Chapter Thirteen
SEBASTIAN
By the time I get back to the house, I’ve been gone for nearly six hours. Double how long I wanted to be.Fucking Vincent.
Mason stands in the kitchen pouring two glasses of water as I enter the main part of the house.
“Where is she?” I ask when I make it into the spacious kitchen. Mason lifts his chin towards the lounge area. I immediately try to seek her out, but the double-sided fireplace feature blocks my view. “How has she been?” I ask, still glancing towards the lounge even though I can’t see her.
With a sigh, Mason puts down the glass he’d been filling. “She’s a tough girl,” he says. “But as much as she puts on a brave face, she’s still struggling.”
Fuck, I hate that I’ve made things even harder for her. She should never have had to deal with all that shit last night. I regret that she saw me like that, but I don’t regret what I did. That bastard took the two most important people from me. Although I can’t deny that it feels like I lost a little part of myself when I pulled the trigger.
“Thank you for today,” I say, turning to face him. “I can take it from here. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“If that’s what you want,” Mason says, moving towards me. Then, when he’s only a step away, he says, “I know you’re dealing with a lot, Sebastian, but if anything like last night happens again… If you hurt her, you and I are going to have a big problem.”
I’ve known Mason for years, and I would consider us somewhat close, but it seems he’s bonded with Grace in the short time they’ve known each other.
“I get it, Mason. The last thing I want to do is fucking hurt her.”
Mason studies me, and after a moment, he nods before squeezing my shoulder and letting go. “How areyou?”
His question takes me by surprise. “I’m fine.”
“You took a life, Sebastian,” he says, although the way he says it makes it seem like he somehow knows I’d never killed a man before last night.
“He deserved it. You know what he did.” I clench my fists, unsure of where he’s going with this. The last thing I need right now is a fucking lecture. Not about this.
“Trust me when I tell you that it doesn’t matter if they deserved it or not,” Mason says, and something in his voice has me relaxing my fists.
“Are you speaking from experience?” I ask, raising a brow at him.
“You might not feel regret, but it still changes you,” he says, putting his hand on my shoulder again, and it doesn’t go unnoticed that he ignored my question. “If you’re really okay, then I’ll drop it, but if you ever want to talk about it, whether it’s tomorrow or a year from now, I’m here if you need.”
With everything that happened with Grace last night and with Vincent and the board today, I haven’t had a chance to sort through everything that happened last night in the warehouse. There’s a fucking weight in my chest, but I know without a doubt that it has nothing to do with ending the life of the bastard who killed my parents. That’s the one thing I wouldn’t fucking change.
Maybe a part of me has changed, but it’s not strong enough to overpower the feeling of knowing he’s dead. And maybe it never will be.
“I’m okay,” I say, and it’s the truth regarding what he’s asking. “The only regret I feel is knowing that Ihadthe man who was truly responsible for what happened to them, and I fucking let him go.” That and everything that happened with Grace last night.
Mason squeezes my shoulder, and a look of sympathy crosses his face, but then he frowns. “What do you mean you let him go?”
Shit, I never told Mason about Deveigne—only that I’d killed the man who murdered my parents. I let out a deep sigh. It hadn’t seemed like a necessary piece of information with everything going on.
“It wasn’t a robbery. It was a hit. Before I… killed him, he gave us a name. Easton and I had a meeting with him a few days ago, and he said shit about them, my parents. Things got heated, and fuck, I’d wanted to kill him. I had my hands around his throat, but I decided he wasn’t worth it. I let him go. I’ve never been so fucking wrong about something in my life.”
Mason squeezes my shoulder again. Hard. And the look in his eyes is almost pained. He opens his mouth to say something but decides against it. “I’m sorry.” He settles for instead. “Fuck,” he curses under his breath before letting go of me. With a glance towards the lounge area, Mason asks, “Do you have anything on him yet?”
“Nothing more than we already had,” I say, and he returns his gaze to me. Though, I haven’t spoken to Easton since last night when he let me know everything had been taken care of at the warehouse.
“When you do, call me,” he says, and his words catch me a little off guard, but if he’s willing to help, I’m not going to say no. I don’t exactly know what kind of experience he has, but I am willing to bet it is more than any of our men.
After a moment, I dip my chin. Then, with little else to say, Mason heads for the lounge to say goodbye to Grace on his way out.
Shadow’s head lifts when I enter the lounge area, and he jumps up from where he’d been sleeping by the couch before rushing over to me. Grace lets out a laugh when I crouch down, and Shadow all but tackles me.
“He’s excited to see you,” she says from the couch.