Page 82 of Misguided Vows

I look back at the man who’s now coughing blood. His face blends in with the killers’ of my deceased wife. And it does nothing to satisfy this bloodthirsty side of me, reawakened for another woman.

“Go to her. I’ll clean up here,” Alek offers, adjusting his gloves. “I must confess, I prefer you as a tracker. You’re too messy of a killer.”

“Be careful, Alek, it almost sounds like you care,” I say, not moving from my spot until I watch this asshole gasp his final breath, hardly even satisfied by his death.

Too close. He’d been too close to taking her from me, and I want to watch him suffer and die alone. His greed had been his undoing, and I’ll be the one to send him to hell.

He rasps his last breath, and I watch, still nowhere near satisfied.

This raging storm inside me hasn’t been sated because I can’t undo the past.

Had I been able to trade places with her, I would have.

Alek says nothing more as he quietly stands behind me, and for some reason, I feel the same rage and mourning that I did standing at my own wife’s funeral. Everything begins to stir and come crashing in, and I realize no matter how hard I tried to push away the grief by busily working and acting aloof—it’s caught up with me now.

But there’s somewhere else I have to be. I need to rein it in and keep my shit together—for a woman I should’ve never tangled in this mess in the first place because she was hiding from her demon just fine until I got involved.

CHAPTER 47

Alina

Honey has been by my side since the moment I arrived at the hospital. Dawson phoned her immediately. Rya was only ten minutes behind her, and they both sit beside me expectantly.

The police have taken a report of my recollection of events, and I’m now resting after being examined and treated for smoke inhalation and some minor burns and cuts. I’m still pretty shaken up.

It’s not from the way Jack slipped off the edge and turned into a monster that terrifies me. Or the way he had me transfer my entire life savings into his account.

It’s the desperation and vacant look in Will’s gaze, and when I saw that twist into something else, that terrified me the most. It was something ugly and predatory as he went after Jack, and that instilled that fear in me. I knew Will was a dangerous man, but this… it was something else.

He betrayed me, yet right now, he’s the only person I want to be with, holding me and telling me it’s going to be okay. And I want to give in to that weakness, but I know I can’t forgive him for tracking me this entire time. And I won’t know the wholestory until I speak with Will, but I’m certain that’s what his role was.

“I bet he’s already dead,” Honey says, crossing her arms over her chest angrily.

“Most likely,” Rya adds thoughtfully. “Especially if Will saved you from the fire. I know any of our men would burn down cities to find the person who’d put us in danger.”

“Will doesn’t see me like that,” I find myself quietly saying.

Honey and Rya worriedly look at one another. Honey rests her hand on mine. “I think you two have a bit to go through, but we can see how you look at each other.”

I want to laugh at her, and tell her not to encourage the tiny bit of hope in my heart, but I know those aren’t the facts.

“Did you two know he was tracking me from the start?” I whisper.Had they been on it as well?

Honey’s eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean?”

Rya looks equally as confused.

I adjust myself in the bed, trying to get comfortable. I’ve always hated hospitals. The doctors have already run some tests, and want to keep me overnight just for observation. Just what I need, a big-ass bill after I just got robbed of all my money.

“The man who torched the place was the guy I was telling you about, who I stole from seven years ago.” Tears well in my eyes as I say this. “I’m so sorry, Honey. I didn’t know he’d find me at Dawson’s shop and set it on fire. I thought he’d given up on finding me.”

“Stop. We don’t care about the shop, Alina. As long as you’re okay, you’re all we care about. I mean that. What does Will have to do with this? Do I have to kick his ass for something?”

I laugh and cry and then cough. My throat is sore, and I’m so tired. “I think Jack hired Will to track me down and bring me back to him. He thought I still had the jewelry I stole from him.”

“How do you know Will was hired by him?” Honey asks.

“Apparently, the tracker had found me in London and was meant to bring me back to America but called off the job halfway through. I don’t know. I just think back to how much Will was around from the start…” I thought it was because he was attracted to me. Because of the sexual tension, but now I realize it was all just a job. In my heart, I know that’s the truth. I can convince myself it was another tracker, but I just know.

---