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“Is that all I have?” He extends his hand to Lou. “Thanks to her, I think I have a lot more than that. I haveyounow. And you’re the one I’ve been dying to get my hands on most of all.”
Now Idolook at her, my chest tightening at the sight of the anger in her expression. “You’rethe one turning me over to Gideon? I would expect this from Declan, not you. Why?”
“Because I hate you, Rowan,” she spits out as she comes to stand in front of me. Her eyes begin to water and a tear rolls down her cheek. Furiously wiping at it, she grits between her teeth, “I hate you with every fiber of my being.”
“You. Hate Me,” I repeat as I peer at her and into her soul, and it finally sinks in like a dagger to the heart. “You. Hate. Me.”
“What did you expect after you crushed me?Youdid this.” She points at me, digging her finger into my chest. “You made me into this monster. Now you’re reaping what you sowed.”
Yes, she’s told me so many times, and yet I stupidly believed she would forgive me. That she’d remember she once loved me and hold on to that. That she’d ask me for the truth, and I’d give it to her.
But I’m the one who needed to understand the truth. Louisa hates me. She’ll never ask me what happened and she’ll never forgive me.
Something inside me breaks, and the world around me disappears. I barely register as I’m tugged away from her.
Behind me, distantly, Gideon says, “Boston is yours. Congratulations.”
Just like that, the throne slips between my fingers. And so does Lou.
19
LOUISA
Revenge is a dish best served cold. Because by then, the person who hurt you has their guard down. There are the people who forget what they’ve done in the first place, like my brother. They move on, never apologizing, because they simply don’t remember the pain they’ve caused.
Then there are the ones who do a wrong and remember what they did but assume if enough time passes without repercussion, all is forgiven. That time has forgiven the wound they’ve inflicted.
I’m not sure which category Rowan falls into, and with each step I take toward the second floor, the less certain I become.
It was the confusion in his eyes when he asked, “Why?” The pain as he repeated what I told him.“You. Hate. Me.”
It was as if he’d never heard me say it before. As if all those times I hissed the words at him, they went in one ear and out the other. Or he refused to believe them.
Either way, he finally heard them this time. His eyes widened in shock, as if I’d jammed a dagger straight into his heart. My moment had finally come, that karma I’d been dying to slap him with, but instead of relief, I felt something stir in my chest besides hate. I felt confusion, doubt, regret. I felt his pain.
I squashed that feeling, shoved it deep down and reminded myself that he had this coming. He made his bed and now he must lie in it. No one’s fault but his own.
Except…
Why does it hurtme?
His eyes. It was his eyes. The blue so dark, it was like an abyss in the ocean, cold and desolate.
Lies! Even with his gaze, he lies. Because of him, I died inside. Now because of me, Gideon Black is going to kill him.
I stop, my foot suspended in midair, my hand grasping tightly onto the stair rail.Gideon will take Rowan’s life.
My heart slams into my chest and my stomach clenches. Gideon will kill him, but at the end of the day, Rowan’s blood will be onmyhands.
Three days have passed since our lunch at Enrique’s, where Declan overheard my conversation. After we drove home, he caught me again in the kitchen for our little talk.
He told me of his recent meeting with the Ferryman and his offer to allow Declan to rule the McKenzies without going after him. All he wanted in return was Rowan.
As for me, I’d have to keep Rowan distracted long enough for him to replace any would-be mutineers with men loyal to him. All I had to do was keep him in bed. Manipulate him into believing I was finally accepting him. And for my final act of revenge, I’d be the one to serve him up and hand him over to Gideon on a silver platter.
“You can have your revenge, Louisa,” Declan had said. “He deserves it.”
Yes, Rowan does deserve it.
