Page 54 of Born Free

The plan has to work.

Roman will stay on the ground, doing everything he usually does, keeping the city safe and under control. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the plan to draw Orlando back to Spain by causing issues there is going to work. Whoever this woman he has there taking care of things in his absence seems to be exceptionally competent.

One part of our plan is failing, but fingers crossed everything from here on out works.

Sigrid slips off into the dark and unknown.

Sebastian will go to Orlando and tell him what he needs to hear.

Mason will head for work. He will wait for the signal from me, and then he will head down to the café on the corner closest to Godfrey Tower. He’ll be seen walking in by Orlando, and if all goes according to plan, Mason will be “followed” out the back of the building into an alleyway where Orlando will kill him. I’ll be waiting in the shadows, and when Orlando is gone, I’ll do what I do.

Damn, I hope it all goes right.

Once it’s all ironed out, the council meeting is ended. It’s a little ironic that we’re doing exactly what Orlando wants to kill us for, and we’re plotting each of our own deaths.

Roman heads off in one direction. Mason takes off for Godfrey Tower. Which leaves Sebastian and me. Alone. For the first time since before our engagement party. But not before Roman gives Sebastian a very growly, very colorful warning to stay on his best behavior.

It’s noon and a surprisingly sunny day for February. Sebastian and I both don our darkest sunglasses, but my eyes are still searing with the light.

We’ve got a seven-block walk ahead of us. The L doesn’t run in the right direction. We could take a cab, but that puts the two of us in way too close quarters for my comfort.

Sebastian looks over at me as we cross an intersection. I can nearly hear the chaotic thoughts leaking out his ears.

“What?” I ask with a slightly annoyed sigh.

He looks forward again. “I have about a thousand things I want to say, but I don’t know how the hell to start.”

I roll my eyes. I’m just so over this. “How about your plan to apologize to the entire supernatural population of Chicago? That might be a good beginning.”

“I know the damage runs too deep,” Sebastian says. “A million ‘I’m sorry’s” is never going to repair what I did. And besides, I still only regret doing what I did because it made you hate me.”

“You’re a piece of work,” I say with a shake of my head.

“I’m aware,” he answers darkly. “I never pretended to be any golden boy. Besides, it’s only a matter of time before one of these amateurs is successful.”

I stop suddenly on the sidewalk, my eyes widening as I look at the back of Sebastian’s head when he takes two steps past me. “Does that… Does that mean someone has already tried?”

“It means three someones have tried to kill me since I came back to Chicago,” Sebastian says, a bored and impatient look in his eyes.

I start walking again, and my gut is full of indecisive vipers. “And what did you do with them when they were unsuccessful?”

“There are a few people who don’t completely hate my guts,” Sebastian says as we walk down the sidewalk. “After I incapacitated them, I had Evelyn make them forget what I did. She wasn’t particularly thrilled to be participating, but money is always a pretty solid motivator. She needs a pile of it to go back to college. I paid for a full ride to finish her degree.”

That’s… sweet, and manipulative. And it sounds exactly like Sebastian.

“Met your dad, too,” he adds, without looking at me.

Oh boy.

“He had some pretty angry words to share,” Sebastian says. “Beat the shit out of me. Can’t say I blame him. I had a daughter, too. Put things in a little different perspective.”

Ugh. It always breaks my heart. Sebastian had a son and a daughter, and he lost both of them the same day he lost his wife. It sent him down the dark path that eventually brought us together.

I ignore those parts because they’re some of the most complicated. “Does Roman know there’ve been attempts on your life?” I ask hesitantly.

Sebastian shakes his head. “Roman kept his end of the bargain. He has no obligation to protect me. And I’m not asking for it.”

Roman said he knew that if he really killed Sebastian, I wouldn’t be able to live with it. And now, hearing that three others have tried to kill my former fiancé… Roman was right. I will never love Sebastian again. I will never forgive him for what he did. But, apparently, I don’t actually want him dead.

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