His face was tight and his eyebrows pinched together, but when he opened his mouth, it was to say, “Talk, Roman.”
“Light, I don’t think—”
“Talk,” he demanded, his eyes locked on mine. The muscles in his jaw ticked as his traps swelled beneath his gray T-shirt.
Roman grumbled and reluctantly said, “He told her to give you a message. You got twenty-four hours to return Clare and Tessa or, next time, he aims higher.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, and my eyes fell shut. Walter’s menacing, green eyes danced on the backs of my eyelids while resentment and anger swirled within me.
But I wasn’t afraid.
My wounds had healed, and that included the bonds of his mental reign of terror over me.
“Clare, I won’t—” Heath started, but I cut him off.
With my eyes still closed, I confessed, “I want to move out.”
“No!” Roman said definitively.
My lids popped open, a new resolve settling over my shoulders.
“No offense, Roman. But you don’t get a say in this. You can’t make me stay here, and let’s be honest—you need me gone. He’ll come back for her.”
Heath was instantly on his feet and striding toward me.
I held my ground. “Don’t argue with me about this.”
“You’re not fucking leaving.”
“It’s not up to you, either,” I shot back.
His head snapped back as though I’d slapped him. “Excuse me?”
“I love you. I really do. But hiding out in this house is not doing anyone any good. He knows where we are. You yourself said he can’t get to me. And I believe you. But he can get to the people I love to get to me. I have to leave. Me and Tessa.”
“Absolutely fucking not,” Roman barked over the phone.
“Have you lost your mind?” Heath growled.
“Yes!” I threw my hands out to my sides. “I have lost my mind. I’ve lost everything. Walt is not in hiding. He’s biding his time. He’s cold and calculating and arrogant as hell. He’s playing this game and using us all as pawns. It’s what he gets off on. There’s a reason I slept with a knife under my mattress for seven years. And it wasn’t to keep him from killing me. There were a lot of nights where death would have been welcomed. It was because I knew he was going to torture me before he ever let me escape him. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. Nothing is off-limits.”
“He won’t touch you,” Heath swore.
I laughed without humor. “Don’t you see? He is touching me. Right now. He’s in this room with us. But I’m sick and fucking tired of playing his games. He killed Ethan tonight…but not Elisabeth. Why?”
Heath planted his fists on his hips and sniped, “Because he’s a fucking psychopath.”
I adamantly shook my head. “It’s all part of his little game to punish us. Do you honestly think he believes that you’re going to give me and Tessa back to him? No. He’s not stupid. But, now, Elisabeth will always be looking over her shoulder. And Roman has to live knowing that Walt got to her right under his nose. He didn’t give a damn about terrorizing Ethan. And that’s exactly why he’s dead.”
Heath crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at me. “I think you give him entirely too much credit.”
“I don’t think you give him enough! He’s going to come for us. And this is not me being Debbie Doomsday. This is a fact. He’s going to send in his army of men and let them do the dirty work. They’ll slay the agents who try to stop them. Devon, Alex, Jude. All of them. Walt will be sitting at home, not caring about the outcome, because he just enjoys the show.”
“I’ll give him a fucking show!” Roman exclaimed across the line.
I stopped my rant and walked over to Heath. He had a white-knuckled grip on the phone, so I reached over and pressed the end button, severing our connection with Roman.
He continued his silent glower as I stood on my toes and pecked his lips. “He’s setting up his game. I can’t have him storming in here. Taking the lives of all of those people.”
“And what? You just expect me to let you go? Fuck, Clare. I love you.”
I smiled sadly. “And he hates you. You’ll be the target number one.”
“I can handle myself.”
I kissed him again, but his body remained stiff. “I know you can. And, if you are with us, it will draw him away from the Leblancs. I’m proposing that you let me and Tessa move in with you. It will piss Walter off and ruin whatever he’s been planning to do here for the last few weeks. I lived with that man for too long. I know him. He’s got too much pride to allow you to ride off into the sunset with his family. But he’s so cocky that he’ll want to teach you a lesson—personally. If we get the hell out of here, Walter will come after us, but he’ll leave the army at home.”
Careful consideration flashed in his radiant, blue eyes. He knew I was right. But making him put the protective caveman aside in lieu of a rational endgame was not going to be an easy sell.