Page 88 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two

My whole life, I’ve been chasing after control, after power.

After revenge.

But now...now it’s not just me. I’ve got something real to protect. Shae, Tempest, Raiden—this is my family.

And I’m willing to burn it all down to keep them safe.

“I have an idea,” I tell Axel. He pauses for a second before responding.

“You gonna share with the class?” he drawls. The thing is, I should get on this ideanow, not later. But I have to reconcile mymorals with what needs to be done next, and I know Axel, of the three of us, will have the biggest problem with what I want to do.

“Not yet. I’ll tell you when all three of us are in person again.” I can practically hear Axel’s eyebrow going up.

“You including RiRi?”

For the first time tonight, I feel like chuckling.

“I’ll give you a thousand dollars to call him that to his face.”

“Done,” he says. “But because I’ll obsess over this, can you give me a hint?” I think about it for all of three seconds before deciding he’ll need time to get used to the idea.

“I know how to draw him out,” I say, feeling a dark mass settle in my gut as I decide. “We’re gonna take his daughter.”

NINETEEN

SHAE

“Shae, you’re the most logical person I know, but right now? You’re crashing out.” Yennifer delivers the statement over the Bluetooth with a level of calm that feels contrary to my surroundings—speeding down the dark, tree-lined highway cutting through the outskirts of Versailles as if the devil were chasing after me.

I don’t like driving in America in the first damn place, so driving in an unfamiliar country is a lesson in anxiety.

It’s five a.m., I haven’t slept, and I’m rushing to get the fuck out of here in a pay-by-the-hour car rental before Storm realizes I’ve taken off with the kids.

His kids. Our kids.

This is the last night I spend away from my kids.

How else am I supposed to interpret those words besides as a threat to take them away from me? Me, their mother. The one who nurtured them in my womb, birthed them, and raised them all on my own.

He says I owe him…but there are some prices I’m unwilling to pay.

I blink away the tears welling in my eyes, thinking of my babies’ tired faces as I distracted the guards for Yennifer to get them out of the hotel hours earlier.

My heart has been in my throat since midnight when I snuck them out, counting down the hours until I could slip out myself without being detected.

Their lives are not up for barter or trade, so I don’t feel at all bad that I drugged the two guards who sat outside my door with tea laced with three doses of Benadryl each.

Now, we’re half an hour away from being reunited where they wait for me on King’s plane, and at least I’ll be able to remove one thing from the list of shit that’s giving me heart palpitations.

“I’m doing what I need to do, Yenn,” I bite out. I don’t need her pushing back on this. “Can you double-check that the plane is ready to take off as soon as I get there?”

I can practically feel the eyeroll I know she’s giving me.

“Yes, the plane is set, and the pilots are ready. Can you help me understand why you and Storm can’t talk about things as adults?”

Because we tried talking, and I ended up sobbing and coming on his dick instead.

I shake my head.