Page 29 of Dust to Dust

"Not one second has gone bye without me longing for you. I'll right this all. I just need to know you're always going to fight on my side." His tongue parted my lips before I could answer. As we kissed, I never wanted it to end. I wanted to create a bubble where we could live happily ever after. But darkness lingered on the horizon of my mind. I pulled away and looked into the blue eyes that haunted my mind.

"You said as my husband you will protect me, but as your wife, I will protect you too." Turning away from him, I looked at the mansion. Titan guided my face back to his and pressed a kiss on my lips. He smiled, knowing that our new lives would start before the sunset today. His grin pierced my heart. It was the smile I had not seen since I met him at my treehouse. Genuine and pure, there was still light within his dark soul. He brought our joined hands to his mouth and kissed my fingers. As he drove closer to our fate, he kissed every finger until he pressed a lingering kiss on my ring finger tattoo.

The car stopped. I offered him one more chance to allow me bear the burden of today. "This decision is eating at you. It's my kill."

I knew what Titan struggled with, which was why he would be a good leader. If all the men in the brotherhood had this moral compass, then the power that ruled the world would be in better hands. "A son kills his father," I murmured the words that haunted Titan.

Titan was silent. Four guards stood at the entrance of the house. More men patrolled the grounds in groups that passed every three minutes. I was so worried about who killed Lucas that I never considered not making it out alive. The dream of being Titan's wife might die as it once did with Elsa.

"I know why my father raised me the way he did. I will have to raise our children to be lethal, but there are two sides to the coin. You can teach a man to be a ruler and show him compassion. I never saw that side of my father. He never confessed to me things a boy mourned to know. Who was my mother, for example?"

I could see the pain laced on his face. I wanted to protect him from this pain, but I didn't know how. You could protect a person physically, but mentally…that was a solo job only the person themselves could fight.

Look at Ghost and me, for example.

"We can look after this is done."

Titan laughed, but it was pained, "No. It doesn't matter now; that's not my point. I meant that he was cruel. He could have given me an ounce of tenderness here and there but he didn’t. That's why I claimed you. I saw Elsa and how good she was. You were everything I ever sought. I gave you my heart, and you forever have it now." He leaned over and kissed me. As he pulled away, something still ate at him, "How will I explain to my children that I killed my father?"

Why was it so sexy that Titan cared about his future family? Not that I had ever considered kids. I might not ever want them but knowing that Titan cared about how he would be viewed as a parent planted a seed in my head. "You'll explain it as you just did to me. Sometimes blood isn't thicker than water. Blood is just blood. Evil is evil."

Chapter 24

Titan and I exited the car. Then as a united front, hand in hand, we approached his childhood home. Massive white cement walls held back the pure evil of Lucas King. We were surrounded by guards and a pine forest that once upon a time connected to my parents' house. In the middle was my treehouse—a place long forgotten, like a fairy tale.

We stepped on the final stair step, and the front doors opened, so we didn't have to stop and knock on the door like an average person. An older women dressed in a traditional maid's uniforms stood to the door's right side. "Mr. and Mrs. King," she bowed her head, but her voice was cold and distant. I wished she smiled at Titan, showing him the love a mother should have. Did Titan truly have no loving parent figure growing up?

I glanced up at my husband, who was stoned face. A vein in his neck was bulging, and he seemed like a hungry lion that was being held back in a cage. He was tense, knowing the cage door was about to open. He wore his black cargo pants and a tight black shirt. His guns were on display, one strapped to the right side of his thigh, one tucked behind his back, and a knife in his boots. It would seem normal for the heir to be armed. On the other hand, I acted the role of the perfect wife, minus the leather and boots, which didn't fit the Stepford wife role a King woman should be depicted as. I had to hide my weapons and conceal my true nature for only a few more minutes.

Then I was going to be free.

Utterly free of the monster from my past.

An uneasiness spilled in my stomach as if I were on a turbulent flight, unsure if we would have to make an emergency landing in a place unknown. I clenched my abs tighter like a corset as I willed away nausea.

"Mr. King is in his office. I'll bring you to him." The maid informed us. As if Titan needed to be escorted around his house. Heck, juvie in Russian felt more welcoming than Titan's childhood mansion.

Walking down the long wide hallways, I realized how cold the house was. There was not one spot of color. Everything was either white or grey.At least it wasn't that awful shade of cream back at their campus house.No pictures of Titan and his father hung on the walls. A few priceless pieces of art, and that was it. The windows were tinted, and I was sure they were bulletproof due to the extra thick frames. The dark tint of the windows cast an eerie shadow into all the rooms, which looked more like a museum than an actual space people would relax and live.

At the end of yet another hallway was a glossy black set of lacquered stairs. The maid ascended, as did we. At the end of the landing was a matching lacquered black door that the maid stopped at. The black shiny door and stairs were so dramatic that I half expected the walls to erupt in flames and the actual devil to open the door. Leave it to the insanely wealthy to have eccentric interiors that matched their empty souls. "Mr.King is waiting," She hissed as if the arrival of his son and daughter-in-law was a nuisance for everyone.

Titan eyed her with disdain as she opened the office door. Anxiety blossomed in my gut like caterpillars breaking from their cocoons and turning into butterflies. We didn't exactly discuss our plan step by step. We agreed we'd act normal so we could get Lucas alone, and then well…shit was going to hit the fan. Lucky for Titan and me, we packed our raincoats.

Titan grabbed the shiny silver door knob, and the beating of my heart and the butterflies in my stomach threatened to break free of my body.

Tick, tock, Tick, tock. The sleek door opened, and the countdown to the apocalypse had begun.

* * *

Lucas King.

The king that held the crown that controlled all the kings. Lucas sat in a leather armchair next to a roaring fire looking the part he played so well. After all, Kings were born to rule.

Granted, the temperature outside didn't call for a fire at all. Lucas looked up but didn't look surprised to see Titan or me. No doubt Lucas was informed about our arrival as soon as our car approached his castle. I felt the weight of the gun that was tucked behind my back. When Lucas looked at Titan than me and smiled, I had a moment of fear that caused a bead of sweat to form along my brow bone.

What if Titan had betrayed me again?

"Lucas," Titan greeted his father with a distant hostility.

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