Page 94 of Sacred Vow
Jordan never stood a chance.
This is the darkness I’ve warned her about, the real man I’ve kept locked away and refused to let her near, yet despite my warnings, despite me telling her to run, she was the one who released me.
“Caesar.”
Tilly’s soft voice cuts through the insanity, and my head whips up like a crazed man, my grip so tight on the dented can that it caves in under my hand.
“It’s okay, Caesar. It’s done,” she says. “Come back to me.”
Her voice is like a beacon in the night, calling me home, and I glance down, taking in Jordan’s lifeless body beneath me. He’s still breathing, and a wave of relief crashes through the pit of my stomach like a wild tsunami. He might be breathing, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be okay, and judging from the look of him, I doubt he’ll ever step outside of a hospital ever again.
I drop the can and shakily get to my feet.
“That’s right,” Tilly coos, her eyes beckoning me forward as her soft tone is somehow able to lure the demons right back into their cages without a fight. “You’re okay. It’s time to look after me now.”
“Fuck,” I breathe, snapping out of the fog, the haze clearing inside my mind and setting me free before realizing that Tilly is still hung by chains. I spring toward her, desperation pulsing through my veins as I take her body weight with ease and lessen the pressure on her arms before lifting her just enough to freethe chains from the industrial hook that’s screwed directly into the rock above the cellar.
The moment her arms are freed, she crumbles into me, her legs wrapping around my body as her arms flop heavily down by her sides. I wrap my arms around her, holding her against my chest and vowing to myself that I will never let her go, no matter what demons possess me.
I breathe her in, holding her tight. “I’ve got you, hellcat,” I tell her. “I’m never letting you go.”
I feel her tears against my neck as I walk us straight out of the cellar, not wanting her to be in there a moment longer than necessary, and as I make my way back to my car, my hand roams up and down her back. “Tell me you’re okay, hellcat. Tell me he didn’t—”
“He didn’t,” she says, cutting me off. “That’s not what he wanted.”
I pull back just enough to meet her broken stare. “What are you talking about? I thought—”
“I did too,” she says. “But it’s not me he wanted. It was Zeph. He’s obsessed. He just wanted to get me out of the way.”
My brow arches, never having imagined that in a million years, and as I reach my car, I slip straight into the driver’s seat with Tilly on my lap, not even caring if this is how we have to drive home. I’m not letting her go.
“Annie?” she suddenly asks.
“What?”
“The woman from Vixen,” she clarifies, confusing the shit out of me as she sits up on my lap, hastily wiping her eyes before sucking in a sharp breath as her fingers brush over a wound. “She’s Jordan’s mother. She was here earlier, completely in on it. She knew what Jordan was going to do and told him to do his worst. She wanted me out of the way so you’d seek comfort from her.”
Fuck.
“How long ago was she here?”
Tilly shakes her head. “It’s hard to say. It doesn’t feel like it’s been long. But I don’t know. It was dark down there.”
I wrap my hand around the back of her head, pulling her back in against my chest. “It’s okay, hellcat,” I tell her. “I did a sweep of the main house, but she wasn’t there, though that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to make this right. She’ll pay for her part in all of this. I promise you that.”
Tilly nods against my chest, her tears soaking through my shirt. “Don’t ever let me go.”
I close my eyes as I rest my chin over her head, my fingers weave into hair, and I hold her closer than ever. “I love you, Tilly. I was an idiot to push you away like I did. Believe me, hellcat. I can’t fathom the idea of ever letting you go now.”
“Okay,” she finally says, her voice muffled against my shirt. “Take me home.”
28
CAESAR
Tilly lies nestled in my arms as my fingers brush up and down the length of her arm. After getting home from the hospital and giving statement after statement to the cops, Tilly didn’t get to sleep until after four in the morning.
She’s fucking exhausted.
