Page 54 of Haunted (Blackwood Brothers #1)

A single tear escapes from Mira’s eye, trailing down her cheek like liquid silver. Without thinking, I close the distance between us and press my lips to that tear, tasting the salt of her pain on my tongue.

“Xavier...” Her voice breaks on my name.

“I’ll always protect you,” I whisper against her skin, my lips still touching her cheek. “You and the people you love. Cora, your family, anyone who matters to you—they’re under my protection now. That’s all that matters.”

I pull back to look into her eyes, seeing the war raging behind them. Her hands tremble as she reaches up to touch my face, her fingers ghosting across my jaw like she’s afraid I might disappear.

“How can you say that’s all that matters?” Her voice is barely audible. “How can I reconcile loving someone who...”

She can’t finish the sentence. Can’t bring herself to say the words that would make it real .

“Someone who kills?” I finish for her, my voice hollow. “Someone who destroys lives for profit?”

She flinches but doesn’t pull away from my touch. Her internal struggle is evident in her features. This woman is falling in love with me, but battling against every moral principle she has ever held.

“I don’t know how to love a monster,” she whispers, tears now flowing freely down both cheeks.

"Then don't." The words grate my throat. "Don't try to make me into what I'm not. I am exactly what I told you—a killer, a criminal, someone who operates in darkness."

I cup her face in my hands, forcing her to meet my eyes.

“But I’m also the man who would burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone hurt you. I’m the man who would die before I let harm come to anyone you care about.”

Her breath hitches, caught between a sob. “That doesn’t make it right, Xavier.”

“No,” I agree. “It doesn’t. But it’s the only truth I can give you.”

The silence stretches between us like a chasm I don’t know how to cross. Mira stands frozen beside my desk, her eyes locked on mine. She doesn’t move closer, doesn’t reach for me like she has so many times before.

She stares, and that stare is killing me more effectively than any bullet ever could.

Her face is a battlefield of emotions—love warring with revulsion, desire fighting moral outrage. I can practically see her mind cataloging every touch we’ve shared, every tender moment, every whispered confession, and weighing them against the monster I’ve revealed myself to be.

Fear claws at my chest with razor-sharp talons.

Real fear, the kind I haven’t felt since I was a child hiding from my father’s fists.

This isn’t the calculated concern of a business deal gone wrong or the strategic wariness of facing armed enemies.

This is pure terror that the one person who matters might look at me and decide I’m irredeemable.

I have her for a year. The contract is signed, and legally, she belongs to me whether she wants to or not. But standing here watching her process the full scope of what I am, I realize how meaningless that paper is.

I could command her presence, her compliance, even her pleasure. But if I don’t win her heart—if she can’t love the monster along with the man—then I have nothing at all.

Worse than nothing. I’d have a shell of the woman who changed everything, going through the motions while her soul retreats somewhere I can never follow.

“Say something,” I whisper, hating how desperate I sound. “Anything.”

She opens her mouth and closes it again. Her hands shake where they grip the edge of my desk, and I want to cover them with mine to offer comfort. But I don’t dare move, don’t dare risk pushing her further away when she’s already teetering on the edge of running .

“I need...” she starts, then stops, swallowing hard. “I need time to think, but promise me one thing.”

“Anything,” I say, the word surprising even me with its sincerity.

Her eyes lift to mine, swimming with emotion. “Check on Cora. I need to know she’s okay.”

The request catches me off guard. Of all the things she could have asked, this is what matters most to her right now.

“The Hunt has rules, Mira. The claiming period?—”

“Fuck the rules,” she interrupts, her voice sharp with desperation. “Fuck the contracts, fuck the Hunt. This is Cora we’re talking about.”

I study her face, seeing the genuine anguish there. “You really care about her.”

“She’s like my sister,” Mira says, her voice breaking. “We’ve been through everything together.”

She pushes herself away from my desk, pacing the room like a caged animal. “And now she’s being used by three men who want to destroy her father. Three men who are humiliating her, breaking her down piece by piece.”

She stops suddenly, turning to face me with eyes that burn through my carefully constructed walls. “Did you know? Did you know what they planned to do to her when you gave her that invitation?”

I could lie. But looking at Mira’s face—at the raw pain etched into every line—I know the truth is the only option.

“I knew Dominic wanted her there,” I admit quietly. “ After you asked me about getting her an invitation, he overheard our conversation. He approached me later, specifically requesting I ensure she was included.”

Her face pales. “And you agreed? Just like that?”

“Not initially,” I say, the memory of that conversation clear in my mind. “But then Cora came storming into my office, making demands. After that, with Dominic’s persuasion...”

“You gave in,” she finishes, her voice hollow.

“I assumed he wanted revenge on her father,” I continue, needing her to understand the full picture.

“Mayor Pike has been a thorn in Dominic’s side for years, blocking his development projects, publicly criticizing his business practices.

But Dominic never confirmed his exact intentions, and I didn’t press for details. ”

“You didn’t need to,” Mira says bitterly. “You knew enough.”

I run a hand through my hair, frustration building. “I didn’t know Ryder and Liam would be involved. I didn’t know they’d planned a coordinated attack. The Hunt usually involves one hunter claiming one prey—multiple men focusing on a single woman is... unusual.”

“Does that make it better?” she challenges, tears threatening to spill. “That you only thought one man was going to use her as a weapon against her father?”

The accusation stings because she’s right. I facilitated this, whether I knew the specifics or not.

“No,” I admit. “It doesn’t make it better.”

Mira sinks into the chair across from my desk, her shoulders slumping with the weight of everything she’s learned.

“All this time, I’ve been struggling with what you told me about your criminal activities.

The drugs, the violence, the corruption.

I’ve been trying to reconcile loving you with what you do. ”

She looks up at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “But this? Knowing you helped orchestrate what’s happening to Cora? I don’t know if I can forgive that.”

The words hit harder than I expected. I’ve never cared about forgiveness before—never needed it, never wanted it. But hearing Mira say she might not be able to forgive me creates a hollow ache in my chest I don’t recognize.

“I didn’t know you then,” I say, the excuse sounding pathetic even to my ears. “I didn’t know how close you were to Cora. I didn’t know I would...” I trail off, the words sticking in my throat.

“You didn’t know you would what?” Mira challenges, her gaze unwavering.

“I didn’t know I would fall in love with you,” I confess, the admission tearing from somewhere deep inside me. “I didn’t know you would become more important than business, more important than the Hunt, more important than the fucking empire I’ve spent my life building.”

Her breath catches, but the hurt doesn’t fade from her eyes. “If that’s true, then prove it. Check on Cora. Make sure she’s okay.”

“The Hunt?—”

“I don’t care about your Hunt!” she cries, frustration bleeding through every word. “I care about my best friend who’s being used as a weapon in some twisted revenge plot that you helped set in motion!”

She rises from the chair, crossing the space between us. Her hands press against my chest, the contact burning through my shirt.

“Please, Xavier. If you feel anything for me at all, do this. Find out if she’s okay. Make sure those men aren’t... aren’t hurting her beyond what she consented to.”

I cover her hands with mine, feeling the tremors that run through them. “And if they are?”

“Then stop them. I don’t care how. Use your power, your influence, whatever it takes. Please, make sure Cora is safe.”

The request goes against everything the Hunt represents—the rules, the balance of power, the sanctity of claims once made. But looking at Mira’s tear-streaked face, I realize none of that matters anymore.

“Okay,” I agree, squeezing her hands gently. “I’ll find out how she is. And if necessary, I’ll intervene.”

Relief washes over her features, but the wariness remains. “Thank you.”

I release her hands, already planning how to approach Dominic. The man’s grudge against Mayor Pike runs deep, and he won’t appreciate my interference. But he’ll like my displeasure even less.

“This doesn’t change things between us,” Mira says softly, stepping back. “I still need time to process everything. To figure out if I can love a man who would knowingly let someone be used like that.”

“I understand.” And I do. For the first time in my life, I’m seeing my actions through someone else’s eyes—someone whose opinion matters to me.

“But it’s a start,” she continues, her voice steadying. “Showing that you care about what happens to Cora, that you’re willing to break your own rules to protect someone important to me... it means something.”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak. This unfamiliar territory—caring about consequences beyond profit and power—leaves me without my usual arsenal of calculated responses.

“I’ll go check on her now,” I promise, reaching for my phone. “And Mira?”

She looks up, those haunted hazel eyes meeting mine.

“I’m sorry,” I say, the words foreign on my tongue. “I didn’t understand then what she meant to you. But I do now.”

A ghost of a smile touches her lips, not forgiveness but acknowledgment. “Then prove it, not with words, but with actions. Show me you can be more than the man who stood by while this happened.”

As she walks away, leaving me alone in my office with the weight of her challenge, I realize that for the first time in my life, I want to be more than the monster I’ve always been. For Mira, I want to be better.

And it starts with making amends for what I’ve done to Cora.