Page 168 of Restitution

Base came in here at some point – he was fed up with Barry shouting at him for snoring. He’s sleeping on the other side of Kade, and he’s snoring so loud, I’m debating smothering him with a pillow and telling my boyfriend to hide his body. His flight isn’t until ten tonight, but he’ll leave in a few hours to go home and pack. Barry said he’ll go with him, wait outside thePrince manor then take him to Edinburgh Airport.

Lisa and Eva are still at the safe house, and I can’t wait to video call them again. I miss Eva – her smile and her little giggle.

I can hear movement downstairs – and voices. Aria is cooking – the smell wafts upstairs and under the door. My stomach growls, and I slide away from Kade’s hold, sneak off the bed and tiptoe around it, careful not to wake him and Base as I leave the room.

Across the landing, I knock the door, and Tylar opens it. “Oh, hey!” she whisper-shouts. “Dez is still asleep,” she says, opening the door enough for me to see him face down on the pillow.

“I was going to take the dogs around the garden for some fresh air. Come with me?”

She nods and pulls on Dez’s hoodie, following me downstairs. Aria greets us as the dogs jump up on me, licking at my hands and wagging their tails. We don’t put their leads on as we open the back door and walk.

“Are you okay?” Ty asks me when we circle the house twice in silence, the dogs running back and forth with a ball.

“I think so,” I reply honestly. “I’m worried about Kade.”

“But how are you? I’m worried about you.”

I look up at her, hugging myself as the cold air nips at my skin. “I killed my stepbrother,” I say. “And I wish I’d dragged it out and made it hurt more. Does that make me a bad person?”

She shakes her head. “He was a monster. As much as dragging it out would’ve felt good at the time, the end is still the same. You won.”

“I won?”

“Who’s the dead one and who’s the one with her boyfriend in bed, waiting for more cuddles, and a life ahead of her?”

Me. That girl is me. I have my entire life ahead of me, and Iget to spend it with Kade Mitchell. I get to love and be with Kade Mitchell, and there’s nothing in our way.

I smile at my best friend. “I missed you. But I’m glad you weren’t involved in any of this. It’s been… intense to say the least. But let’s talk about you – tell me how things have been since the manor exploded and what you’re going to do now all this is over.”

We circle the house four more times while catching up, and I feel lighter, as if some weight has been taken off my shoulders just by talking to Tylar. Even with everything that’s been going on, she’s been making happy memories with Dez, just like she was when we were all at our lowest, and that’s a good thing. It’s a sign that even when the world is in chaos, even when terror and havoc and death greet us at every turn, someone, somewhere, is having the best day of their life. It’s beautiful yet tragic. It’s hope of better things to come.

When we get back into the house, Tylar helps Aria with some chores while Ewan sits on the sofa with his laptop, doing some work. He’s looking into the possibility of rebuilding the manor.

The dogs stay downstairs as I go see Kade. He and Base are still asleep, the latter’s arm slung over Kade’s chest. I smile at them, pull off my hoodie then slide back under the covers and lie down.

Kade automatically, possessively, pulls me against him, causing Base’s arm to fall off him as he turns.

I rest my head on the pillow, staring at his beautiful face. I trace my fingers across his lips, down his scar to his chin then run my fingertips up the bridge of his nose to his thick, dark eyebrows.

He hasn’t had a seizure a long time now, and his blackouts are few and far between. I can tell when he’s lost in his mind. He stares at nothing the way his father does. He’ll blink uncontrollably, and his eye will twitch when he’s falling into his own reality. It exhaustshim, and I know it makes him self-conscious of the way it makes him look.

But he looks like a survivor to me. Heisa survivor.

“Stop staring at me,” he mutters, reaching up to grab my hand and pull me into his chest. “Go back to sleep.”

There’s a shift behind him, and Base throws his arm over him again. Kade’s eye pings open, and he frowns. “Can I kill him yet?”

I snort. “Wait until he helps Lu, then you can kill him.”

Kade pushes Base off him and moves us further to my side of the bed, rolling me beneath him with his arms trapped under my back, his head buried into the crook of my shoulder.

“Why are you cold?” he asks quietly, his warm skin against me.

“I took the dogs out with Tylar,” I whisper. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

He hums.

My fingers brush through his hair, and he falls back to sleep. Soft, little snores fall from his mouth; nothing loud like Base’s.