Page 107 of Restitution

He just told the world who he is. In the middle of committing a murder.

“Jason McElroy was my brother, and he died protecting my girlfriend at the hands of Bernadette Sawyer.”

I can’t control myself – I fall against the wall and slide down it, hugging my knees as I keep watching.

“If you look at my file, you’ll see what they turned me into. I wastwelvewhen she first started watching me. She waited for just the right moment to approach me, and I was dumb enough to buy into her bullshit.”

He pulls off his face covering, showing the thick scar from his mouth all the way down to his chest. He grits his teeth, letting outa dirty laugh.

He looks demonic, satanic, like he has no humanity left.

“My file tells the rest of my story.”

A tear slips down my cheek, but I don’t wipe it away. I look up at the guard. “Please unlock the door. I need to stop him before he criminalises himself even more.”

“Please,” Aria begs the man, helping me to my feet. “Please.”

Luciella stands beside us. “We want to help him.”

He hesitates then looks at his colleague, who nods once, his eyes sliding shut.

But before he can unlock it, Kade says, “Let’s see you get yourself out of this, Bernadette. And if I find out my dad is really dead, you better hide, because nothing will stop me from breaking every bone in your body.”

People wince around us as Kade pulls a blade longer than his forearm out of one of the bags and, with a completely blank expression, cuts off Archie’s hand.

The sawing motion he uses means it doesn’t detach right away, and we can hear the monstrous man screeching both through the screen and from outside like an animal being slaughtered. Blood gushes everywhere, even hitting the phone recording it all.

The door is unlocked, but I freeze at the threshold when Aria yells, “No!”

My eyes find the screen again, just as Kade pulls the ring on the grenade and kicks Archie in the chest. He starts walking backwards as he spins it on his middle finger. “Die, you little bitch,” Kade taunts as he hides behind a large tree trunk. “I’ll make sure your beast of a wife sees you in hell pretty soon.”

Archie’s eyes go wide, and the recording ends just as theexplosion flashes, a roar of something like thunder following right after.

The eruption shakes the windows, the lights flickering, and then it’s done. Over.

We all get to the window, relieved to see Kade returning, unscathed from the grenade exploding in Archie’s mouth. He walks towards the manor, but his steps are slow, his head bowing further and further with every footfall. He drops to an unstable knee then struggles to get back up, and when he does, he only takes a few more steps before going down again.

I’m out of the manor and sprinting across the grounds before Aria can yell his name.

I fall to my knees in front of him and take his face in both of my hands. There are pieces of flesh all over his clothes and face from either shooting or cutting or blowing up Archie. His eyes are on me as I stare at him, but he’s looking right through me.

“It’s me,” I say softly. “It’s me.”

He seems to breathe for the first time in hours.

“They’re loud,” he says, fighting the excessive blinks, his right eye twitching. “So damn loud, Freckles.”

I nod, knowing that the version of him that thirsted for revenge and pain and blood has gone to sleep in his mind, and the voices are taking over. The ones that mock him and make him freak out. I’ve no idea what they’re saying right now, but Kade screws his eyes shut and drops his head to my shoulder, wrapping his strong arms around me.

After Archie’s murder was just live-streamed to who knows how many TV screens, the police are most likely on their way here.

I bite my lip to hold in a whimper as Kade digs his fingers intomy skin. “I’m tired, Stacey.”

“I know,” I reply, rubbing my hand up and down his back. “Do you want to go to your room?”

His team is starting to circle us, everyone silent as Kade cuddles into me on the grass, both of us on our knees. Aria and Luciella hold each other, and when Kade lifts his head from my shoulder, his eyes go from left to right, taking them all in.

“I fucked up,” he slurs at them. “You’re free to go home. No one needs to stay.”