“It’s not about the money, Caleb! It never has been. I want it because it’s the only thing he loves as far as I can tell. If you knew of the things he’s sacrificed for his precious billions, it would be all you could do not to find him now. Tonight! He has no wife, no children. He trusts no one! And he has taken everything from me. Death is not enough. Torture is not enough. I thought you of all people would understand!”
Hadn’t Caleb said something similar to Livvie? It seemed like ages ago, the night he’d rescued her from the bikers and informed her of her fate. She’d asked him why?
“I have obligations, Kitten.” He swallowed deeply. “There’s a man who needs to die. I needed you…need—” He paused. “If I don’t do this now then I’ll never be free. I can’t walk away until it’s done. Until he pays for what he did to Rafiq’s mother, to his sister, until he pays for what he did to me.” Caleb stood abruptly, his chest heaving. He ran angry fingers through his hair and fisted his hands at his nape. “Until everything he loves is gone, until he – feels it. Then I can let it go. I’ll have repaid my debt. Then, perhaps…maybe.”
“I do, Rafiq. I do understand. For twelve years, my life has been nothing but our quest for revenge. I’m just tired, Rafiq. I’m tired and I want it to be done. I want him dead and I can’t wait for him to die slowly, but I’m ready to move on,” Caleb said. It was the truth. He was ready to move on with his life and he wanted it to be with Livvie. He wanted what could never be.
Caleb stared at Rafiq, the man wasn’t well. His hair seemed grayer, his face harder, and his eyes lacked the slightest glimmer of compassion. In the entire time Caleb had known him, he had never taken a slave for his own, trained them, yes – kept them, no. The fact he’d kept Nancy alive this long and broken her down so thoroughly spoke volumes about his mental state.
Caleb continued, momentarily resigned to his fate, “Have you no thought for me? Brother. All those years I spent as a whore? No one knows better than you, everything I suffered. Did you never think I might want to forget? All those years of being your shadow, learning how to kill, and training whores for the very men who would have used me, did you never think I might want to just walk away from it and be…I don’t know! Something more!” Caleb felt as though a floodgate had been opened in his soul.
“I was finally going to show her she was wrong about me…”
“You are something more, Caleb. I made you something more. I made you a man. I delivered you! I made others quake in fear of you. Who were you before me? Kéleb! That’s who you were! A dog.” Rafiq slammed his glass on the end table near his chair and kicked Nancy over for good measure. Nancy’s sobs quickly filled the room, but she held her hands over her mouth to stifle them.
Pure, uncut, rage thrummed in Caleb’s veins and he’d never wanted to strike Rafiq so much. Only his thoughts of Livvie staid his hand. Her life was in danger and it remained Caleb’s responsibility to keep her safe. “I know who I am, Rafiq. I know what I am. And I know I owe it all to you. You’ve spoken to me so much about loyalty, but only minutes ago you were willing to maim me to protect Jair, of all people. Where is the loyalty?”
“I told myself you couldn’t help yourself. I told myself something happened to you to make you this way, to make you as fucked up as me but you’re even more fucked up than I am. And in the strangest corners of my mind I thought…”
Caleb remembered Livvie’s fear, her despair. She’d been brutalized by several men, beaten and bloodied. She had thought Caleb was her savior. Caleb was no one’s savior. He looked at Rafiq and saw the worst parts of himself reflected in the other man.
“That you could fix me? What’s more, that I could fix you? Well, sorry, Pet, I don’t want to be fixed.”
Rafiq leaned forward, the devil in his eyes, “We’ve known one another for a long time, Caleb. You understand how important this is to me. I won’t tolerate anyone interfering with our plans – not even you.”
“You ran. I went to collect my property. End of story. In two years, maybe less, I’ll have what I want – revenge.”
For Rafiq and Caleb, it had always been about revenge. It had been the only thing that had ever mattered. Not friendship. Not loyalty. Not justice. It seemed so trivial now, so small when weighted against the price: Livvie. “I want to kill Vladek and I want it to be the end,” Caleb whispered.
Rafiq let out a derisive snort and sat back, “This is about the girl, isn’t it?”
Fear quickened Caleb’s pulse, “No! This is about us. It’s about our partnership and how much it has always been weighted in your favor.”