I figured it’d been much the same for Sebastian yesterday. The innate need to protect and defend. To right wrongs that had occurred so long ago.
Those wrongs had started with me being set at the feet of a vile, vicious man. They’d trickled down, fed by the mistakes made over the years. Leaving all of us susceptible to Martin’s evil manipulation and greed. Over-indulgences and self-hatred and the overwhelming longing to cover up pain, Mark, Austin, and Sebastian had been prisoners to their own pasts that had somehow merged with mine.
But this time.
This time I would set it right.
My feet hit the landing of the hushed living room. Windows that soared to the sky provided the perfect view of the gorgeous pool and gardens where my precious child hopped from foot to foot on the grass, blonde curls wild and free, innocent smile gracing that cherished face.
Cherished.
Zee had his hands stuffed in his pockets, the smallest of smiles hinting at the edge of his mouth as he stood protectively at her side.
Cherished.
This child who’d been the root of it all. An obstacle standing in Martin’s way. One he’d sought to do away with when I’d refused to do his bidding.
When for the first time in my life, I’d refused to cave.
Cherished.
Emotion clotted in my chest. Too heavy. Too full.
I struggled to breathe because I didn’t know how to do that anymore without Sebastian in my life.
He’d found everything I never thought I would have.
Simple, simple dreams.
I rushed toward the kitchen and slammed to a stop at the entryway, hands darting out to support myself. Lyrik and Ash stood inside, leaning back against the dark granite of the island, sipping at beers, stewing in a silent misery of what had come to pass.
“Car.” The demand shot from my tongue with the velocity of a torpedo.
Lyrik straightened, frowned. He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth as he tried to make sense of my outburst.
Ash shifted toward me and placed his bottle on the counter, eyeing me the same way he might eye a wild animal that’d been backed into a corner.
Honestly, that perception didn’t feel too far off.
“What’s going on, darlin’?” he asked with a resurrection of his cocky twang.
“I need a car. Now.” I had no time for explanations, didn’t want to feed any false hope, the same hope that seared like a fire raging inside me.
Ash slanted Lyrik a perplexed glance, before he turned back to me with a shrug and dug into his pocket, quick to toss me a set of keys.
Metal clanked as I snatched them out of the air.
“White BMW. Be careful with my baby,” he shouted after me when I flew into action.
Without a parting word, I bolted from the kitchen and out the front door. My boots thudded against concrete as I ran down the walk to the cobblestone drive, gaze scanning the line of muscle and metal and flash, landing on the white M5 parked at the end.
I clicked the fob and jumped inside.
The deep roll of the powerful engine vibrated, and I shifted into gear, jerking in the drive, totally unaccustomed to manning a stick. I wouldn’t be deterred. I ground the gears, finding traction. At the first stop sign, I punched at the navigation, fumbling as I entered the address.
Chaotic nerves jumbled through me as I made the forty-five minute trip in L.A. traffic, sickness roiling in my belly.
The last time I’d seen her I’d been in the hospital, bandages and braces holding together the broken pieces of my body.
I’d bled.
But somehow…somehow Kallie had been strong.
I’d made a statement to the police. I had claimed Martin had been responsible, that I thought I’d recognized Donny, sure in my heart it hadn’t been a random burglary like the investigators had suspected because of the jewelry that had been stolen and the way the place had been ransacked.
“Stupid girl,” my mother had seethed when she’d leaned over me.