Page 219 of Endgame

“Shh.” I’m being uncharacteristically gentle, pressing her to me. Holding her, supporting her weight as she collapses into me, her breath hitched. “He can’t hurt you. He can’t and won’t hurt anyone anymore. You’re okay. You’re okay.”

“He won’t tell me.” Her voice is shrill, hands curled into fists. “He won’t.”

My lips brush against her temple. “He will.”

“Pathetic.” Winston’s bulging eyes lock on Aurora’s face. “Then again…”

“This is one sentence you won’t get to finish.” I bang his head on the floor again. A lowthud,and he’s silenced. Aurora chuckles. I get off on that sound. “And to your question. What’s in it for Winston fucking Clarke?”

“Yes?”

Winston’s face is inches away from mine.

Me and the man who took so much from Aurora and me.

“For the right price, anyone’s up for sale.” I offer him a smirk, which I hope will terrorize him for the rest of his life. “You know better than most, I’m sure.”

“You’re going to pay me for my secrets?” Hope twinkles in his eyes. “Gonna cut me a deal?”

“No.” I’m more than happy to snuff out his hope. “What I will do is pay not one, not two, but ten inmates to become your new best friends in prison. By the first week, your asshole will stretch as wide as the Atlantic. Your organs will be irreparably damaged. No one’ll be there to stop them. Even the prison doctor will be on my payroll. Unless you answer Aurora’s questions.”

At his ashen cheeks, my smirk widens. “No matter what I’ll tell you, you’ll keep me safe?”

“I never said that.”

The prick scowls. “No deal.”

“Best I’m willing to offer is solitary confinement. For you and your wife.”

He’s earned this. His sanity will be stripped from him when he’s locked up by himself. With no one to talk to for years.

“Fine. Fine. We have a deal.” He slams his hand on the floor, tapping out. Defeated. Pathetic. He might be thinking about cutting his own deals behind our backs. I’d like to see him try. By the end of this, he’ll be broke. A nothing. “Lotus came to my house?—”

I shake him, growling, “Look at Aurora when you’re talking to her.”

“She came to our home one night. It was a few months after I married Molly.” He’s wise to do as I say and look at her. Aurora presses her body against mine. “It was late. Dark. I hardly recognized her. Hardly saw she was holding a baby in her arms. She cradled you in so many dirty fabrics.”

Regret hits me, burning through my body.

We could’ve done more for my sister. Could’ve told her how loved she was every waking hour. Maybe then she would’ve believed us.

We failed her.

No use. No point in wallowing in self-deprecation and misery.

What’s done is done. Sadly.

Holding on to Aurora matters. It’s the only thing that matters. I won’t fail her.

“Then I realized she was carrying you. When she told me you were mine, I could tell she wasn’t lying.” His eyebrows scrunch at the pressure I’m putting on his throat. As much as I hate the idea of letting him live, I loosen my grip. “Lotus wasn’t like that. She was naïve and trusting. That was how she fell for someone like me. Why she was obsessed with me.”

“Careful,” I warn.

“Fine, fine. Let me just get it over with. During the Royalty meetings, she’d wait for me near the bathrooms. Every time I stepped out to take a call, she was there.” His shrug is pathetic. “She was too young. I wasn’t interested. But she kept insisting. It dragged on for a year before I snapped. Told her I’d be in one of the bathrooms at the mansion once the adults left. And from there…you know. Boys will be boys, and all that. Anyway?—”

I let Aurora have that slap. It’s mild compared to the hell I’m this close to unleashing on him.

“She wasn’t lying. I matched our DNAs later, Aurora. However unnecessary it was. Though it wasn’t why I kept you.” The corners of his eyes crinkle. “My father married me off to Molly. Problem was, he didn’t bother checking if she was able to bear children or not. She wasn’t.”