Page 55 of Chaos & Corruption

I made my way to Victoria’s bedroom and closed the door, locking it before I crawled into her bed. I’ll probably sound like a total pussy, but being in her bed, surrounded by her scent, gave me a sense of peace and allowed me to fall asleep.

Another knock and this time I drag my ass out of bed, bracing myself as I unlock the door. Opening it, I lock eyes with Mila.

That’s another thing I didn’t take into consideration.

She watched me kill Jennings. Yes, she helped me bait him, but I wonder if she really knew what would happen. I don’t think she anticipated I’d beat him to death or that her childhood friend’s father would spend the night getting rid of a body.

If she wasn’t already traumatized, I think it’s safe to say she is now. Worse than that, my actions last night proved I’m every bit the villain she thought I was.

“Can I come in?” she asks quietly.

Wordlessly, I push the door open and step out of her way, allowing her room to enter. Unable to look her in the eye, I turn my back to her. I don’t know what to say to her. Do I apologize? Do I ask her if she plans on turning me in? What am I saying—of course she’s going to turn me in.

“I overheard Riggs on the phone with Mr. B,” she says. I hear the door click into place and I somehow find the courage to face her. She steps further into the room, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. I can still hear the sound of her crying, begging me to stop and that fucks with me because she probably sounded the same when Jennings violated her, making me no better than the asshole who raped her.

“I think he’s on his way over,” she continues. “They’re probably gonna have questions.”

I shove my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants and jerk my chin.

“Yeah,” I rasp. “You tell them whatever you need to.”

Her brows pinch together, and she steps even closer.

“Alex, I know you and I didn’t get off to such a great start, but what you did—”

I cut her off.

“I’m sorry you had to see any of that.”

As the words leave my lips, I realize I don’t have much remorse for my actions at all. I think given the chance, I’d do it all over again and I don’t know what that says about me as a human being. There should be some sense of regret when you take a life, but when I think about Jennings, I just think about Victoria. I have a lot of guilt over leaving her to play a fucking game when part of me knew she wouldn’t let this shit with the Scorpio Society go. That there was a strong risk she’d be in danger. I guess what I’m saying is I blame myself for what happened and killing Jennings eases some of that blame.

It’s fucking selfish.

“I’m not,” Mila whispers. Sure I heard her wrong, I meet her gaze. “Jennings took something from me that I can never get back. He hardened me and made me a different person and sometimes I wake up and I just want to be who I was before he violated me, but I don’t know if that me even exists anymore. Most days I think that version of me died, that he killed her. So last night…I wasn’t begging you to stop because I couldn’t watch what you were doing to him.” She pauses to drag in a breath. “I didn’t want him to take a piece of you too. You, me and Victoria, we’re not going to be the same anymore. That asshole has left a brand on the three of us and I spent all night thinking about where we go from here. About what happens now and when Victoria wakes up.”

I wasn’t expecting her to say that, but she makes a valid point. I don’t know that any of us get over what happened. Even with Jennings off the canvas, that doesn’t erase what he’s done. It doesn’t change that Victoria is going to wake up with a long recovery ahead of her and nightmares that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

“We can’t tell Mr. Bianci about the Scorpio Society or that Victoria was trying to single-handedly take the whole damn thing down,” Mila continues.

“You don’t think he’s going to want to know everything? You know him a lot better than I do, Mila, and the man doesn’t look like he takes the word no very kindly.”

“He doesn’t, and I’m not suggesting we don’t say anything at all. I just think it’s better for everyone involved if we put ourselves in Victoria’s shoes. She would not tell her father about the Society. Think about it, if she wanted him to know, she would’ve told him about it already. She would’ve gone to him for help.”

I consider that for a moment.

“Any idea why she didn’t?”

Mila shrugs her shoulders.

“Probably because of his past. I don’t know how much she’s divulged about her family, but her dad did time for a crime he didn’t commit, and her grandfather was abused in prison.”

“Yeah, she told me all of that.”

“Her dad has his life on track now. He’s got the boxing gym and he trains Luca. If he goes to war with those creeps, they’ll stop at nothing to ruin that man, his family and anything he is associated with.”

She’s right about that. It’s common knowledge that the society will stop at nothing to ensure no one ever succeeds in taking it down. I may have killed one of their members last night but Jennings is only one on a long list that spans over generations.

“If you think it’s best we keep the society to ourselves, I’ll go along with whatever you say, but Victoria’s father is already involved Mila. He got rid of the body.”

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