Page 152 of Heartless Heathens

We really needed to find out if we could get the venom out of that thing, but she didn’t let anyone aside Romina within ten feet of her.

“We’re not gonna be finding any crosses around here, little lamb. Your grandfather had no love for God.” I told her.

“It’s the cathedral. The guy, the one that I—”

“Ikilled him, Pet.” Sonny interrupted her. “And my only regret is not having done it sooner, the first time he put his hands on you.” He seemed genuinely angry with himself about it and knowing Sonny that one would leave a permanent on him.

“He said to me, before Sonny killed him, ‘Frollo said you’d give yourself easily’ I think… maybe Frollo sent him there.” She looked down like she didn’t want to believe it, but she’d been through his gauntlet enough times to know better.

“I wouldn’t put it past Frollo to have sent that freak up to the chapel to get rid of you,” Corvin said angrily.

“I have to kill him,” she said and I blinked back my shock that such dark words were capable of coming out of her mouth.

She wasn’t the girl we found anymore. She was the woman she chose to become.

“Why?” Sonny questioned her. “What do you think killing him is going to give you?”

He knew a little something about that.

“It’s not about what it’ll give me, it’s about what it’ll give others who won’t be ruined by his influence, before he has the chance to corrupt someone to become the next him,” she said angrily.

She wasn’t wrong.

“Okay. But we do it right.” Sonny nodded and walked away, satisfied with her answer.

We spent the next weeks preparing, getting all of our ducks in a row with our alibis and enrolling in Oxford now that we were free to access most of our fortunes. Sonny and Romina would get married in a courthouse as soon as we made it to the UK for the sake of not allowing the money to be stolen by the church.

It’s not like it would really matter, Romina refused to keep everything. She planned on giving more than half of Arlan’s money to charities around the world. Though no amount of money could fix our country’s problem, and she was finally seeing that for herself, she still wanted to try.

She cried helplessly when she realized she couldn’t just throw money at religion to make it disappear. We helped her find the best organizations to send money to and requested they provided her with updates. Even with more than half of her inheritance gone, she was still a multi-billionaire. It didn’t sit well with her, but we decided to show her that she could be impactful, make a change where it mattered.

She was sending her friend to Oxford, too. Got her a little apartment and paid for her tuition and everything else she could ever want. We warned Reesa ahead of time to get off school grounds before everything went to shit. She was waiting for us upstate at some motorcycle club compound so we could all travel together overseas.

There were no complaints from us on that front, she was going to be committing a lot of felonies when she lied to the authorities for us to cover our tracks. As much of a pain in the ass as Reesa was, she was loyal, and she was a decent friend. We owed her more than what she was being given.

We’d pay her back in full someday.

“You know the plan,” I reminded her in the car, squeezing her thigh in my hand.

“You’ll make sure the cathedral is empty?” she asked with a nervous exhale.

“Yes. I promise.”

Itwasn’thardtofind him. It was twelve and he was putting his books together on top of the podium, waiting for the pews to fill up with students. It looked like he was happily teaching all his classes again now that the boys and I had been gone from campus for a few weeks. As if nothing had ever happened.

Light poured through the stained glass windows, the colorful shine reflecting off the golden crucifix. It was the clearest damned sign I’d gotten so far. Goosebumps pebbled down my neck, letting me know I was on the right path.

This was the moment.

The students wouldn’t be coming, and the boys were evacuating the building of all the nuns and priests.

“Father,” I said from my seat on the empty pew, leaning back and crossing my legs.

“You’re alive,” he said with outrage and shock.

“Did you think your little errand boy killed me?” I said almost with a laugh.

“I didn’t know what to think after you all disappeared. What are you doing back here? Did those heathens tire of your whorish cunt?” I winced at his words, getting up from my seat and walking towards him.