Page 204 of The Sinner's Bargain

Instead, I faced my brother. “If Jarrett got the house...?”

“The Brixton vault did,” he corrected. “Grandmother Brixton wanted a return for the family investment. Everything taken had to be returned. So even Brixton doesn’t have that money.” He traced a finger against the rim of his cup. “Do you want to know about Mom and Dad?”

“No,” I said before he could finish asking.

I did not feel sorry for Jarrett, or my parents. They destroyed my life. They hurt me in ways I would never recover from. They made it so my entire life would be at the service of a monster and for what?

Thoran slipped his palm up the back of my top and pressed lightly into my spine.

“I can help—”

I shook my head. “No.”

He nodded once. His thumb traced the bumps at my lower back. “Okay.”

“You might be happy to learn you’re free,” Malcolm added with a touch of humor. “Mom and Dad will not come looking for you and the Brixton family, the last thing they want is for the world to know their son bought an underage child to fuck.”

I drew in a breath. “I just want to start my new life. The last twenty years no longer matter.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

THORAN

I left Naya in our bed, wrapped tightly in the sheets with her hair a golden cloud across my pillow and the light on behind her. I kissed her cheek before pulling on my clothes and leaving our bedroom.

It had been two weeks since Oliver. Two weeks since she went limp in my arms, and I nearly lost my mind. I might have sold my soul — if I had one — that night. I couldn’t be sure. I only knew that I vowed to any otherworldly creature listening that it was theirs if they saved her.

But with things finally settling down and Naya up on her feet again, I was given the opportunity to finally address the final two issues left unresolved.

Oliver and Brixton.

I’d given them enough mercy already allowing them to continue living this long. To exist after what they’d done. But their grace period ended the moment I knew Naya wasn’t going anywhere. When I stayed up every night to watch her breathe and made sure that didn’t stop.

Now, with Cyrus a sentinel outside the door, I pulled on my coat and headed first in the direction of the office. I stopped before the collection of portraits, highlighting the morbid history of my family. I studied their faces, faces I knew better than my own and thought of what Naya had said about their deaths being tragic accidents.

Maybe.

I could see how she could think that. How it might seem possible that they had all been unfortunate and coincidental. But I had seen the shifting shadows. I had heard the whispers. I knew what evil lurked in that place.

But when I moved to stand before my parents, my mom with her soft, gray eyes and dark hair, I didn’t know what to think. Naya kept telling me I wasn’t cursed. The house wasn’t cursed. But what if she was wrong?

“Thank you,” I murmured quietly into the silence. “I know it was you that night. You helped me find her.”

My mother’s eyes watched me, unmoving, yet speaking volumes.

---