Page 31

James

“ Do you want me to come in with you?”Jackson said.“You don’thave to be the one to do this.”

It was the first time we’d spoken for the entire journey to my father’shouse, my mind preoccupied to make small talk.

“No,”I replied firmly, not pulling my gaze away from where I staredout of the windshield.“And it does need to be me.”

He might have been my father, but I was determined to be the onewho ended his life. I wanted to be the last person he saw before his eyes closed for the final time. I wanted him to die knowing everyone had learned of his betrayal.

Jackson and I were parked a short distance away from the house,shrouded in darkness. The surveillance team had confirmed my father hadn’t left the house all evening. Unsurprising since they’d witnessed two escorts attend the property earlier in the evening. It appeared my father was too busy with getting his dick wet than worryingthata trial to prove his guilt had been taking place.

As for Welch, Ethan and Gabe were on a plane atthatverymomentto Georgia to deal with him. It should have been me who ended his life too, I would have taken my time murdering the son-of-a-bitch for what he’d done to Willow, but I couldn’t be in two places at once.

At least by the time Willow woke in the morning, all those who hadhurt her wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on her again.

Including me.

“I do need you to do something for me though,”I said, reaching intomy pocket and pulling out a key, and an envelope addressed to Willow.

I’d written it before Jackson and I had set off. She’d fallen into a deepsleep in our bed, oblivious to my presence as I toyed with the spare key to her collar and debated about what my next move would be. I watched her chest rise and fall for whatseemedlike forever, andjustbefore the time came for me to leave, I grabbed a pen, and a pad of paper off the dresser.

I didn’t know what to write at first, there was so much I wanted tosay, but nothing made sense in my head. In the end, Ijuststarted writing, not bothering to go back and read over what I’d written for fearthatI’d change my mind and tear the damn thing up.

“What’s that?” Jackson asked, his brows furrowed as he stared at the envelope.

I handed it to him.“I need you to go to Brooks’ office and collectsome paperwork I had him draw up,”I said, snatching my hand away as soon as Jackson took the envelope from me.

“Brooks? As in the lawyer who specializes in divorce?”

“Yeah. The paperwork will be ready, along with a bag of money. I’vealready asked Cleo to make Willow a new identity, but I need you to take the bag and the papers to the house so Willow gets it. And give herthat,”I said, nodding my head to the envelope and key.

Jackson stared at me for a few seconds, his mouth opening andclosing. I looked away, knowingthatwhatever he was about to say would be an attempt to talk me out of my decision.

“James. What are you doing? You can’t let her go? She’s Legion-”

“She knows nothing about Legion. No risk of her blabbing to anyoneabout it,”I replied, a hint of anger in my voice.

Did he not think this was hard enough?

“Even so, she’s-”

“Don’t, Jackson,”I said, meeting his eye again and doing my best tonot fall apart in front of my best friend.“Whatever you’re going to say, keep it to yourself. I’ve made my mind up. I killed her dad for fuck sake, she’ll never forgive me forthat. I’ll never forgive myself forthat. And I’ll never forgive myself for how I treated her. Sojust…do what I ask. Please.”

He fell quiet again, but a second later, he nodded.

“Meet me back here in the morning. I’ll take care of my father andthe clean up,”I said, getting out of the car, the chilly night air hitting my face.

Without looking back, I walked the short distance to the gatesituated at the front of my father’s house and tapped in the code. Unlike me, he’d never wanted security outside the front of his property, believing he was untouchable.

His arrogance was going to be the death of him.

It took a few minutes to walk up the driveway, but as the housecame into view, the lights were on in various rooms of the house. Quietly, I let myself in, pausing when I silently closed the front door to see if I could figure out where in the house he was.

A shrill laugh filtered through the hallway from the direction of theliving room. Keeping footsteps light, I tiptoed inthatdirection, pulling my gun from my holster.

When I rounded the corner, my lips curled in disgust. My father wassitting in his chair, shirtless, and with his pants around his ankles. His head was tilted back, and his eyes closed as a naked woman on her knees in front of him sucked his cock, while another woman fucked her from behind with a strap-on.

“Party’s over,”I growled, cocking my gun and aiming it in his direction.

His head dropped, and his eyes shot to mine as both women beganscreaming and darted to the other side of the room.

“James! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”my fathergrowled, bolting to his feet and pulling his pants up to cover himself.

“I told you. The party’s over. We need to talk.”

He stormed toward me, a snarl twist on his face.“What gives youthe right to barge into my home and disrespect me like this?”

I stood to my full height, holding the gun out at arm’s length andmaking him pause.“I think it’s time you ladies left,”I said, not taking my eyes off my father.

In my periphery, the women scrambled to put their clothes on asquickly as possible before rushing past us, both of them wearing the same terrified look.

“How fucking dare you!”my father sneered.“You better start talking.”

“What happened to Helen Somersby?”

He held my gaze, the cogs in his head whirling before a grin spreadover his lips.“Your little whore remembered her mom’s namethen? I always told Welch his whipping technique wouldn’t keep the memories away forever.”

A muscle in my jaw twitched at his insult, and the hand holding thegun tightened.“No, she didn’t. Mom gave me the name.”

His brows rose.“Did she now? She never did like Helen. Wasalways jealous when I’d go down to the basement to fuck Helen.”

The bragging smilethatcrept over his face made me feel sick. Myfinger twitched with the need to blow his fucking brains out as it hovered over the trigger.

“I’m assuming you killed Helen?”

“Of course,”he said, shrugging.“She was good for a while, but shewasn’t as compliant as your little whore. She always fought back no matter what I did to her.”

I figured he’d killed her, but I wanted to hear it directly from hismouth.

“So you admit to killing a Legion memberthen?”I replied, my tonecalm.

He glared at me, his eyes darting between mine.“I don’t know whatyou’re talking about. Helen wasn’t Legion,”he said, and I’ll admit, he sounded convincing. If it wasn’t for the fact I knew my father was a lying asshole, I could have believed him.

“You and I both knowthatshe was. Along with her husband, Daniel.Remember him?”I took a step forward, pressing the gun against his chest.“You convinced the board he was planning on exposing Legion, andthenyou ordered me to kill him. And I did. Without questioning you.”

“Because he was threatening to expose Legion!”my father shrieked,a hint of panic in his tone.

I released a humorless chuckle.“I’m guessing Welch never told youthatthere was someone aside from the two of you who knew what you did? You know, where he wrote a fake news article, and you presented it to the board, and convinced them to kill Daniel Somersby so you could claim his wife, and Welch could claim his daughter?”

His entire body froze.“Wh…what?”

“You heard. This whole time Ann Milligan knew about your littlesecret. And now, it isn’tjustme who knows what you did, but the rest of the board knows too.” His eyes widened, fear mixed with surprise flooding them. He openedhis mouth to reply, no doubt to spew more bullshit, but I cut him off.“Eric Carter, you have been found guilty of breaching rule five set by our founding fathers. You are now released from your Legion duties.”

I lowered the gun and squeezed the trigger, the gunshotreverberating off every surface of the living room as the bullet embedded into his stomach. He gasped, and stumbled backward, his hands flying to the wound, and blood instantly beginning to seep through his fingers.

“You…you shot me,”he whined, disbelief in his voice.“You’re doingthis for Legion over me? Your father!”

“No,”I said, cocking the gun again, and this time pointing it at hishead.“I’m doing this for Willow.”

I squeezed the trigger again.

He was dead before he hit the floor.

By the following afternoon, the house was sparkling clean. You’dnever have guessedthata man’s brains were splattered over the furniturejusthours before.

As my father’s body was wrapped up in tarpaulin and loaded into theback of a van, confirmation reached methatWelch had met the same fate.

I’d also been appointed by the board as the new head of Legion,something I’d wanted all my life. Only, when Ethan congratulated me, I felt nothing.

I never thought there would be something in my lifethatI wantedmore than Legion.

How wrong I was.

Jackson arrived at my father’s house in the early afternoon. I didn’task him if Willow took the money and ran. I didn’t need to ask. I already knew.

He brought the car to a stop outside my house a few hours later,and for a minute, I didn’t move. I didn’t want to go inside my empty house.

“I guess congratulations are in order,”he said, giving me a grin.“Chairman of the board at long last. It’s well deserved.”

I grunted my reply before forcing my body to move.

Stepping out of the car, I whirled around when Jackson closed hisdoor too.“What are you doing?”

“Thought I’d keep you company,”he replied as if the answer wasobvious.

“I don’t need a fucking babysitter,”I snapped, glaring at him.

He raised a brow.“I know. But I thought you could use a friend.”

Tension oozed out of my body at his words and I closed my eyesbriefly, feeling like a dick. I was pushing away the one person who’dbeen by my side no matter what. When I opened my eyes again, he was watching me with concern on his face. I sighed and indicated for him to follow me. Neither of us spoke aswe made our way through the silent house. I’d instructed the staff to vacate the place for a few days.

I wanted to be alone to wallow in my self-hatred.

As I walked into the kitchen with Jackson behind me, I froze whenmy gaze landed on the paperworkthatwas lying on the table. Before I could stop myself, I crossed over to it and picked it up, finding Willow’s signature scrawled over the divorce papers.

Like a ton of bricks had landed on me, realization hit.

She had gone.

Numbness swept through me as an exhale of breath from beside medragged my attention away from Willow's signature. I turned to see Jackson looking over my shoulder at the paper, his body sagging with disappointment.

“I didn’t think she’d sign them,”he said, almost to himself.

I slammed the paper down on the table and stormed over to thefridge, pulling out a beer, and downing it in one go. The bitter taste did nothing to make me feel better. In fact, all it did was clear the numbness, and left in its place wasmonumental pain. My black heart cracked down the middle as a lump formed in my throat.

She was really gone.

I launched my bottle against the wall, the glass smashing into athousand irreparable pieces like my heart. From the other side of the room, Jackson watched helplessly.

I shook my head, the words I’d kept in for weeks now suddenlyneeding to purge themselves from my body, the way I’d spent weeks trying to purge her from inside me.

“I love her,”I said weakly, staring at the streaks of beer trickling downthe wall.“I tried so hard to not feel anything for her when I should have embraced it. I treated her like shit when I should have treated her like a goddamn princess.”I met Jackson’s gaze, a look of sympathy etched on his face.“I should have told her every fucking daythatI loved her.”

“Do you meanthat?”a soft voice said from behind me.

I spun, my eyes widening at the sight before me.

Willow stood in the doorway, her fingers fidgeting as she stared at me, and her collar still firmly in place around her throat. I took her in, not believing she was there, and for whatseemedlike an age, neither of us moved.

“I’ll…um…I’ll leave you two to talk,”Jackson said. A few secondslater, the front door closed behind him.

“You signed the divorce papers,”I said, still not convinced she wasreal.

She took a step forward.“I did. And I took my collar off, and I grabbedthe money.”She took another step forward, her eyes never leaving mine.“I got as far as the car waiting outside before…”

She trailed off like she was suddenly unsure of herself.“Before what,Mouse?”

“Before I realizedthatI didn’t want to leave,”she replied.“Before IrealizedthatI didn’t want to be alone in the world. Before I realizedthatI’ve never felt safer than here with you.”She closed the remaining space between us so we were only inches apart.“Before I realizedthatI love you.”

My eyes narrowed on her. “Say that again,” I snarled, an array of emotions rushing through me.

“I love you.”

I lost control. Crashing my mouth down on hers, I grabbed her hipsand hoisted her into my arms as my tongue plunged into her mouth. Her small hands fisted my hair, tugging as she kissed me back with as much fervor.

I slammed her back against the wall, my mouth tearing from hers as Itrailed vicious kisses along her jawline. Moans escaped her mouth as I ground my hardening cock against her core, and slowly, my heart began to beat again.

“You’rereallyhere?”I said, pulling away, the two of us breathless.

“Yes,”she breathed, her eyes filled with heat.

I rested my forehead against hers, needing a minute to composemyself. When my breathing evened out again, I shifted so I could look into her beautiful multi-colored eyes.“Mouse, I’ve done unforgivable shit. I hurt you. I…killed your dad. You have every right to never want to see me again.”

The words were like battery acid on my tongue, but I had to saythem. I didn’t want to believethatshe’d ever be able to forgive me.

“I don’t blame you, James,”she whispered.“Your dad lied to you. Ibelieve if you’d known the truth, you wouldn’t have done it.”

I squeezed my eyes closed and shook my head.“Maybe not yourdad, but there’s so much you don’t know, Willow,”I replied, ignoring every part of methatwas screaming at me to shut the fuck up.“I’m a killer. People pay me to kill, it’s who I am, and I can’t changethat.”

“You killed Elijah and Ms. Milligan,”she said softly.“Did you kill yourdad?”I nodded.“You killed them because they hurt me. I don’t know if every person you have killed deserved it, but I know this, James. I love you. The good part and the not so good part. I love every part of you, and I don’t thinkthatwill ever change.”

I held her gaze for a second seeing the truth in her eyes before Ilowered my mouth to hers again. This time when I claimed her mouth, it was a slow and sensual dance.

“Marry me,”I breathed against her lips when I pulled away.

She giggled, and I swear it made me giddy like a fucking school kid.

“We’re already married,”she said, giving me a rare smile. One I wasdetermined to see more of.

“We signed a bit of paper. It wasn’t a wedding, Mouse. I want a bigwedding where I get to show the entire worldthatyou belong to me, and no one else will ever know what it’s like to be loved by you.”

I planted a chaste kiss on her lips before meeting her eyes again andwaiting expectantly.

“I’ll marry you,”she whispered.“Under one condition.”

“Which is?”I asked, my brows pulled together in curiosity.

“You tell me all about Legion. It sounds like there are a lot of rules Ineed to learn.”

A smile curled on my lips.“I’ll tell you all about Legion. But first,we’re going to go upstairs, and I’m going to show my wifejusthow much I love her.”

The end.