Page 30 of Lady Death

“You? I thought you said your friend.”

Unable to meet his searching gaze, she shied away from his intense scrutiny. Should she tell him? It was probably too late to act like she hadn’t said that. Would it affect how he thought of her? Ronin said she was courageous, but she wasn’t. Not really.

“My friend, Abigail,” she started, her voice thick with unshed tears. The memories came at her hard and fast, forcing her to fall into that night. “We, uh, Abigail and myself, we were walking home from the movies, something we’d done dozens of times before. It was a brightly lit street, we’d passed a few people. We weren’t in a dangerous part of the city. At least, we didn’t think so.”

“What happened, Keres?”

This was it. The part that continued to give her nightmares.

“T-three men forced us into an alley,” she mumbled with a shudder. Her mind tried to shy away, but she forced away the retreat. “They were monsters. H-held us down. Stabbed us after they were done violating us. I don’t remember clearly after that. I dissociated from what was happening.”

Tears streamed down her face.

Why did she survive?Why couldn’t it be me that died?

“Keres, look at me. Please.” She blinked, turning her attention to him. Slowly, he reached out his hand to take hers, and that little bit of contact grounded her. “Do you know who hired me to kill those three particular Deathmen?”

She shook her head.

“Abigail’s father.” She gasped and he nodded. “I recognized the name you mentioned, so it wasn’t hard to figure out who had hired me. I returned the fee and showed him pictures of your aftermath. He was relieved those men couldn’t hurt anyone ever again. A good, upstanding, law-abiding person hired an assassin to get the job done that the law couldn’t touch. Those men were monsters, and you slayed them. Don’t let them take root in your thoughts anymore. Don’t give them any more of your power.”

“But why me?” The wobble in her voice broke under the strain of her anguish. “Why me, and not her?”

Slowly he scooted closer, exaggerating his movements. Giving her the choice to stay or retreat. Sympathy radiated from his eyes.

“Because you are fierce,” he said. “And you are strong. Far stronger than you realize.”

“I’m a killer,” she muttered.

“So am I. But we are also survivors. Life made us this way for a reason. There will always be that voice in your head that asks ‘why me,’ but you have to ask back, ‘whynotme.’”

His words wrapped around her, bringing her back from the bleak depths of darkness. Memories of Abigail streamed through her head on autoplay. She had been caring, and kind, and good. And she wouldn’t want her to drown in guilt. Neither would have Darby. When Ronin held out his hand, she slid hers into it. Letting him pull her up from hell.

Chapter Sixteen

The dawn light steadily grew, filtering through the sheer curtains hanging on the window. Keres lay in the circle of Ronin’s arm, watching the daybreak. She hadn’t slept a wink after he coaxed her from the closet and put her to bed. She didn’t think he had slept, either. The kiss he placed on the back of her head confirmed it.

“You didn’t sleep, did you?” he asked.

“No. I kept thinking about Darby.”

“Tell me about him.”

Where should I start?“He saved me that day. When I laid in that alley, watching the man who had just raped me raise a knife. I had this split-second of clarity that I didn’t want to die, but didn’t know how I was going to survive. Darby had been patrolling, as he called it, and saw. He wanted justice for Jonathan but couldn’t find it through proper bureaucratic procedures. When he screamed and shot at them ,they scurried away, like the cockroaches they were.”

“Deathmen running,” he mused. “That’s unusual.”

“They’re cowards,” she said flatly. “I probably should’ve said theywerecowards. They laughed about how they’d never be caught. How Abigail and I weren’t important enough.”

“But they were caught.” He raised an eyebrow. “By you.”

“Darby stayed with me in the hospital when he realized I didn’t have a family. Got me a therapist and into a victim’s group. I asked him why once, and he said he recognized the tattoo on one of their arms. Davorin’s Deathmen. Told me he couldn’t see another person’s life draining away. One day led to another and another, until I was finally able to leave the hospital. That’s when we hatched the idea of revenge for his Jonathan and my Abigail. Darby immediately started to teach me what I needed to execute the plan we came up with. And I trained myass off. He t-taught me so much.”

Her voice broke on a sob and Ronin wrapped his arms tighter around her.

“He sounded like a great guy,” he whispered in her ear.

“The best,” she confirmed, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I guess he and Jonathan are together now. At least, I hope so.”

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