Page 301 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“I assumed as much. Listen... he’s not coming for you. You’re safe, you can relax.”

I felt a weight lift off my shoulders and a knot in my belly unwrap. Falling back against the seat of the car, I exhaled long and slow. “Thanks, Alex. I’m assuming he was an easy pick-up?”

“I haven’t picked him up yet.”

That gave me pause. “Wait... what do you mean?”

She hesitated for only a moment, and Reuben spoke up. “Alex, we’re both here, you’re on speaker.”

“I went to his house to catch his remnants... It was empty. All his possessions were gone, loaded up and shipped. He left enough remnants and thoughts to tell me where he was going.”

“He’s not coming after me?”

“No. He’s given up on you. He’s moved on.”

At first, I felt a flood of relief. I wouldn’t have to worry about him ever again. Not only had he moved, but he wasn’t interested in me anymore.

But then a wave of nausea hit me as I realized what she meant when she said, ‘moved on.’

Alex continued to speak. “He is moving down to Florida... Orlando. He has been flying down there on the weekends, regularly breaking his parole, and meeting with several people down there. He’s found himself another submissive and is at the house with her as we speak.”

“He has a house in Orlando?” I asked. “Maybe that’s what he did with my money. It’s not enough to buy a house though...”

Alex hesitated on the other line. “No, Alice.Yourhouse.”

“I don’t have a house!”

Reuben looked at me with trepidation. “Alice, baby... did you ever read that letter from Quinn?”

I stared at Reuben in shock, the pieces falling into place. I hadn’t read the letter. I’d stuck it back in the folder with the other evidence of my worst memories and tried to forget about it.

Alex’s voice came through the phone. “Quinn left you his house, Alice. He left you a lot of things. That’s why Woodrow married you... but he waited to go to Orlando and gain access to your house and your belongings until after you ran away. The annulment went through after he’d already claimed most of it.”

I sat there in shock, not sure if I was boiling in rage or numb with the knowledge that the asshole was currently in the house I used to consider my home. He’d known, since Quinn’s death and the reading of the will, that those things had been left to me, but he knew I was too out of it to remember.

“Son of a bitch.”

“I’m sorry, Alice,” she said on the other line. “I did not know about the house and the inheritance. I promise you, I will fix this.”

“I want him out of that house. That’s... he can’t have that. He can’t... Alex, I want him out of that house.”

Reuben placed his hand on my shoulder. The weight and the comfort of his hand settled me, and I took a deep breath, suddenly remembering he had another girl with him.

“It won’t take long. I’m monitoring the situation, and I have a team of police with me ready to move and bring him in as soon as he makes a move.”

Reuben spoke up. “You... when you say, make a move...”

Alice didn’t answer.

“Alex Victor, I swear to God, if you wait until another girl has been assaulted to do something–”

Alex let out a stream of curses like I’d never heard before. Most of them were in Russian, but I did catch one phrase in the midst of her explosion. “If you think I, of all people, would let him hurt a girl, you can fuck yourself!”

“Then what are you waiting for,” he shouted back. His face was etched in rage.

“I’m waiting for a strike! You know how he works; he’s not going to abuse her today! He won’t next week! It’ll be next year when he tries to hurt her!”

“You know he’s a rapist!”

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