Home. This is home.

“You won’t.” I open my eyes to find her watching me.

“Don’t ever do that again,” she whispers, and I don’t need an explanation to know what she’s saying.

“Never.” I press my lips to hers, drinking her in, and despite the bullet in my chest, the meds still wreaking havoc on my consciousness, and everything else we’ve been through in the last couple days, my cock twitches in my sweats.

She breaks the kiss when I slip my tongue into her mouth, laying her head back down.

“By the way, Doctor Roberts said no sex for at least eight weeks.”

Doctor Roberts can suck a dick if he wants to keep telling her shit like that.

“Doctor Roberts is dramatic.” I press my lips to her forehead. “Give me twenty-four hours, and I’ll have you underneath me.”

She raises a brow. “We’ll see about that.”

“Yeah, we will . . .wife.”

CHRISTIAN

William Cross looks like death contained in human cells. Like a corpse and not a living, breathing human being.

Or . . . as close as you can get when you’re as fucked-up and twisted as he is.

Levi stands on one side, Mila on the other, while Bella and Paulina stand behind us. I would have preferred if Mila hadn’t seen this, but after I returned home from the hospital a few days ago, she’s refused to let me out of her sight.

I can’t say I mind.

“I see you managed to live,” my father croaks out through the oxygen mask, pumping air that should go to someone else who needs it. Someone who deserves it and not the bastard in front of me.

“I see you’re still alive, somehow.”

“Christian,” Bella admonishes quietly from behind me, and Levi shoots her a look, silencing her.

She just doesn’t understand yet what kind of monster he really is. She was always protected as a kid, whether by Levi or Mom or me. That ends today.

“Let’s start at the beginning.” I take a step forward despite the pain in my shoulder. I shouldn’t be up right now, but this can’t wait.

Every second I know he’s here, being waited on hand and foot is another second that passes where I think about killing him. Slitting his throat in his sleep and watching the life drain from his eyes.

“You sent Mom away to the lake house earlier than us because you thought the lodge would go to you in the event Mom died.”

“What?” Bella snaps from behind me. I continue.

“You knew she was planning to divorce you and that you had no claim to Mom’s money, so you set up your son to kill her. Didn’t you?”

William doesn’t answer.

That’s okay because I have more.

“You knew how twisted his mind was, and you also knew it wouldn’t take much to convince him that she needed to be dealt with. So, you had them ride up there together, and when he got her alone . . . he murdered her. When he was done, he burnt the place to the ground, and conveniently, we were far enoughbehind them that by the time we got there, the bodies would have been unrecognizable.”

I hear Bella gag, and Paulina lets out a deep breath. There’s a heaviness in the air, but of course, there always has been when he’s around.

“Glad to see you finally figured it out,” William smirks, though it lacks any of its usual heat with the tubes all around him. “Only took you fourteen years.”

“After it was done, you made us believe Sebastian had died because you knew he could tell everyone what you made him do. So, you shipped him off to Saint Peter’s and left him to rot in that asylum. That is . . . until he met Talia after I called off the engagement and the three of you devised the plan to get rid of us. You promised Sebastian and Talia the lodge would be theirs in your will. But of course, it wasn’t yours to give away, was it?”