap out of that strange state where she’s retreated into herself and spends most of her time locked up in the room assigned to her. I’ve tried several times to talk to her about everything that happened, but she just smiles and puts on her earphones, shutting me out. I’m left to wonder how deep her new wounds run. Was it seeing Clive shot that traumatized her? Or was it the fact that the woman she’d put on a pedestal did the shooting? The new hero, who proved to be nothing but a villain.
Those thoughts swim through my mind on constant repeat while, at the same time, I’m reeling from my own experience. But unlike Maisie, I don’t stay holed up in the room I was given. I can hardly stand being in it, not when it’s the same one Arran and I shared.
Arran.
I am so utterly torn about everything that has to do with him, it feels like I’m physically being ripped apart.
Even after all he did, I want to go back in time and spare him the pain of losing his father the way he did.
He turned him in. For me. He watched him die. For me. And I love him all the more for it.
