Page 54 of Enveloped By the Darkness

“He’s dead now?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “I have the death certificate to prove it and sent his ashes to be scattered at sea—far away from me.”

“He had no right to do those things to you, Master. I hope you know that.”

“I know.” His tone was resolved as his brow rose. “Just like I had no right to do them to anyone else. The irony isn’t lost on me, little girl.”

“Yeah, well…” Pressing my head to his chest, I listened to his heartbeat as I considered his words. “It sounds as if we both need to work on letting go of the past to enjoy the future.”

“Yeah.” Blowing out a breath, his fingers stroked the back of my hair. “It seems so.”

Sitting in silence, I tried not to dwell on his confession, but it was all too easy to imagine the fear and shame of that small boy. Kade’s father had enveloped this house in a shroud of darkness, and all these years later, I had perpetuated it. Pressing a kiss against his shirt, one thing was certain in my mind.

If we were to have any shot at a happy future at Barrington, it was time the bright light of love was shone into every inch of the house.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kade

“These were her keys.”

Gesturing to the set of car keys on the counter, I turned back to Tiffany. It had been a couple of hours since we’d talked, and even though I’d felt pressurized into the admission, I had to admit the atmosphere was lighter since I’d said the words out loud. My father had done terrible things and none of them were my fault. There was catharsis in the confession, as if a heavy burden had finally fallen away.

“I’ve checked her phone, and it was set to a private network.”

“Like yours?” she asked.

“Exactly,” I replied. “Lucas didn’t want to be tracked. My C.C.T.V shows where she left her car. I’ll head down there and drive it to the other side of town.”

“Then what, Master?” she pressed with characteristic curiosity. “Someone will notice an abandoned car, and eventually, the police will check the registration and trace it back to Lucas.”

“I’ll drive with gloves and a mask,” I assured her. “And make sure I avoid the local closed-circuit television cameras. There’ll be no trace of me in the car when they find it, which means there are no routes back to Barrington.”

“It still sounds risky,” she grumbled. “If you have C.C.T.V. here, who’s to say there isn’t more around the town which proves that she came this way?”

“I am,” I told her. “I’ve hacked into every camera on the network and there are none in this vicinity. Barrington’s in the middle of nowhere, remember?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “I remember, Master.”

“It will be fine,” I soothed, running my fingers through her hair. “I’ve thought of everything.” I always did. “Once the car is gone, so is the last link to yesterday’s sorry episode. We can start to put it behind us.”

“And the g-grave...?”

She glanced warily out of the window as though she expected to see the ethereal sight of Lucas on the grounds. I had news for Tiffany—the only ghosts who haunted this place belonged to me, and I felt closer to exorcising them than I ever had before.

“Will be dealt with,” I replied. “Once the smoldering has stopped, I’ll dig over the earth and make sure any fragments and ashes are ground into the dirt. No one will ever find what they’re not looking for.”

Her brow furrowed, suggesting she wanted to argue, but mercifully, she didn’t. I was prepared to tip her over my lap and remind her what happened to little girls who questioned me, but I suspected we’d both benefit from dodging the conflict. The last twenty hours had been emotionally challenging and what we needed more now than anything was peace of mind, intimacy and closeness. Although I never expected to hear myself think it, punishment could wait for another day. The best thing about what we’d found together was there would always be another day.

“Come here,” I purred, waiting as she turned in my arms and pressed herself against me. “You’re safe, you know that, right?”

“Yes,” she squeaked. “Not that I deserve to be.”

“You deserve the world.” Kissing her crown, I went on, wanting her to know that after everything she’d done, she would always have me. “I don’t want you to beat yourself up about what happened. You dealt with a dangerous intruder. That’s all.”

“But I didn’t call the authorities, Master,” she said, lifting her gaze to look at me. “I didn’t report what had happened.”

“There was no need,” I reminded her. “Between us, we managed it.”

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