Page 50 of The Broken Queen

He asked me to stay, but this time I walked out on him. My stomach was in knots. I had to do something. I couldn’t let Zeke win, and Slade was taking too fucking long to make a move. He kept talking in riddles, about chess pieces, revenge and eliminating the enemy. I was tired of waiting. If he wouldn’t stepup like the man I knew he could be, then I would have to take matters into my own hands.

My feet kept marching towards my car, a small little Honda, not noticeable to the public eye. I used this when I didn’t want to be paraded around like some diamond to oggle.I heard my name being called, but I ignored it and kept walking. As soon as I pulled out my keys, large hands pulled me against a solid chest.

“Stop, Rav. I need you to think about what you’re going to do. Every time you stand up to him, the outcome doesn’t go as planned and you get hurt in the process.”

I wiggled away and turned to face him. “Why do you care?”

“You can’t be fucking serious.”

I crossed my arms and leaned against the hot car. “I am fucking serious. I don’t know what’s real anymore. Everything is a mess, and I’m in a giant hole that I can’t seem to dig out of. I have Julianna. I know I have her love because she’s my baby girl, but you and me? It's a fairytale that is so far out of reach. It’s not real. I’m being tortured with what I want and can’t have. You may be standing in front of me, but you’re not real. None of this is real. My true horrors are back in that house, waiting for me to get home so it can do god knows what to my body.”

Slade paled after the words I didn’t mean to say spilled out of my mouth. I didn’t want to give him an image, but he infuriated me. What was I doing? Seriously. What was I doing with my life? Waiting for my knight and shining armor to come and save the day?

Women didn’t do that anymore. Fuck, Mother didn’t do that. She always stood her ground against Father. That’s what made him fall in love with her. Didn’t I use to be like that? Able to take care of myself? What happened? Was Slade walking away what started my heavy descent into darkness? Was it the way Zeke manipulated and used my body the way he wanted?

The unfortunate thing was, I was a woman. Nobody believed it when a woman said she was raped. It always turned into an allegation and his word against hers. Being a woman sucked.

My phone rang and pulled me out of the internal battle I was fighting. I pulled it out of my pocket and went to answer it. Lewis’s face was staring back at me as I swiped to the right, but my phone was snatched and Slade put it to his ear.

“Do you have Julianna?” He rudely barked at Lewis and I wanted to smack him. “Good. Can you bring her to the compound?”

My teeth were gnawing against each other. I had the deepest urge to smack him upside the head for being so rude to Lewis.

But then, a weird feeling passed over me. The way Slade was talking to Lewis was as if he hadn’t been gone for years. It was like they had been in contact on a regular basis.Bring her to the compound? Had Lewis been here before? Had he hung out with these people previously? Was he against my father?My fingers twitched at my sides.

Had Lewis been lying to me?

“Thanks.” He took the phone away from his ear and put it in his pocket. His gaze went to mine.

A wave of dizziness passed through me and I wanted to throw up. I swallowed it down, but my throat was too dry. I needed water, vodka, whiskey, something to get rid of this ache. What was happening right now?

Slade’s eyes were looking through me, searching for something. It was like he wanted me to know he had been in contact with Lewis all this time.

I took a step back. How many more of our staff were on Slade’s side?

My hands went to my throat. The ache was burning; there was nothing that could ease the pain, not even ice.

I licked my suddenly dry lips. “How long...”

Understanding passed through his eyes, and I saw a brief flash of something lingering. Guilt...determination...regret? “Since before I left.”

My stomach twisted and churned. An invisible hand came and slapped me across the face.

A honk pulled me out of the daze I was in when Lewis’ car drove up alongside us. My body grew tense at the thought of Julianna being around her dad.

Slade’s attention was no longer on me as Lewis opened the door and Julianna slid out beaming like a happy child living her best life. My heart warmed. That’s all I wanted for her. To be healthy, happy, and living life. All the other stuff, the burdens Father put on our family, would fall back on me. I would never, ever let anything happen to her.

She ran up to her father, arms open, smiling wide and eyes beaming. The most beautiful grin outlined Slade’s face, and I realized how much I missed this. How much I had wanted this. There had been a part of us missing this whole time, and seeing Slade with Julianna made me second guess every decision leading up to this point. It made me hate Father even more for driving a wedge between us.

I rubbed the skin over my heart where it was hurting. The gap in my heart was closing little by little, pieces being sewed back together. But there was always the devil on my shoulder, the annoying red-headed guy who told me this would all go to shit.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Raven

I watched them walk through the doors together, forgetting that I was here. I stood by my car wondering how I fit into the equation. Slade and Julianna were smiling and Lewis, being the amazing person he was, followed them inside, making sure she would be okay. Without him, the three of us would’ve been lost.

I remained out here, with the sun setting behind the trees, the cool breeze on my neck, trying to figure out my plan of attack. I couldn’t go home yet. Zeke was waiting for me. It wasn’t like he was going to fuck me and let me go, I had a horrible feeling in my chest that it was going to go further than that.He was going to hurt me.I needed to convince Slade to keep Julianna here, for the time being. Until I could take care of the problem myself.

---