Page 139 of Burn Like An Angel

“I love you.”

Lowering my mouth to his, I press our lips together. Lennox kisses me passionately, his tongue gliding over my lips to seek entrance before filling my mouth.

He’s everywhere. Tongue brushing mine. Hands wrapped around my hips. Chests glued together. For a man who once couldn’t stand the sight of me, he’s now practically living in my skin.

“I love you,” I reply simply.

“You meant it?” His smile is wide. “Not just a mid-sex confession?”

“I mean, you did torture it out of me. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

Resting our foreheads together, I feel the final pathetic wall stacked around my heart crumble to ruin. The inevitable destruction feels like fucking nirvana.

I’ve opened my heart to them all. Accepted the possibility of grief for the chance at something more. A future without emptiness and heartache. Perhaps a happy ending.

I’ll do anything to get that.

Even if I don’t deserve it.

CHAPTER 21

LENNOX

SPIT IN MY FACE! – THXSOMCH

Early summerin London used to be my favourite time to visit the city. I grew up east of the capital in a working-class town but visited on occasion. Once for my grandfather to collect his military pension.

Now the glass skyscrapers, towering office blocks and crammed tourist buses glisten in the warm sunshine. Through the window of the tinted SUV, I watch the morning chaos go by undisturbed.

It’s funny how even when your own life is hanging by a thread, the world still turns. Oblivious and undisturbed. People stroll past stacks of newspapers, emblazoned with headlines that lose impact after a while.

“Headquarters is up ahead.” Warner indicates to move into a different lane. “The SCU have already arrived—they’re interviewing other witnesses today too.”

“They took long enough to decide what to do with us,” I grumble.

In the passenger seat, Xander nods in agreement. It’s been a tiresome week, hiding in Sabre’s safe house, uncertain of our own fates while the SCU deliberates over our fates.

After our interviews, Enzo and his team agreed to negotiate any charges. We’re not so worried about Raine. He was little more than a bystander. But for myself, Xander and Ripley, all bets are off.

Each of us have aided and abetted Incendia’s criminal activities over the years. Then there’s the grisly murder that Xander owned up to, though he claimed self-defence. Not to mention the altercation in the maize field. We’ve racked up a list of possible charges.

“Yours are the first to be agreed on.” Warner huffs. “The Blackwood inmates are still being questioned. So be glad it didn’t take months.”

“Why is it taking so long for the others?” Ripley frowns.

“Their situation is a little more complicated.”

The curved point of Ripley’s jawline clenches tight. I know that in her mind, we deserve whatever lies ahead. She’s feeling the guilt of all we’ve done to make it this far. I see things differently.

For every bad deed we’ve done, we prevented the suffering of our loved ones. Sometimes ourselves. Evil is justified if it’s to stave off something worse for those you want to protect, right?

While I don’t relish what we did to Holly, I also don’t feel guilty. She was a stooge too. Culpable and heartless in the name of her own survival. But I do regret what it did to the woman who’s fast become ours.

“What about Bancroft?” Raine speaks up from between us. “We can’t hide in a safe house forever.”

His lips sealed, Warner remains silent.

News reports appear daily about Incendia’s worsening legal troubles. Aside from that, we’ve been kept in the dark. The evidence appears stacked against them and calls for the remaining institutes to close are growing.

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