“It isn’t a horror,” Heaven says. “Maybe if they were good people, maybe if I loved them, maybe if I hadn’t dreamed of this moment a hundred times before. This is a good thing, an action that will make the world a better place.”
“Asher! Why don’t you let my dad take care of it? Why not let the justice system handle it? Your parents would see the death penalty.”
“No, they wouldn’t. Rich people don’t get the death penalty,” Sebastian says. “They would sit cozy for a few months, and that’s it. Your life would still be in jeopardy.”
“The justice system is broken. It’s fractured. It doesn’t work. We are all living breathing proof of that.”
Tears gather in my eyes, and I try once more for Asher to reconsider. “You don’t have to do this.”
He turns around and cups my jaw with his hands and wipes away the salty liquid falling onto my cheek. “I do. It’s the only way this will bring peace. To end it all, and if there is someone else out there doing this, we will find them, and I’ll kill them too. I’ll be okay. I’m not as soft as you think,” he chuckles then reconsiders. “Okay, I am, but I have a spine of steel. I can pull the trigger. For you, for Grace, and what about your Uncle?”
“He wasn’t really my Uncle. He wasn’t a good man.”
“But he cared for Grace. He didn’t want harm to come to her.”
I lower my voice and stand on my tiptoes, darting my eyes back and forth between his as they leak sadness. “What if something happens to you? What if you don’t come home?”
“I’ll always come home to you,” he says, giving me a tilted smile. “I never had something to fight for before, and now I have you.”
“Sometimes fighting isn’t enough when it comes to death.”
“And even in my death, I’ll make sure you are taken care of. Sebastian has all the paperwork. Everything I own goes to you—”
“I don’t want things!” I scream, shoving his shoulders as a sob breaks loose. He teeters on the stool, but he doesn’t move. He takes the abusive. “ I don’t want money. I want you. I want a future with you. Can’t you see that? I want us. I want your children. I want you and your stupid damn muffins. Don’t do this. I can’t…I can’t live knowing you might not come back through these doors.”
“Nothing will stop me coming home to you,” he says against my ear. “And when I come home, the first thing I’m going to do is give you my child, my ring, and my last name. I’ve been captivated by you from the beginning, and I won’t let that come to an end.”
Then why does it feel like I’m about to lose everything?
Why does this feel like good-bye?
Eighteen
Heaven
I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life, but leaving in the middle of the night after making love to Heather is one of the dumbest. I made sure she was asleep, and when I left, the guys were waiting for me in the living room.
They hand me a bag full of weapons, extra cash, and new identification if things don’t go my way, then I can haul ass to another country. What they don’t know is that I’ll never
do that, not with Heather here. I’d risk my freedom if it meant seeing her one more time.
“You sure you want to go alone? One of us can go with you,” Owen says. “I can go, and we will be back before you know it.”
I shake my head, then bring Owen in for a hug. “No way in hell am I going to let you leave your young, pregnant wife. You deserve happiness. You’ve done all this already, Owen, all of you have. You fought the battles needed to have this life, and it’s my turn. This is my darkest hour.”
“She won’t be okay if you die,” Jaxon tells me something I already know.
“I don’t plan on dying. You guys give me no credit. I don’t plan to waste time. I plan on knocking on my dad’s door, aiming the gun, and pulling the trigger. I’m not going to make it long and drawn out.”
“And your mom?”
I wait for some amount of remorse to slam against my chest, but I don’t feel a damn thing. “She can rot in hell next to him for all I care. She never liked me anyway.”
“There’s an earpiece in the bag—”
“—Guys, stop fussing like I’m the baby going out for the first time.” Every single one of them crosses their arms and stare at me with a lifted brow. Yeah, we have all been around each other for way too damn long. “Okay, so I’m the youngest, but I’m not stupid, guys. I’ve had all of you to learn from. I know what I’m doing.” I check the clock and see I have a few hours of darkness left, which I really need if I want to remain inconspicuous. “I need to go.”
“Keep us updated, okay?”