Page 71 of Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

I love you, Veronica.

Till death do you part, I will forever be in your heart.

Until we meet again,

Alicia.

I slide the paper inside the folder.

"All is well?"

"No. I need to hurt some people."

"You have my support."

"I need your vote and Mr. Bedford's."

His eyes flick to mine when he snuffs out his cigar. "Done. I trust you need time to put everything in place."

"I'm working on it. I just need time before she graduates."

"I'm going to warn you. There are things you are going to see. Things that have circulated, but you can't lose your head. You can't kill everyone, Alaric."

"Just a couple."

"Alaric," he warns.

"It's about time I take out some of the trash."

"What are you going to do with Devlin?"

I glance at my watch and get up to button my suit jacket. "She doesn't belong to him. Veronica belongs to me. Rules are rules."

There is a gleam in his eyes when I throw their words right back. "Yes, they are. You know what this will mean for her. Don't you?"

"Your granddaughter made her a promise."

"I see that. And?" he says promptly.

He's asking what I plan to do with Veronica. The truth is, I don't know exactly. But I know one thing…

"I'm in love with her."

He looks at me steadily. "You have always been in love with her, son. It's why you never took another to be your wife. Show her. Even if it's too late and she won't believe you, like I said. There will be things about Veronica you need to be prepared to deal with. Remember, even the devil knows the Bible."

"It's a good thing I know both."

* * *

It is nine at night when I walk out of the Riodrick building. The yellow streetlights flare on the pavement when I pull out of the garage. I smell like my grandfather's cigars, and I’m starving, but I need to see the Bedford twins, and it can't wait.

I’m at the Bedford estate after the twenty-minute drive from the city into Kenyan. Draven still lives here, and Gia and Dravin live in a modernized mansion behind it. It makes sense, I guess. Gia is the mistress of both properties, and the twins share the same woman. I always wondered who got Tuesdays and Thursdays but to each his own.

If I think of sharing Veronica with another man, rage filters inside me, and the only thing I can think of is killing someone. It's bad enough I have to stomach her fucking Garret and Draven, but I would be a fucking hypocrite because I have slept with other women. One of them, in fact, hated Veronica, and she walked in on me at a Kenyan party. Thinking about it makes my stomach turn cold in shame, making it seem she wasn't special. The words I said and the things I did to her.

"I hope you didn't come to see me so you can punch me in the face like you did, Garret," Draven says when he opens the door.

"Do you love her?"

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