“Prove it. Let me go.”
“You want to go? You want to leave?” The very thought of her leaving is like a punch to my chest. A hard, steal-your-fucking-breath punch that has my head spinning out of control, my muscles wound up in tight balls of rage.
“Yes.”
Grinding my teeth, I stare back at her, urging myself to stay away from those lips. I release her face, and it takes every ounce of strength in my body to step away from her. “Fine. Makaio will drop you off first thing in the morning.”
Chapter 55
Isadora
The buzz of my cellphone rips me out of dreams, and I sit up in bed. Morning light shimmers through the curtains, while I wipe the sleep from my eyes and lift my phone to see a call from Aunt Midge. I texted her last night, letting her know I decided to stay the night at Kelsey’s. I hate having to lie to her, but the truth will only make her worry.
“Hello?”
“Isa … you need to come home.” Even through the phone, her voice carries the weight of grief and sends a shiver of goosebumps across my skin.
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“Your mother … she was found dead this morning. You need to come home.”
Makaio closes the passenger door of the Bentley, and as he rounds the vehicle, I catch Lucian standing in the window of his office, staring down at me. Hands stuffed in the pockets of his slacks, he carries the same stern body language as when I first arrived, and I know he’s angry with me. I didn’t bother to say goodbye, or tell him about my mother.
There’s no point.
My return to Aunt Midge is merely to be there for my aunt.
The news of my mother didn’t exactly come as a surprise to me, seeing as I’ve waited nearly a decade for that call to come in. A person doesn’t get to live that perilously without fate kicking in at some point. A part of me feels hollow and cold, empty inside, but not from the same sadness that will surely crush Aunt Midge over the coming days. Mine is a yearning. A craving to find some small piece of me that still gives a shit about something.
My disconnect with Lucian the night before was like snipping the only other thing that mattered to me, aside from my aunt. Now, I feel like I’m drifting. A flitting scrap caught up by the wind.
As the car pulls away, my heart withers inside my chest. For a fleeting moment, I was certain what I had with Lucian was real. That, for the first time in my life, I felt something genuine.
There is safety in Lucian, insofar as I’m willing to take a leap over the edge of a treacherous cliff to reach it. I should’ve known better than to get involved with a man like him—a deity of wrath and flames, when I’m nothing but a mortal, playing with fire.
I didn’t grow up with the kind of power he wields, the kind that can eliminate threats and competition without consequence. The kind that can hunt down a dangerous drug dealer and bury him right under my nose. I was naive to think that he’d struck a deal with Franco, or paid him off. How foolish to imagine two predators could come to some mutual understanding that way.
Sharks don’t compromise, they hunt to kill, and Lucian is one of the more cunning in this sea of corruption.
By the time we reach Aunt Midge’s house, Makaio hasn’t spoken a single word to me. I find myself torn between wanting to thank him for coming after me, when Aedon and Brady had me pinned down in the nasty park bathroom, and fearing him. Like Lucian, he’s apparently quite capable of eliminating whatever gets in his way. And I certainly don’t want to be the source of his wrath today.
I unclasp the bracelet and set it down on the console table beside me. When Makaio opens the door, I step out onto the sidewalk, and he reaches for the duffle bag in my hand. This time, I set a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “I’ve got it.”
He eases back a step and rests his hand on the door, instead.
“Makaio …” Words are hard for me. Words of thanks and appreciation are impossible. “If you hadn’t shown up last night, I know that would’ve been a very bad situation. I had nightmares about what could’ve happened.”
“I was told to protect you. The boss told me to keep you safe.”
I shake my head, the few lingering pieces of confusion still kicking around in there, searching for answers. “Why? He couldn’t have known they would attack.”
“He isn’t worried about them. Those shitheads are small potatoes.”
“Then, who is he worried about?”
Casting his gaze from mine, the giant rolls his shoulders back. “Look, I’ve known Lucian a long time. Years. I’ve never seen him act this way toward another woman. Ever.”
“What way?”
“He’s crazy about you, Isa. Lost his mind, crazy. You should know, he won’t just let you go that easily. He’ll give you space for a while. But this isn’t over for him.”
“He’ll change his mind when he understands that it’s over for me. I can’t be with a man who murders people like it’s any other day. I don’t care if they’re bad people. It doesn’t give him the right to take someone’s life.”
“We try to be civilized, us human beings, but ultimately, we’re animals. All of us. And in the kingdom of animals, only the strongest survive.”
I lower my gaze and shake my head. “His world isn’t my world. Goodbye, Makaio.”
“You take care of yourself.”
I step past him and head toward the front door of the house. Hand to the doorknob, I watch him leave, and once he turns the corner, I open the door and find Aunt Midge sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette.
The whole house smells like tobacco and coffee, and my muscles tense with the thought that I’m going to have to slog through her sadness over my mother. I don’t feel what she feels, and I don’t want to.
I slide into the chair beside her. Her eyes are red and puffy, swollen from hours of crying, which has given rise to black circles. Unkempt hair sticks out around her face, the evidence of her having run her hands through it all morning. She looks like hell.
“I, um. Have to go ID the body later.” She flicks her cigarette against the edge of the ashtray and takes another drag of it. “I guess a morning jogger found her on the beach beneath the pier. They think she might’ve gotten high and drowned.”
With a sigh, I push away from the table and walk to the cupboard for a glass. From the fridge, I nab the carton of milk and pour some out, and keeping my back to Aunt Midge, I suck it down.
“That’s it? That’s all she gets from you?” The tension in her voice isn’t really directed at me, I know this. She’s angry and sad, and I’m going to be her emotional punching bag, the same way I was when Uncle Hal left her when I was fourteen.
“Are you really that surprised?”
Jaw cocked with a retort, she shakes her head. “You really are something, kid.”
Setting the glass down, I grip the edge of the counter to keep from throwing something across the room. “I’m sorry, I’m supposed to what? Be sad that she destroyed our lives, then continued to destroy hers until the very end?”
More tears slip down her cheeks, her lips pressed to a hard line as she smashes her cigarette out into the ashtray. “He didn’t want you. I know I’ll probably go to hell for sayin’ it, but it’s the truth.”