Page 75 of Ruthless Keeper
Monster doesn’t rise to my bait. I sigh irritably, shaking my head. “Headquarters were on the neighboring property to my father’s house, but I never went there. He threatened to take me there when he was really pissed, but never followed through. I don’t know what I can tell you.”
“Anything,” Greyson says. “Anything that you think might help. No detail is too small.”
After a few moments of thinking, an unpleasant memory flashes through my mind. I’ve done my best to forget or suppress as much of my childhood as I can, but a few things stand out.
Such as… “There are tunnels underneath his house. They’re very old and used as secret passages. It’s possible they connect Luther’s house to headquarters. I can’t say for sure.”
I was never supposed to know about the tunnels, but I discovered them with Eric when I was very young. After Luther killed my mother, I hid in them for nearly a week. I thought I’d die down there—Ithink I might’ve wanted to die, but eventually, starvation and dehydration won out over my wish to just slip away.
The person who left the tunnels was very different from the one who went inside them. Angrier, more volatile, no longer content to take what was thrown at me. For my gall to grow a spine, I got the gift of broken bones and severe isolation.
“Thank you,” Greyson says. “I’ll pass it on.”
I stare at Luci, who gazes right back at me. He blinks slowly, then pushes his head into my chest, nestling his ear right against my heart. If there is a divine power out there, I can only assume my cat comes from it—he’s been exactly what I need since the moment I found him.
“Scarlett,” Monster murmurs. I look up, meeting his eyes. They’re searching, filled with something I can’t quite put my finger on. It might be adjacent to empathy. “No child should have to grow up with that man. I can’t imagine what he put you through—”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“—and I’m not asking you to. But I’m telling you that I had some pretty shit foster parents growing up, and they changed me fundamentally. One of the most remarkable things about you is that despite everything you went through, despite everything you endured, you are who you are. You chose to build yourself up. You chose a different path than your father.”
My eyes start to sting with tears. I wish desperately that what he’s saying was true, but… “Iamlike him. He killed someone who loved him with every broken piece of her. I callously poisoned you and left you for dead.”
Monster’s eyes soften. “Oh, baby,” he murmurs, standing from his seat and approaching me. He pulls my chair out, swivels it to face him, andsinks to his kneesin front of me. “Flower, you didn’t think you had a choice, and you didn’t go through with it. I was so angry withyou for that stunt at first… but it didn’t take long for anger to turn into admiration. You chose survival even when you knew it’d have devastating impacts. And you didn’t leave me for dead.” I look away; Greyson puts two fingers under my chin and directs my gaze back to him. “You gave me the antidote, even though it put you in danger. You managed to keep your moralityanddo what you had to do. I don’t begrudge you that.” His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. “Not after what I did.”
“You have a very rose-colored-glasses view of me,” I reply softly. “You told me you loved me, and I tried to kill you. You were right when you said I have tainted blood in my veins—”
Greyson presses his fingers to my lips, gently silencing me. He shakes his head slowly, maintaining eye contact. Now, his gaze burns with ferocity, a soul-deep conviction. “I was wrong when I compared you to your father,” he says firmly. “You’re nothing like him, Scarlett. You’regood. You might do bad things, but you’re agood person. You have a good soul.” His lips thin. “I don’t think Lutherhasa soul.”
“He doesn’t,” I whisper. Nobody with a soul could beat a little girl or their loving wife. They wouldn’t use torture to morph their son into whatever they wanted him to be. They wouldn’t treat their family with the same cruelty they showed the rest of the world.
“But you do,” Monster murmurs. “I’ve felt it.Seenit. Don’t youdareever think you’re as bad as your father, Scarlett, because you aren’t. You never will be. There’s nothing you could do to put yourself on level ground with him, because at the end of the day, you’re still a human. He’s… something else altogether.”
A single tear rolls down my cheek as I gaze at him. When he moves to brush it away, I speak. “How can you say that? How can you look at me with any affection? I’m the daughter of the man who killed your twin.”
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s your sperm donor and nothing more,” Monster replies simply. “You’re not anything to him. You’re everything to me.”
An odd, melancholy, bittersweet feeling fills my chest. It’s a mixture of sadness and…belonging. I’ve never felt this way around Greyson before, but…
We’re both broken souls. Is it really so surprising that we found each other? Unconventional, twisted, and cruel as our…relationshiphas been, it’s also profound. No matter how I feel about it, there’s no denying that.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Greyson tilts his head to the side. “For what?”
“For not equating me with my father. Sometimes, even I put myself in the same category as him.”
“Not anymore,” Monster says. “Not while I’m here. I’ll remind you that you’renothinglike him as often as you need. Even more.” He leans in, deftly avoiding Luci’s attempt to swat him away, and presses a kiss to my lips. Then, he stands and surveys my plate. “Finish what’s on there, and try for another serving of eggs. You need the nourishment after last night.”
And, just like that, our sweet moment is broken… but the return to our standard of normal doesn’t feel quite as harsh as it did before.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Greyson
It isn’t long before the requests from Eric begin rolling in, demanding that he speak with his sister again. In fact, it isn’t twenty-four hours after their disastrous last conversation that he reaches out with a strongly-worded email, threatening me to put her on the phone.
I let Scarlett see the email. She thins her lips as she reads it and looks away. Outwardly, she seems pissed, but I catch the flash of sadness and pain in her eyes. What he said hurt her, striking a hidden spot that only Eric could access.
