Page 29

James

W illow stared at Elijah’s body as I walked back to her, rage swirlingthrough me as I took in the blood on her face.

He’d hurt her.

It didn’t bear thinking about what would have happened if I hadn’tgotten there in time.

A bullet to his head was too lenient. I should have tortured the fuckerfor hurting my wife before I ended his miserable existence. But time was against me.

I’d called a Subitis meeting.

Latin for emergency, Subitis meetings had only been called a handfulof times in the history of Legion, normally when one of the board members had died, and their heir was named as taking their seat.

It was unheard of for a non-board member to call a Subitis meeting,and despite the myriad of messages I’d received from three of the four board members demanding to know why I’d called the meeting, I’d ignored them.

They’d all find out soon enough for the reason I’d caused alarm.

“Mouse, look at me.”I grabbed Willow’s chin and tugged her face tome.“He’s dead. He’ll never hurt you again.”I swiped a streak of blood from her bottom lip, hatingthatshe winced.“I know you have questions, but there is something we need to do urgently. Come with me, and I’ll get Edith to clean you up.”

Her eyes widened.“No,”she said hurriedly.“Edith was working withElijah. He…he paid her to put birth control pills in my food to stop me from getting pregnant. She’s…gone. She left when Elijah came here, and he was going to take me away.”

A fierce burning cascaded through my body, seeping into every porelike lava at learning of Edith’s betrayal.“What?”

She flinched at the venom in my tone.“Elijah said she hated workingfor you, and he paid her a few million dollars to do it.”

It took every ounce of restraint to control the furythatwas desperateto bubble out of me. If it wasn’t for the fact I now had informationthatstopped the looming deadline to get Willow pregnant, I would have hunted down Edith rightthatsecond so she could meet the same fate as Elijah.

“I’ll deal with Edith later. But right now, we need to go.”I took herhand and dragged her along the path leading up to the house, too angry to speak. I needed to calm myself for what was about to happen, if I let my rage dictate my actions,thenI’d fuck everything up.

Cleo and Jackson were waiting on the veranda as I pulled Willowby my side. As soon as they saw us, Jackson’s brows furrowed together in question, whereas Cleo’s gaze was trained on Willow, worry etched on her face.

“What happened?”Jackson said as we reached them.

“Elijah attacked her. He’s dead. Can you call the team in to take careof the body?”I replied, wishing I could kill Elijah all over again.

“Yeah, sure.”Without delay, Jackson stepped away, pulling hisphone out to make a call.

“Are they here?”I asked, turning to Cleo.

“Yes. And I’ve spoken with the twins. Everything is in place, thetargets won’t be able to move without us knowing about it,”she explained, confirming the surveillance I’d asked to be put in place on my father and Welch in case they got wind of what was happening and tried to flee.

“Good. Can you take Willow and clean her face up before joining themeeting?”

“Of course,”Cleo replied, giving Willow a soft smile.

Willow’s hand tensed in mine, and I turned to face her.“Cleo will keepyou safe,”I said, staring into her beautiful orbs. I gently stroked a thumb over her chin, her body relaxing at my touch.

Lightly, so as not to hurt her, I brushed my lips against hers, the tasteof copper hitting my tongue, and an air of finality about it. When I pulled away, she gave me a quizzical look.“I had to kiss you one last time, Mouse, because in a few minutes, you’re going to go back to hating me, and you’ll have every right to.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but I shook my head, telling her notto ask any questions. With a final kiss to her forehead, I walked away, knowingthatafter this, I’d have no choice but to let her go.

There was once a time when I didn’t give a shit if she hated me. Now,I couldn’t bear the thought of it.

Ethan Rivers, Harrison Stone, and Gabriel Evans were waiting in mymeeting room. They sat on one side of the table, a space next to Ethan where my father should be sitting; their usual seating order whenever a Legion meeting was held.

“About time, James,”Ethan snapped as I closed the door behind me.“Are you going to tell us what this is all about?”

“And why the hell you demanded we kept this from Eric?”Gabe, thetwins’ dad, chimed in.

I took a breath to ease the coilthathad tightened around my entirebody. If I couldn’t convince these three men of what I knew the truth to be, not only would I be putting Willow in danger, but I wouldn’t live to see another day. Not after what I’d done to Elijah.

“Firstly, I’d like to thank you for coming at such short notice. I assureyou, if this wasn’t such an urgent and sensitive matter, I wouldn’t have called you here. Yesterday, I learned of a betrayal by one of our own. My father. That’s the reason he isn’t here.”

The three of them blinked back at me, each one wearing the sameexpression.

Shock.

“That’s a serious allegation, James,”Harrison, Cleo’s father, said.“Iassume you have proof?”

“I do,” I replied.

I only hoped Ann fucking Milligan wouldn’t go back on her word to tellthe board everything she knew. I’d fully intended on burning her alive when I burned her mom’s house down to the ground in an‘accident,’but with the information she gave me, I knew I had to keep her alive.

At least for a little while longer.

A tense stillness descended as the three of them looked at eachother, a silent conversation taking place between them.

They had a strange relationship. Whereas the heirs to Legion - me,Jackson, Cleo, Zayden, and Brody - were firm friends, the current leaders were definitely not. At one point, they had been close, but over the years cracks appeared in their friendships, the pressure of ruling Legion breaking them apart.

I supposed it was somethingthatcould happen between me and theothers, but it was always something we’d been aware of, and we’d all agreed to try our hardest not to turn out like our asshole fathers. We wanted to be the best leaders Legion had ever seen.

“Verywell,”Ethan said.“We’ll hear you out, and if what you aresaying is true, your father will be dealt with for his betrayal.”

“Thank you.” I breathed a sigh of relief. That was the first hurdle done.

Before I could launch into everything I knew, the door opened again,and Jackson entered, followed by Cleo and Willow. In the short amount of time she’d had, Cleo had done a good job of cleaning Willow up. The blood smears were gone from her face, but the cut on her lip was obvious, and a bruise was forming on her jawline.

“Why is your wife here, James?”Gabe sneered, eyeing up Willow likeshe was a piece of shit on his shoe.“She isn’t Legion, she has no right to be at this meeting.”

“She has every right to be here. What I’m about to tell you involvesher,”I replied, letting them hear the authority in my tone.

Willow wasn’t going anywhere.

Gabe continued to sneer, but Ethan cleared his throat.“She can stay.Now tell us what the fuck is going on before I lose my patience.”

In the absence of my father, the head of the board, Ethan was the deputy.He would have the final say until my father returned to take his place. Only, in this case, I hoped my father would never be returning to his seat on the board.

At this point, I didn’tevencare whether I took his seat. All I wantedwas for my wife to be safe, and for the truth to be known.

I gave Cleo a nod, and she silently led Willow to the far end of theroom, the two of them taking a seat, and Cleo still clutching Willow’s hand. Jackson came to my side where he took a seat opposite the other three. One day, when his father passed, he’d be my deputy.

“Eight years ago, my father claimedthata fellow Legion member wasplanning to breach Legion rules,”I started, refusing to look at Willow. I didn’t want to see the hurtthatwould inevitably be plastered all over her face when she learned the truth.“He showed you a documentthata journalist had allegedly written naming Legion members and their crimes.”

“I rememberthat,”Harrison said, leaning back in his chair.“Eric toldus the journalist, Daniel, I think his name was, was planning on sending the article to news outlets across the world. We ordered his death because we couldn’t risk the exposure. Come on, James. You know this.”

“The information my father gave you was false,”I replied, my tonesharp.“He wanted Daniel dead, but not because he planned on exposing Legion. He wanted him dead because he wanted what Daniel had.”

“And you can prove this, how?”Gabe snapped, pissing me off. Theman needed to learn some manners.

I met Jackson’s gaze, giving him a slight nod of his head. Herose from his seat and disappeared out of the room.

“Perhaps you’d like to hear this from someone else. An eye witness.”

A second later, Jackson returned, Ann Milligan trailing behind him,her face as stoic as ever.

A soft gasp erupted from the far end of the room, and I couldn’t helpbut look in Willow’s direction. Her eyes were wide and panicked at facing the woman who’d made her life a misery for the past eight years.

Her aunt.

I tore my gaze away when Cleo started whispering somethingin Willow’s ear, grateful to Cleo for looking after her.

Jackson pulled a seat out for Milligan who sat down opposite theboard leaders, her scowl fixed on them.

“Aren’t you one of the staff who lives at Peartree House?”Harrisonsaid, his lips curling in disgust as he took the old hag in.

Harrison had always been vocal about his hatred for the PeartreeHouse program, but he’d always been outvoted whenever he suggested closing the place down. As much as I agreed with him, the house would never close. Not when the majority of Legion wanted it to remain in business.

“Yes, I am,”Milligan replied curtly. “And I will tell you what you wantto know, but I want your assurancesthatI will walk out of this place, and be free to live the rest of my life in peace.”

I stifled an eye roll, amusedthatshe thought she had any bargainingpower.

“Agreed. Now tell us what you know,”Ethan snapped.

I glared daggers at him for agreeing without hearing what she’d donefirst, but when his gaze flashed to mine and held my eyes for a brief second, I wasn’t so surethathe’d given her a permanent stay of execution.

“Eric Carter plotted with Kevin Welch to have Daniel Somersbykilled,”Milligan said, her tone emotionless despite the bombshell she’djustdelivered.

Across the table, confusion set in.

“Why would they have donethatif Daniel wasn’t trying to exposeLegion?”Gabe said, sounding almost bored.

“Because the two of them are greedy assholes who wanted what theycouldn’t have,”Milligan snapped.

“I’m getting a little bit sick of going around in circles here, James. Youbetter damn well explain yourself before I contact Eric myself, and tell him his son is plotting some kind of coup,”Ethan bellowed, his fist clenching on the table.

I sighed, my chances of convincing them dwindling by the second.“Daniel Somersby was married to Helen Somersby. Eighteen years ago, they had a daughter, Charlotte.”From the corner of my eye, I saw Willow’s eyes widen. Ignoring her, I continued. “Despite Helen being married to Daniel, and my father being married to my mom, my father decided he wanted to claim Helen for himself.At a Legion conference when Charlotte was ten years old, KevinWelch decided he wanted to claim Charlotte, and he and my father concocted a plan to remove Daniel so they could each claim mother and daughter. Welch wrote the article, not Daniel, but my father presented it to you, claimingthatDaniel was going to publish it, and needed to be killed to prevent him sharing the article. You all agreed.”

I paused, resisting every urge in my body telling me to look over at Willow.“And I was tasked to dispose of Daniel. I killed him on my father’s orders, and I made his death look like a car crash.”

My heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest, one painful inchat a time. In my periphery, I saw Cleo had wrapped an arm around Willow’s shoulders. I wanted to march over to her and pull Willow into my arms, to feel her petite frame clinging to minejustonce more.

But now she knew the truth. Everythingthathad happened to hersince she was ten years old was because of me. Because I killed her dad withoutevenso much as questioning what my father had told me, and believingthatLegion was more important than anything else.

“Is this true?”Ethan said, his gaze falling to Milligan.

“Every single word,”she replied callously.

The three of them fell quiet as their eyes darted between me andMilligan. When a soft sniffle reverberated around the room, Harrison’s gaze snapped to Willow who was quietly sobbing, Cleo doing her best to comfort her.

“What has your wife got to do with this?”he said, returning hisattention to me.

My stomach clenched with anxiety because once I said everythingaloud, there would be no going back. But before I could speak, Cleoanswered her father’s question.

“Eight years ago, Kevin Welch contacted me and asked me toprovide new identities for Helen and Charlotte following the death of Daniel. He told me he was going to help them start a new life, but he lied to me,justlike Eric lied to you,”she said glumly, her eyes darting to Willow who was hanging on to her every word.“I did what he asked. I can’t remember the new identity I gave to Helen, but the identity I gave to Charlotte was Willow Banks.”

The taut silencethatfell across the roomseemedto stretch onforever, only broken by the tiniest of whimpers coming from Willow.

“Your wife is a child of Legion members,”Gabe said, coming to thequick conclusion I had, his earlier coldness now completely missing.“Which makes her Legion.”

I bowed my head.“Correct.”

Ethan rubbed a thumb over his bottom lip in thought.“And how is ityou know all of this, Ann?”

“Because once upon a time, Kevin Welch loved me,”she spat.“Heloved me until one day, he didn’t. All becausethatlittle whore came along and stole him away,justlike her mother stole Daniel away from me!”

I took a step closer to her, towering over her.“Thathappens to be mywife you’re speaking about. Ethan might have agreedthatyou’ll walk out of here, but there was no agreement as to whenthatmight be. Keep spouting vitriol about Willow, and it’ll be a long time before you walk out of here and see daylight again.”The threat in my tone was unmissable, and when she tilted her head up to look at me, fear flashed in her eyes.“Now answer the question.”

She tore her gaze away from me, but instead of looking at Ethan tospeak to him, she looked over at Willow, their glazes clashing.“I’ll never forget the day she arrived at Peartree House. I hadn’t seen her since she was a baby, but I knew instantly who she was. Charlotte Somersby, my niece.”

An audible gasp echoed around the room, and my cold heart cracked for my girl. She was learning too much shit in such a short space of time.

“Everything was perfect until she came along,”Milligan continued,releasing Willow from the brutal sneer she was sending her.“I’d moved on from Daniel, and Kevin and I were happy until she came along. I wanted to find a way to get rid of her, so I went snooping one night, and I overheard Kevin talking with another man, bragging about what they’d done.”

Her voice became more animated as she repeated what she’d toldme at the house the night before.“When I heard they’d had Daniel killed, I was furious! Kevin confessed everything, and he wasn’tevensorry about it!”Milligan cried, slamming her hand on the table.“Andthenfor eight years, I got to watch him fawn all over her,”she sneered, her venomous gaze aimed back at Willow who was staring in disbelief with bloodshot eyes, and her jaw on the floor.“Andthenyou know what happened? When Willow was taken from Peartree House, I stupidly thought Kevin and I could be together,”she chuckled humorlessly.“But all he kept saying was how he was going to get Willow back. So fuck him! I’m not keeping his secrets anymore!”

Like a petulant child, she folded her arms across her chest andrefused to look at anyone. All three of the men across the table gaped at her in disbelief.

When a tense minute passed by, and no one had spoken, I clearedmy throat. Milligan had said all she knew. I no longer had a need for her, and I didn’t want Willow to have to breathe the same air as the woman who had caused her so much pain anymore.

“Aside from my father and Welch, Ann is the only other person whoknows what they did,”I said, holding Ethan’s eyes.“Not only did she fail to inform the board of what she knew, she spent the last eight years injuring a fellow Legion member.”

Milligan’s head whipped up, panic filling her eyes.“What?”

“She knew Willow was part of Legion, and yet for years, sheabused Willow. She whipped her on a daily basis to make her forget her past so she couldn’t tell anyone who shereallywas. My wife has permanent scars on her skin, and psychological trauma from the abuse she suffered at the hands of Ann Milligan. She can’t be allowed to live forthat.”

“What! No!”Milligan said, attempting to get up from her seat, only forJackson to press her shoulders down and hold her in place.“You gave me your word I’d be free to leave if I told you everything!”she continued to squeal, eventually prompting Jackson to wrap a hand around her mouth to shut up her whining.

“I did give you our assurancesthatyou’d be free to leave if you toldus everything. I said nothing about excusing you from further allegations made against you,”Ethan said stoically. He turned his attention to Willow, speaking softly to her.“Isthattrue? Did Ann whip you?”

Cleo squeezed her hand reassuringly, and when she finally raised herhead to meet Ethan’s gaze, her eyes were filled with nothing but heartbreak.

“Yes,”she whispered, the one word answer almost deafening.

Ethan inhaled a deep breath before turning his attention to Harrisonand Gabe, and once again, a silent conversation took place between the three of them before they nodded.He focused back on Milligan who was trying to fight against Jackson’srestraint, an unreadable expression on his face.“You stand accused of breaching rule five set by our founding fathers of Legion. How do you plead?”

Jackson removed his hand from her mouth to allow her to speak.“Fuck you!”she screeched.

My lips twitched, but any smile about to form quickly faded whenEthan gave me a nod, and spoke the final words required when a Legion member was sentenced to death.“Verywell. Ann Milligan, you are now released from your Legion duties.”

Jackson shifted his body to one side of Milligan, allowing me to standbehind her as I pulled out my knife from the holster I had underneath my suit jacket.

Before I held the knife to her neck, I finally let myself look over atWillow, meeting her wide-eyed gaze.“This is for you, Mouse.”