Page 18

18

Thea

O nce Eden left me alone, I stripped off and crawled under the heavy quilt, wanting some time and space to recover. Verity would need me once she woke up, but that might be hours yet.

After dozing for a while, a light tapping on the door forced me out of the supremely comfortable bed. I half expected Kyril to be camped outside, but there was nobody there when I opened the door.

Some kind soul had placed a bowl of delicious leek and potato soup, a soft bread roll with butter, and a slice of chocolate cake on a tray. It was the first proper food I’d eaten in ages, and it tasted better than anything a Michelin-starred restaurant could produce.

Once my stomach was full, I pulled the covers up and fell into a deep sleep while listening to the sound of the ocean.

When I next woke, deep shadows cloaked the room, the only light a faint glow from the moon outside. My head still hurt, but not as much as before. I rolled over to find a hard body lying next to me.

Two eyes snapped open.

“Milo. What are you doing in my bed?”

“I’m on your bed, not in it.” I fought back a smile.

“In, on, whatever. Why are you here?”

He propped himself up on one elbow and stared down at me from behind his glasses. His hair looked tousled like he’d not combed it in days, but his disheveled appearance didn’t detract from his nerdy attractiveness.

A familiar scent of bergamot and pepper tickled my nose. It was how I always knew Milo had been in my room. His scent clung to my sheets long after he’d gone.

“I needed to see you. Make sure you were OK.”

“You could have done that tomorrow,” I pointed out.

“No.” Emotion bled through his words. He was upset. More upset than I’d ever seen him. His eyes burned into mine, scorching a path down my throat and lingering on my chest. “No, I couldn’t wait.”

“Don’t you hate me?”

“Why would I hate you?” He seemed surprised by my question.

“Because I lied to all of you. Pretended to be someone else.”

He lay back down, resting his head on the pillow next to mine. If I reached out, I could touch him, but I kept my hands to myself.

“I knew who you were,” he said. “Dario confirmed it after Torrance Asaro took you off campus.”

“How?” My father went to a lot of trouble erasing everything about me. So far as I knew, there were no records of mine or Verity’s birth, no legal documents, no nothing. My passport bore a false name and was one of three I used to travel on family assignments.

“I found an archived hospital report from when you were a kid. You’d been admitted with a serious infection. A gunshot wound.”

His breath tickled my cheek. Sweet with a hint of mint. I lay still, staring up at the shadow-cloaked ceiling. Outside, the wind howled around the roof and the sea roared, wild, like a savage beast.

“I remember.” My father had refused me medical treatment for nearly a week. It wasn’t until my vital signs started failing that he relented and let Torrance take me to the nearest hospital. It was touch and go for a while. Or so the doctor whispered to a nurse while he thought I slept.

“The report mentioned some of the staff were concerned about your home life.”

“Nobody did anything. Dad paid off anyone who poked their nose into our business. And if they refused to stay quiet, they disappeared.”

“I’m sorry.” He watched as I rolled on to my side and faced him.

“I survived.”

“You did more than that.” Barely. The softer parts of my soul died long ago, leaving only the brittle bones of me behind.

“I’m not a good person, Milo,” I whispered. “I’ve done many bad things.”

“Did you enjoy doing them?” The question was gentle like whatever I said didn’t matter. I wanted to believe he didn’t care if I’d done bad things. Things I wished I could erase from my memory. But Milo wasn’t like Kyril. Whereas Kyril’s hands were as bloody as mine, Milo was softer. Sweeter .

“No.” Every life I’ve taken, even the ones who very much deserved to die, had left a stain on my soul.

“Then none of it matters.”

He shuffled closer so our bodies touched. Part of me wanted to pull back, but I was tired. So fucking tired.

My attic bedroom was light when I woke next. Milo had disappeared, but there was a mug of tepid coffee next to the bed. My head ached as I dragged my aching body into the en-suite shower room, but after a hot shower, I felt marginally better.

The guys and Eden were sitting around a rustic pine table in a huge farmhouse kitchen when I ventured downstairs. I’d not taken much notice of the house when we arrived yesterday, but this morning, as I gazed around at the painted kitchen cabinets, stone floor, and windows overlooking the ocean, I felt the tension ease away.

The house was old but looked like an upscale Airbnb. An Aga took pride of place on one wall, with a hearth perfect for dogs to laze in front of, while on the far side of the room, I spotted a modern oven and other appliances, including a high-end coffee machine that had me craving another coffee.

An upholstered window seat caught my attention, and I imagined sitting there with a novel.

Nobody said a word for a few moments as I looked around. Then Kyril jumped out of his chair.

“Sit down, kotenok , you need to eat.” He was right. I felt light-headed and in desperate need of sustenance.

Milo smiled as I took a seat next to him, while Landon watched me with a wary expression on his face.

“Verity’s awake,” Eden told me between mouthfuls of toast.

My chair scraped back as I jumped to my feet. “Where is she? I need to see her.” Was she panicking? She had to be scared.

“Dario’s with her. She had a panic attack when she came to, but he calmed her down. He’s talking to her.”

“Dario?” My brow creased in surprise. That was unexpected. They knew each other, of course, but it had been years since he spent any time with my sister. At least I thought it had.

Eden shrugged. “She seems to trust him.”

“Which way is her room?” I chewed my lip, not sure whether I trusted Dario with my sister. Not after everything he’d done lately.

“Through that door, up the stairs, and it’s the first door on the left.”

Kyril put down the plate he’d pulled from a cupboard and took me by the hand.

“She’s OK, kotenok . I wouldn’t leave him with your sister if I thought he was a threat to her.”

“I know, but I have to go to her.”

“Of course. I’ll take you, but then you must eat something.”

“Or what?”

His eyes flared with heat at the edge of defiance in my tone.

“Or I’ll take you upstairs and spank you so hard you’ll see stars, kitten.” The way his hand snaked around my neck in a possessive way told me he wasn’t joking. That and the hard length pressed against my belly as he pushed me against the counter.

Any comeback I had got lost as I fell into the dark pools of his obsidian eyes. Then a loud gagging sound broke the tension between us and we both looked over at the table to see Eden making vomiting gestures.

“There’ll be none of that while I’m here. This house is officially a sex-free zone.”

Kyril scoffed. “I’m sure Milo has some ear plugs you can borrow.” Eden shook her head.

“Nope, not happening, you obnoxious ass. If I’m not getting any, you’re not either.”

Milo smirked, but Landon stayed quiet. My eyes flicked over to him as he moved some eggs around his plate. Part of me felt bad for pushing him away yesterday, but all of them were in the shit house to varying degrees. He looked up briefly and half-smiled, then looked away.

I frowned. Something was going on with him. Something beyond the upheaval of being here. But I dismissed that thought. Whatever issues he had paled in comparison with mine.

“Move,” I growled at Kyril, who was arguing with Eden about the supposed sex ban.

He stepped back as I pushed past him to go to Verity. Being Kyril, he wasn’t happy about being dismissed, so he quickly grabbed my hand and took the lead.

“Thea!” Verity leaped to her feet and barreled over the moment she saw me. To my surprise, she seemed surprisingly relaxed. I’d expected to find her stressed and miserable, but she looked calm.

Dario sat on a small sofa under the window. The guy looked like he hadn’t slept for a month, but I decided I didn’t give a shit about that. He wasn’t my problem.

“Ver, are you OK?”

“I’m alright. Are you OK?” She anxiously scanned me from head to foot then her shoulders sank with relief.

Someone, likely Eden, had given her some pink leggings and a fluffy lilac sweater to wear. It was cute, and definitely her style. Verity was very much a princess at heart.

“I can send Dar away if you don’t want him here?” I scowled at him when she turned away, but he said nothing. “Have you eaten anything?” She looked thin. Malnourished. Like our father hadn’t been feeding her for months. Knowing him, he hadn’t. Restricting our food intake had long been a way to control us.

She rolled her eyes. “Dar’s fine. He’s been telling me what happened.”

My eyebrow shot up in surprise at the way she referred to him as ‘Dar’. It had always been my nickname for him. As far as I knew, Dar was a relative stranger to Verity. Was that not the case?

“I always checked on her when I came to the house,” he told me. “To make sure she wasn’t being mistreated.”

“Mrs. Gia looked after her just fine,” I gritted out, annoyed he’d inserted himself into our lives after everything he’d done.

“Where’s Mrs. Gia?” Verity asked. “Is she safe?” Her lip wobbled for a moment.

“I don’t know, Ver.” There was no point in lying to her. My sister wasn’t stupid. I looked at Dario and he shook his head. “Hopefully she escaped with the other staff.” Memories of the wedding ceremony and the fire were slowly returning, and I prayed that Mrs. Gia had had the good sense to take advantage of the confusion and run for her life.

“You need to eat,” Kyril reminded me in a low voice, his presence grounding me, but I ignored him.

“Has she been checked over?” I asked him.

“Yes, the doctor says she’s fine. No ill effects from whatever Torrance gave her. She’s underweight but nothing some good food and fresh air won’t cure.”

“Come to the kitchen and eat with me, Ver.”

“We have pancakes and bacon,” Kyril said, his lips brushing across my neck.

“Yay! Pancakes!” Verity leaped to her feet with a big smile.

I caught Dario staring at the way Kyril held me possessively, but I ignored him. He was officially dead to me aside from whatever bullshit relationship he’d forged with my sister. If she liked and trusted him, I’d accept his presence. For now.

The thought of seeing him every day was an unsettling one, but with a bit of luck, he’d soon be gone from our lives. At least I hoped so, because the attraction between us hadn’t faded. Not at all.

And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.