Page 21 of All We Want

I sit on the same couch where I fucked her throat and pull out my phone. I am only half listening to the conversation between Dec and Aid as we all sip on our scotch.

“What do ya make of wha’ she said?” Aiden asks. I know what he is talking about, it has been playing on my mind too.

I glance up briefly to see Dec frown down into his glass before I return to navigating through the apps on my phone.

“I know dat’s who she thinks it is, but she be obviously mistaken,” Dec responds.

Opening the app on my phone with the video feeds for Scarlette’s house, it takes a moment to load. When it loads my screen is filled with darkness. To anyone else this might just simply seem like the darkness of night, but I know that some lights are still visible in her house, the city lights, technology, little things to make it never truly dark.

I rewind the video feeds, trying to make sense of what is on my screen. And then I’m out of the chair cursing loudly.

Aiden is asking what the problem is as I rapidly bring up the contact I saved in my phone with Scarlette’s number. It goes instantly to voicemail.

My heart pounds in my chest as I make another attempt to reach Scarlette. The calls keep going straight to voicemail, and a knot of worry tightens in my stomach. Ignoring Aiden and Declan's questioning looks, I hastily run to my room and throw on a shirt, my mind racing.

"What's going on, Ro?" Aiden demands, his eyes narrowing with concern.

"She's not fucking answerin’," I growl, frustration and concern evident in my voice.

Declan sets down his glass, simply accepting my worry and moving in response. "Try again," he orders, his tone brooking no argument.

I make another attempt, but the result is the same—straight to voicemail. Panic claws through me, and I curse under my breath.

"Get dressed, Aid," Declan commands, rising from the couch. "We're goin’ to her place."

In record time, we're all ready, and we storm out of the penthouse, a sense of urgency propelling us forward. The drive to Scarlette's house feels agonizingly long, each passing second amplifying the worry gnawing at me.

They don’t ask again about the cause of my panic, simply taking my word that something is very wrong as Aiden drives toward our destination well over the speed limit.

As we approach, I notice that the lights are on inside, but there's an eerie stillness surrounding the house. Even the squeal of Aiden’s tires doesn’t really disturb it.

My heart pounds in my ears as we rush inside, the familiar scent of Scarlette's perfume hanging in the air. The house looks like it had been hit by a cyclone from the inside. Everything had been torn apart.

The Christmas decorations that had been decorating the inside of her house were strewn everywhere amongst the stuffing of her couch pillows and broken pieces of furniture.

Declan and Aiden’s mouths were agape as they took in the destruction of her home. But then Dec is moving rapidly in the direction of her bedroom while Aiden moves toward her garage. But I know where she would be.

Entering her office, relief floods through me seeing her standing in the center of the room. Similarly to the other rooms in her house, her office is destroyed also. On the tail end of relief, anger enters me at whoever dared to do this to her.

The chair that I had watched her come apart in has been cut open and torn to shreds and it makes fury pulse through me.

She doesn’t even see me enter the room, her focus on the wall that held the queen playing card artwork. Or what used to be artwork.

All four paintings were slashed and on the ground, the knife marks cutting specifically through the faces of the queens. There had been two safes behind the paintings. One in the area that I knew had held the Queen of Diamonds while the other had been behind the Queen of Hearts.

Both were open and empty, and between them was a piece of paper pinned to the wall by a large knife. Even I could see from where I stood what was written on it and what had completely captured Scarlette’s attention.

Wrong move.

Chapter 17

Scarlette

It was all fine, everything was fine.

I had just started to sing a Christmas carol in my mind when something touched my arm, startling me. I swing out automatically, but my hand is caught and I’m pulled into a body.

“Shhhh, tis me Scarlette.” Ronan’s voice is soft next to my ear.

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