“I have to do something, damn it.” Where I had patience, I was learning Chess did not.
“Yeah, you can look after me.” Tristan bent, shoulder into her belly then had her up over his shoulder within seconds. She yelled. He ignored her and then they were gone.
“How is she?” Deck asked.
He was referring to London.
Vic poured himself a coffee, but I could tell he was listening by the way his head tilted slightly in our direction.
“Pretending to be good. She needs to be far from this.”
Deck nodded. “Georgie, too. Tristan’s idea, we need to make happen.” An idea that was coming into play if everything went as expected with Dorsey. “Girls won’t like it, but if we get what we need from Dorsey, then we have to act. Girls can’t be part of that.”
Deck and I had our differences, but we had one thing in common now—keeping the girls safe. I grinned. “Tristan is in for a war.”
Deck chuckled, a rare sound coming from him. “I’ve had time with mine. She knows when to fight and when there is no chance in hell I’m giving in to her.”
London picked her battles, but I didn’t think this was one she’d argue. She wasn’t a fighter, despite the fuckin’ battles she’d fought in order to survive. She stood her ground when she needed to and believed in something. But her softness and compassion always came through. I saw it with how she’d treated the homeless, the way she moved, quiet warmth emanating from her.
My cock jerked and I grunted, picking up the plate with the salmon sandwich. “Give me an hour,” I said to Deck and Vic. “Then we’ll go over what needs to go down tonight.”
Deck nodded. Vic didn’t do anything, but chugged back his glass of orange juice while leaning against the marble counter.
I made my way out of the kitchen and through the living room when I heard the water running through the pipes above. London was still in the shower? It was a fuck of a long time to be showering.
I strode through the living room, went up the stairs, two at a time, went into the guest room, put the plate on the dresser and continued into the adjoining bathroom.
The air was a shield of fog and it whirled around me when the colder air from the bedroom intermingled with the humid moisture. I shut the door.
I couldn’t see her, but I heard her. The soft sobs from somewhere to the right and not in the shower.
I made my way across the bathroom and I found her sitting on the floor, leaning up against the wall in the corner. Fuck.
I crouched in front of her, my hands settling on her knees that were bent and pulled close to her body. Her hair was wet and dripped onto her naked shoulders then slid down her skin to soak into the blue cotton towel she wore.
“I never should’ve run away after….” She stopped and I knew why because it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. As Raven, she could’ve done nothing to help her father. She couldn’t even help herself.
“Why did he do it? Why did he take the bullet?” Again, there was no need to answer and I didn’t think she wanted me to. These were questions she knew the answers to. He was dying and he wanted to do something he’d been unable to do ever since he became involved with Vault… save his daughter.
My thumb stroked back and forth over her knee while with my other hand reached forward and I wiped the tears on her cheeks with my knuckles. She finally looked at me with her red-rimmed eyes, and my heart, one I thought was so tainted and stained it no longer beat, hurt. It was as if someone were squeezing it so hard that it was in agony.
She lowered her head, her hair covering her face.
“He died knowing you’re the strong, beautiful woman he raised you to be. You gave him that. His final wish.”
She was quiet for a long time before she raised her head and said, “Thank you.”
I reached forward, tucked a few wet strands behind her ear and cupped her cheek, my thumb stroking back and forth. “For what?”
“For caring. About him and me.” She rested her hand over mine on her cheek then slid it to her mouth and kissed my palm. “They tried to take that from you, but they didn’t get it.”
They did. They took parts of me that I’d never get back, but she’d given me the greatest gift. The gift of caring for someone so deeply that it lived and breathed inside you. It was so much more powerful than any pain or conditioning Vault had done to us.
She consumed me and maybe it was dangerous feeling so much for one woman, but it was too late. It had always been too late to stop.
“I want you to take the pain away,” she whispered. “For a little while, make me forget.”