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The washcloth in Keegan’s hand disappears a little more, his knuckles whiter than snow. “I’m sorry, Eden. For all of it.” His response takes me aback.
I breathe in deep, then release it as if years’ worth of shit is flowing out of me.
I keep staring into his eyes. “Do you think your dad killed Dee?”
21
Eden
“I…don’t know.”
Keegan’s answer turns over in my mind again and again. If that question isn’t answered with an unequivocal no, there’s a reason.
We know Leon Forbes is a disgusting pig.
We know he sent the bouquet to Dee talking about her “big day.”
What in the hell happened at the castle that night?
Keegan said she left to welcome the entertainment to the island and then he never saw her again.
I turn, the sheets twisting around my feet. Somewhere in this big-ass house there’s a clock ticking, and it sounds like a time bomb counting down the seconds. To what? I’m not sure.
After Keegan left, I wanted to be alone. I forgot about the file and my mission. I just wanted to be by myself and think about Dee again. About my father… She looked up to him so much—
The world slows to a grinding halt, as if my brain is just now catching onto something. Leon Forbes. What if he killed Dee…and Dad? He and my dad had a lot of business arrangements together. With him out of the way, and especially with the way the grief had overtaken him lately, maybe Leon had him killed?
The only other explanation I have is the Knights. I feel like a broken record when it comes to them, but maybe my dad became a liability. Maybe he was asking questions about Dee. What if he was killed because he was snooping around?
My gaze darts to the window. It’s pitch black outside. Nothing greets me when I stare out but a void like I’m in a nothingness.
I slip the covers off. My feet land on the cold hardwoods that creak underneath my weight as I make my way out of my room and down the hall. Turning the knob on Leo’s door, I let myself in. His bathroom light is on, shining into his main room and illuminating the sheets hanging off the side of the bed. He peers up, his stare meeting mine in the bathroom mirror.
“Hey,” I say lamely.
“Hey.”
I walk forward tentatively, thinking what an odd choice I’ve made tonight. You’d think I’d want Oliver’s loving arms around me. He could comfort me, talk to me about Dee. But no, that’s not what I want right now. Two of my family members are dead, and if anyone is keeping score, there’s only two left.
Leo lifts a bottle of peroxide and pours some of the liquid on my name I carved into him. It’s scabbing over now, but the area’s still red. The good news is you can’t even see where his asshole grandfather made his mark.
I sit on the bed and bring my knees to my chest. “Does it hurt?”
He gives me the side-eye. “Didn’t I tell you not to ask me that?”
“You know I’m not a very good listener.”
He chuckles.
I watch as he puts another bandage on, taping the sides down before turning toward me in all of his full-chested glory. My heart skips a beat as I watch him step into the room. Leonardo Jarvis is a specimen. It’s as if I know he’s scary, yet at the same time, all mine.
I didn’t grow up like him. I had a slightly better childhood, but all of my bad shit happened at once, and here we are, just two people who feed off each other’s darkness.
“Why my room, Little Miss Astor?”
I smirk at that—briefly. There are so many thoughts and ideas and schemes tied up in my brain that it feels like a tornado is rushing through. “Do you think someone like you can live a normal life after this?”
It’s not the question I intended to ask him, and I don’t think it’s one he expects either. He stops in his tracks, little streams of peroxide still skating down his torso, following the cut lines of his muscles. “Are you doubting me?”