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KAELIN

The silence descended on us, heavy and potent as Theron stopped talking. I watched him throw back the rest of his whiskey and walk over to stand on the terrace looking out over the pool and the rest of the back property. Hours into the story we’d ended up outside—Graham, Theron and I.

And hours is what it took for him to finish telling us everything.

My cheeks were wet with silent tears. I tried hard to keep them discrete but there was so much horror in his past, my heart broke with each passing hour.

Graham was tense in his chair, leaning forward heavily on his arms and staring at the concrete between his feet. He knew revenge intimately and I wondered if his own past was rising up from the depths to linger. I didn’t even know where to start with trying to wrap my brain around what I’d just heard but I did know that all I felt was a deep ache in my heart for Theron.

He’d introduced himself to me as Kraven but the man who I’d met in the Warren was continually evolving until I really did not know who stood before me now. Theron wasn’t who I thought him to be and now that I knew everything—I didn’t even know where to begin or what to say to him.

I knew enough to know he wouldn’t want sympathy from anyone but it was undeniable that what was going on now was big and very important. I was still a little angry he hadn’t asked me to help, but I wasn’t about to make it about me.

My eyes bore into Theron’s back, noting despite the heaviness of the story he still stood strong and sure, carrying it all with resolve and confidence in his desired outcome.

“I don’t even know what to say,”

I admitted honestly. “So this is what’s been going on lately?”

Theron nodded. “We kicked everything off recently by taking out the Atrox board members. We then eliminated the map architects—shut down most of Vetticus’ supply lines and we located his partner, Albatron. It’s all coming to a head soon—it’s time I finish what he started all those years ago.”

“So–you think Greg has your daughter?”

“I doubt he knows who she is—or let’s hope he doesn’t and she’s just some number to him—but yes,”

Theron said. “She’s somewhere in the system and Deathwing and I have been trying to find her for the past few years.”

“The Warren—”

I choked on the word.

Theron turned and took a step towards me. He pushed a strand of hair out of my face, his knuckles brushing against my skin.

“The Warren was all show—mostly,”

he added with a dark smirk. “You still captivated me and I wasn’t expecting that. You should know by now I take what I want—I like control and pushing people’s boundaries—but I was telling the truth…I tried to get you out, later. I called Cooper.”

I looked up at him, absorbed by the intensity of his gaze.

“T—I’m so sorry—”

His lips sealed over mine and the words died on my tongue.

I knew he didn’t want to hear them anyway.