Page 65 of Ruthless Keeper
Cain tried to have mekilled.
Only… he didn’t. Not if he asked Scarlett about giving me the antidote. No, that bastard gave Scarlett the tool to kill me and the tool to save me. Then, he sat back and watched.
My life is completely meaningless to the man I work for. That is adeepfucking blow. Even the whipping he administered didn’t hurt me this much—but I’m not reallyhurt.
I’mafraid. There are no limits to what Cain’s willing to do to achieve his goals. And worse, nobody actually knows what his goals are. We’re all playing a guessing game while he’s steering the ship in an unknown direction.
Scarlett keeps talking, heedless of my turmoil. “I told him I gave you the antidote. He told me he knew who my brother was,” she goes on. “That Eric Sharpe was Luther Sharpe’s son. He said something cryptic about needing me out of the way for the prosperity of the Nighthawks and then let me go. Even pointed me to a car with a faulty tracker and told me where to drop it and continue on foot.”
What—the—fuck?
But… it makes sense. Cain recently told me he knew of Eric’s identity long before I did, basically since the beginning of this mess. Cain knew Scarlett is Eric’s sister. He let her go to keep the peace with Eric and to make sure our weapon’s dealer wasn’t distracted. Then, when it was time to get leverage on Eric, he let Scarlett back into the compoundalive… and mostly stopped encouraging me to kill her.
“Flower,” I murmur, my voice breaking. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
As shocked and horrified as I am, I’m also devastated that Scarlett’s been facing all of this alone, with no support.
“He told me he’d kill meandEric if I said anything,” she whispers. “I was afraid. I’mstillafraid.” Her tears fall harder, and a quiet sob escapes her. “Don’t let him, Greyson. Don’t let him kill Eric,please. I’ll doanything—”
“He won’t.” I inhale a deep breath. Take a beat to mourn my next words, and the terrible impact I know they’ll have on the woman I love. “But you have to do what he asked. Call your brother. If Eric’s cemented as a valuable ally, Cain would have no cause to kill him.”
For all of his faults and sociopathic tendencies, Cain isn’t dumb. We need Eric to sustain ourselves, our operations, and to grow. Eric is too useful an ally to kill. Conversely, Eric as anenemywould be an extremely complicated target to take out.
“I’ll…” she cuts off as the word cracks, inhaling a trembling breath. A change sweeps over her. She goes from shivering and terrified to standing tall. An impassive mask falls over her features as she finds her strength. I’mawedto watch the transformation take shape.
Even now, Scarlett’s mastering her fear. She’s sitting in it,living with it, and still persevering forward.
There will never be a day where I’m even a fraction as strong as she is.
“I’ll do it,” she says. “Not because Cain told me to, but because of what you did when you took the whipping for me. And to protect my brother.” She swallows loudly. “But I don’t know what I’ll be like after it. Eric’s the only person who’s ever cared about me, and I’m about to make him think I abandoned him. That I ran away with a group of assassins I barely know and chose not to tell him. I’m about to alienate myself from the only connection I have in this world…” a slight whimper escapes her, and I gather her close.
I don’t think now’s the time to tell her that Eric’s not her only connection in this world; she has me, too.
“Thank you,” I say. “Whatever comes next, Scarlett, I’ll protect you… I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
But it does. Our die has been cast, and the graves have been dug. This is the hill we live and die on… but at least we’ll be doing it together.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Greyson
We go to my office for the phone call. I give Scarlett one of my burner phones, and she punches in the number she has memorized for Eric. She sits on the desk while I sit in my office chair in front of her, my hands planted on her thighs in a silent gesture of support.
She calls, letting the phone ring once, twice… on the third ring, Eric picks up.
“What?” he snaps into the line.
Scarlett swallows. A few beats of silence pass. Finally, quietly, she says, “Hey.”
I hear it, the moment Eric stops breathing. “Scarlett?” Shock stains every letter.
“Yeah,” Scarlett says quietly. “Sorry I haven’t been in touch. I’ve been hiding, and I didn’t know if it was safe to reach out to you.”
“What…what the fuck?Scar, where are you? What’s going on?Why did you disappear off the face of the earth?”
I can hear his love for his sister, his concern for her, in every word. It makes equal measures of gratitude and sadness fill me. I’m gratefulthat she has someone like Eric in her life… and I feel damn guilty that Scarlett’s being forced to cause a massive rift in their relationship.
“Guys broke into my apartment,” she starts slowly. “The same ones that came for me last time, I think. I freaked out and I fought, and I almost lost… then, more guys showed up—these ones were here for the first batch. They killed the ones who were there for me. I was panicked, so I asked for their protection… and they agreed, in return for some things.”
