Page 82 of Vow of Vengeance
And now I'm going to lose it, because there's no way after confessing all of that, that Vin is going to let me live.
"I had to hide the fact I survived. If Tony knew, he'd try to come back and finish me off. I was saving money to try and get someone to take him out for me. I kept to the attic, where I knew you'd never go, and slip out while you were sleeping to getsomething to eat. Once you started working, I started stealing more from your account, and you never even noticed it was gone." He laughs. "You were so focused on getting revenge for me. It's touching, really, how far you were willing to go for me. Loyalty is worth more than gold."
I'd laugh if I had any control over anything right now, but I can't move, can't breathe.
"That's why I came back for you. You love me, Soren, and I love you. We can move past this."
We can move past this.
I want to ask him how many men, how many times, why he didn't just divorce me if I repulsed him so much and he didn't want to be a father?
But there's one question, more than any of the others, that I need an answer to.
"You said Khan could have-"
It's too disgusting to say the rest.
"The father? Could be." Vin shrugs. "Along with a dozen others, based on the timing. I don't know, Soren. Does it matter? It's gone."
It's gone.
"He... you let him…?"
"Pay to fuck you?" Vin surmises. "Yeah. He was a repeat customer. Honestly, I had to start upping how much I charged because he was getting obsessive.”
The nausea is too much to push down this time. I barely have a chance to turn my head before I vomit, spewing chunks of Violet's lasagna onto the bed next to my face.
Throwing up while you're laying on your back is hard to do. It covers me, even before my head drops, exhausted.
Vin makes a small sound of disgust.
"You could afford to lose a few pounds anyway."
thirty-one
Declan
Fuckme.
My former best friend, a fucking killer, is astonishingly good at easing Marissa along in her trauma. He's got experienceinflictingtrauma, but I never would have guessed he had any inkling of how to handle it. But he does it.
I watch his hand coast up her back, rubbing gentle circles on her spine as they ascend the steps together, her with that blanket clutched around her. I wonder how his wife feels about him being so tender toward other women.
Sure, the circumstances are unusual, but I noticed how he almost seemed to turn the charm on to manipulate her into calming down for him. That's Wes, though. He was always charming... at least, that's what the girls say. I think he's just cunning, able to read people's needs so that he can get what he wants from them. It's what he did to me.
I scrub a hand over my face, because even though he de-escalated her, this turned into a goddamn mess. I should be happy that we finally found her, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this. Now we've got a witness, a dead body, and my wife'sbest friend has been through hell. I don't know where we go from here, but I brought Wes along for a reason.
I kick the fucking corpse one last time in the face, and his lifeless body jerks with the force. He deserves worse, and a slower death than he got, but at least he's gone.
When I make it to the top of the stairs, it's to find Wes gripping Marissa's face and leaning in close to talk to her.
For a moment, I think he's going to kiss her, but he just assures her that everything is okay and helps her to sit down on the couch. I don't hear what he asks her, but I see her nod before Wes catches my eye and cuts his gaze to the kitchen, a clear indication he wants me to follow him.
"We have to get rid of her." He says in an undertone, the minute I'm at his side.
"What?" I laugh.
It's absurd, and I'm sure it's meant to be a joke, but I can't see the humor in it.
