Page 33 of Restitution

“He chose her over me,” Tobias says, stepping right up to Barry, ignoring one of the guards shifting his gun from his waistband. But I see Aria moving forward, blocking the path between them so he can’t shoot. “He should have pickedme. Because if he even attempted to come after me, I would’ve taken him away from all of this and helped him.”

The arguing goes on and on, and I eventually get to my feet and join Jason, who’s headed outside to the patio once more. I slip the cigarette from behind his ear, and he lights it for me. I fill my lungs with deadly smoke and blow it out into the distance.

I haven’t told them that I’ve been in contact with Kade.

When none of them pays attention, I’ll sneak out. Once I get a message with the location, it all ends. Everything.

I stare at Kade’s older brother. He has bruising on his cheek and a split lip.

The moon is peeking out from behind a hill far away, and it’s in the calmness that I let my eyes water. “I hate this,” I whisper. “I hate it all.”

Jason doesn’t speak, but he shuffles closer to me as we lean our elbows on the wooden railing.

I inhale, exhale and allow the burning nicotine to fill my lungs once more. The debate inside stops, and we watch Aria and Cassie walk out onto the patio, standing in front of the small river.

She’s crying. Aria’s trying to calm her, always the neutraliser, even though Cassie’s a bitch and the daughter of her son’s abusers.

Eventually, Jason clears his throat and says, “If we really have lost my brother, I won’t let him hurt you, even if that means taking a bullet for you.”

“You think we’ve lost him?”

“He shot at you, Stacey.”

I close my eyes, the cigarette slipping from my fingers. Because I think he might be right. And the idea of losing Kade forever hurts me to my very core.

How did we all get here? Why? One glorious minute, I’m on a flight back from Greece with Kade’s hand gripping my thigh, ready to tell the world he’s mine, and now we’re here. Hiding in my family lodge, unsure where my abusive brother is, waiting for Luciella, and Kade just shot me and beat his brother up.

I don’t blame him for choosing his life over mine. He deserves freedom.

He has a file, one that requires a password to get into it. One night, while I was drinking coffee and browsing on the laptop Barry had given me while Eva slept in her crib, I typed inFreckles0907– the date we first kissed in the tent – and it opened.

I’d spent hours browsing the images and video clips, the recording of him laughing while I tried to sing every song fromThe Greatest Showman. Me running on the manor grounds with the dogs chasing after me. Him kissing my cheek while we had a picnic at Lunderston Bay beach.

He’d recorded me dancing a lot. Moving around a hoop, a pole, and blushing when I notice him.

Us both drunk in Greece, singing “Kings and Queens” with sweaty faces and big smiles.

Kade zoomed in on my smile a lot. And my ass.

There were clips he’d deleted. Intimate videos and images that I would have shamefully watched again and again if I had the chance, yet he kept everything else.

Now he’s accepting kill contracts with my name on them.

“He might have a plan,” Barry says, appearing next to me, and I flinch as Aria rests a hand on my shoulder, comforting me. Tobias stands behind her.

Seems the arguing has stopped and everyone has followed us outside.

Ewan is leaning against the wall behind us, and Cassie is shaking, her eyes welling with tears. “My mother is a monster. I knew she wasn’t a good person, but…” She covers her mouth on a choked sob. “My dad…”

“How old are you?” Tobias asks.

“Twenty-two,” she replies. “Why?”

“It took you twenty-two years to realise your parents are a pair of assholes who deserve to die?”

Her crocodile tears quickly vanish. “I didn’t say that,” she retorts.

“No, I did. I don’t give a fuck about you. When I next see your mother, I’ll kill her, right after I force her to watch her husband being tortured. Nothing you say will stop me. If you try to intervene, you’ll be subjected to the same fate. I’ve been patient having you anywhere near my family.”