Page 93 of Soft Tissue Damage
“I’ll miss you too, darlin’. It makes my heart happy to know you and Rosie and our baby are safe.”
“Are you going to kill anyone?”
He caresses my cheeks. “Would you mind if I did?”
“I would mind if you were caught and taken away from me.”
He smiles and presses his lips over mine. “I will not let that happen to us. Your heart is the most important thing in the world to me, and I will not needlessly risk breaking it. I think I will have to kill at least one person. The rest…” He strokes his fingers through my hair. “I’ll decide when I find them.”
Losing Cullan after everything that has happened is a terrible thought, and I know it’s going to plague me until I see him again. “You will come back to me?”
“Bullets and blades couldn’t keep me away from you.”
I hold Rosie in my arms as we watch Cullan drive away, and I’m grateful I have his little girl with me. I can be brave for Rosie and not cry.
Vivienne greets me and Rosie with a smile and helps me with our bags into the house. It’s a beautiful, grand property with dark wood and chandeliers. Very romantic, and it matches Vivienne’s style perfectly.
“Vee-vee,” Rosie exclaims as Vivienne takes us upstairs and shows me my room and also the nursery where Rosie will sleep with the boys.
“Cullan has access to the baby monitor feeds,” Vivienne tells me, pointing the cameras out.
I smile at her. “I’m so glad. He’ll like that.” And I feel good knowing Cullan will be watching over me.
“It’s wonderful meeting you at last,” she says. “I’ve heard so much about you from Cullan, and I’ve never seen him so happy before. Tyrant and I were about to have some lunch. Will you join us?”
I haven’t eaten since dinner last night, and I realize I’m famished. The three of us sit down in the dining room with Rosie and a toddler called Barlow in high chairs, and Vivienne holds a baby called Huck in her lap.
“Your children are beautiful,” I say, admiring the two boys.
“Aren’t they?” Tyrant says proudly, coming into the room. “They take after their mother.”
Mr. Mercer is just like I remember him, fair-haired and dressed in sleek, dangerous black. He presses a kiss to hiswife’s lips. As he takes his seat, he glances at me. “You’ve been having a time of it lately, Elena.” He picks up a dish of grilled salmon and serves me first, then Vivienne, then himself. There’s also creamed cabbage with bacon and several salads. It all looks delicious.
“What did Cullan tell you?” I ask, helping myself to the fennel salad.
“Just that. No details. Let me or Vivienne know if there’s anything you need. Baby wipes. Assassinations. Nothing is too much for Cullan and his family after everything he’s done for us.”
I smile at him. “No assassinations right now, thank you, but I’d love some of that cucumber salad.”
Tyrant passes the platter to me, and I put slices of cucumber and tomato on Rosie’s plate along with buttered bread and some fish. “I, um… I think he’s gone to get rid of some bodies.”
Tyrant quirks a curious brow. “Oh? Cullan’s killed people?”
“No.” I swallow hard. “I did.”
Cold prickles down my spine. Despite what Cullan told me, I brace myself for looks of horror and disgust on their faces. Screams telling me to get out of their house.
Tyrant just nods and takes a bite of his lunch.
Why aren’t they saying anything? Vivienne must have opinions that she’s hiding behind that serene expression. “It was in the heat of the moment. They were so cruel to me.”
The pretty young woman smiles. “Don’t worry, Iunderstand. Probably more than you might think.” The way she says that makes me wonder what she’s had to do to survive in the past. Her life may have had some darkness if it put her in the path of someone like Tyrant Mercer.
My stomach is churning with anxiety, and I feel the urge to confess everything I’ve done. Lay it all out right now on Vivienne and Tyrant’s antique polished wood dining table. These are Cullan’s trusted friends. He’s gone, and I need some assurance that everything’s going to be okay. “There’s more. Cullan is the Red Mask Killer.”
I flinch, regretting my words already. You can take a girl out of the Catholic church, but you can’t stop her from confessing.
Vivienne raises her eyebrows and continues buttering a piece of bread for Barlow. “Oh, that’s interesting.”
