Page 63 of Restitution

“Nope. I’m good at hiding.” He smirks and nudges me with his elbow, nearly knocking me off my feet. “Not even the law can keep me from Aria.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you two? When I used to visit, you said you were done because Kade told you to stay away from her. And now you’re all over each other like teenagers. I…” I grimace. “I walked in on you two on the couch the other day. Wanted to bleach my eyeballs.”

Not that I have any problem with them being that way. I just don’t want him to get hurt. She’s married to Ewan, and he’s a wanted criminal who broke out of his mental institution.

The perfect match made in hell.

Chewing his lip, he sighs. “I haven’t been free for a long time. All I know is Aria. Every morning I wake up, I wonder if she’ll visit me. I’ll reread all her letters. I’ll brush my teeth and imagine she’s doing hers right beside me. When I sleep, I can smell her shampoo, and if I really try, I can almost hear her giggle in the middle of the night. Now I don’t need to imagine it all.”

I stare at him, feeling somewhat emotional as he gets annoyed with himself.

He shakes his head. “It’s pathetic, I know, but I can’t help it. I did a lot to her when we were younger. I fucked up so many times, yet she’s still here. Did I tell you I locked her in the bathroom and tried to blow her house up with us both inside?”

My eyes bulge. “You didn’t.” Some details were kept out of the reports. “That’s kind of messed up.”

“An hour before, I was fully prepared to hand myself in to the cops for her. But I blacked out, and apparently I did a lot of fucked-up shit. Felt like I didn’t wake up for months.”

“She forgave you,” I say. “She also told you to stop talking about the past, did she not?”

“I know,” he replies. “It’s weird though, right? How a man at my age is still fucking obsessed with a woman he’s been crazy about since he was in his early twenties?”

“Psychotic actually,” I say with a smirk.

“Shut up.”

My shoulder raises. “And Ewan?”

“He understands. Me and Aria never planned on getting physical together, but Ewan felt his relationship was falling apart and wanted to fix it. He was the one who suggested he watch…” He looks at me, seeing my flattening lips; I’m silently begging him not to go into detail. “Anyway,look, they’re happier than ever.”

I glance down the hill into the lodge to see Aria smiling at her husband as they talk, the other window showing Barry on the phone, probably to his Lisa and Eva, and Jason smoking on the patio. He looks more tired than me. Jason doesn’t really speak, unless he’s talking to Kade through the door about how nervous his little brother was to take his driving test and when they used to go fishing out in the loch. He keeps going until the banging inside stops, and Kade’s breakdown subsides into a deep sleep once more.

“I was never supposed to be here,” Tobias continues, helping me down the steep, muddy slope. “I actually asked for the deathpenalty ten years into my sentence, but Aria fought it until it was thrown out. I was insane and suicidal, they ruled; not capable of making a rational request.”

I frown. “You wanted to die?”

“Doing the same thing every single day wasn’t a life I wanted to live. I won’t return to the institution. I’d rather hide forever, but I couldn’t ask that of Aria and my kids. Death has always been my end goal.”

I stop walking and grab his arm. “What are you saying?”

Tobias gives me a half-smile – his son’s with matching dimples denting. “I think you know what I’m saying.”

“You’re going to go after Bernadette and Archie once Lu is back and Kade is better, aren’t you? It’s suicide. They have a goddamn fortress and unlimited security.”

“I managed to save you, didn’t I?”

“This isnotthe same. You’re not rescuing anyone. You’re saying you’re going to kill the woman who runs Scotland. Her and her husband are vile and corrupt and deep in the underworld. Are you insane?”

“Yes,” he replies bluntly.

“Tobias…”

He pinches the bridge of his nose for a second and drops his hand. “Look what they’ve done to my son. They tried to sell you and my daughter. Of course I’m going to avenge you all.” He throws his arm over my shoulders and directs us to the patio. “I would do anything to protect my people, little one.”

20

KADE

Iblink, needing my eyes to adjust to the lamp shining in my face.