Page 56 of Unfulfilled Promises
“How did you know that?”
We walked outside and Seth carefully helped me move down the stairs. “My father was a great man until my mother died, then he turned into a monster. It was hard to see him both ways and not remember how things used to be.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I offered, knowing the words were hollow.
“When someone becomes a monster and causes pain to others, they don’t deserve to continue breathing, but mourning their loss is still okay. Don’t hate yourself because you miss him.”
“I don’t miss him. I just can’t rationalize why he was so nice to me, yet so horrible to everyone else.”
Devlin must have heard our conversation, and as we approached, he offered a smile as he spoke. “Sergey wasn’t always the asshole he turned into. When Lucian, Stella, and I were kids, he would take us and our mother on road trips. We’d drive two or three days just to try some restaurant or see some random thing my mother thought was interesting.”
Looking at him, I asked, “What changed?”
He shrugged as Lucian joined us. “Honestly, I don’t know. One day, he was the kind of father you looked up to, and the next day, he was someone I didn’t recognize.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. If I would have, none of this would be happening,” I remarked, and it was Lucian who spoke next.
“None of this is your fault, and once this is over, I hope you’ll sit down and fill us in on the things you and he spoke about. I’d love to hear what he was planning.”
“If we can locate the book I hid, it had just about everything in it you’ll want.”
“Where did you hide it?” Seth asked, and I looked up at him.
“It was the last safe house we were at. I was able to sneak out while they were waiting on Ricardo to arrive to tell them what to do. I don’t know if it’s still there, but I placed it inside a couple zipped storage bags, hoping it wouldn’t get damaged before I could retrieve it.”
Seth looked at Devlin and Lucian, and Devlin said, “We’ll get the address and go look.”
My brother approached and looked at my clothes before raising an eyebrow. I looked him directly in the eyes, waiting for his big brother attitude to appear. He surprised me when he said, “Thank you for helping her get cleaned up, Seth. We need to get on the road. Waylon likes to have brunch on Sundays, according to Hannah, and I want to catch him before he leaves.”
We piled into the two vehicles before pulling away from the house. James was driving, and Rhys and Hannah had moved to the other vehicle, so Devlin was riding with us and Booker. James and Devlin were speaking in the front as I rested my head against Seth’s shoulder. Once we hit the main road, my nerves started to increase.
Just the thought of coming face-to-face with Giovanni again made me want to throw up. I knew Seth saw the scars crisscrossing my body, but he didn’t say anything. Giovanni was a sadist who enjoyed the sight of blood, so he made sure to extract some daily just to prove he was in charge.
The day I was rescued, he’d left that morning and wasn’t there when Devlin, James, and their men burst through the door. For years, I tried to figure out how he knew, but hearing John rattle off, I knew he was the one who warned Giovanni. I had to wonder why they didn’t give Kelly the same warning.
Traffic was low this early on a Sunday as we got onto the interstate and merged into traffic. The distance between us and Waylon was about ten or fifteen minutes, and as we exited the interstate, I looked to Seth.
“Are you okay, darlin’?” he asked, and I glanced at the front of the car before looking back at him. He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a whisper before he spoke. “If you don’t want to do this, we’ll stay back. Whatever you need.”
I looked him straight in the eyes and said the words that had been rattling around in my brain for years, a wish to the universe I never thought I’d be granted. “I want to watch him die, and I want him to know I was the person who sent him to hell, where he belongs.”
Unsure if I could actually face him without withering, I felt Seth slip his hand into mine and give it a gentle squeeze.
His touch gave me strength, and in that, I was able to find that safe place inside myself where no one and nothing couldhurt me. It wasn’t a safe place to be for long, but it was necessary to be able to channel the killer I knew lived inside me.
And once Giovanni was dead, I would never give him another thought. People who ruled wanted immorality, so by forgetting them, they were banished to the dustbin of history.
Where they belonged.
Chapter 27
Seth
Iknew she was nervous. Hell, she was probably terrified, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. Seeing the scars covering her body was jarring, and I wanted to scream into the air but refrained, acting like I didn’t see them. Regan obviously went through more than most people could endure in a lifetime, but she never let it make her hard or cruel.
And Giovanni Marcora being the one who gave her the scars meant he was already dead—he just didn’t know it.
James turned into Hannah’s old neighborhood, moving closer to the house that she rented to Waylon, and I noticed Regan sit straighter. The house was within sight when a phone rang from the front seat. Devlin pulled out his phone and answered it on speaker.
