Page 78 of Darkness I Become
Asha took a step back. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” he replied, sounding more determined. “Me, Leo, and Dom have been conspiring against Angel for months, darling. Gaining the loyalty of the people of the Settlements. They’re ready for a change, and the Blackguard are all on board. That’s what I’ve been working on these last couple months: getting the green light, and getting the supplies to pull it off.”
He began to pace the room. “Now that we’ve collected what we need from the Settlements, we’re ready to take them out—a coup d’état. We finally have the weapons we need.”
Asha suddenly remembered the alarming number of weapons they’d collected from the Settlements.That was what they were waiting for.
“Once we take out Angel and his closest people, the rest will fall in line. But…”
He trailed off, then gave her a pointed look.
“What?” Asha said, a sick feeling beginning in her stomach.
“But we need someone who can get close to him without him suspecting that she’s his assassin. Someone he perpetually underestimates. Someone he desires, who’ll finally give him what he deserves.”
His voice was quiet, and his words were calculated, but they hit her like a lead weight nonetheless.
“No,” she said, clipped, and she stood up and turned away from him.
“Asha,” Cade said—softer, sweeter, the way he spoke to her after they had sex. She hated that he would use it in this context, to wheedle her into doing this. “I know it’s a lot to ask. It’s personal. But that’s why it has to be you.”
“Why?” Asha demanded, whirling around. “Why the fuck would you put me through that? Having to face him again, alone? After what he did to me?” Her throat felt suddenly clogged, and her last words came out almost as a whisper: “After all those nights I shook in your arms, told you everything? How could you—”
Cade moved towards her cautiously, as though approaching an agitated tiger ready to pounce. He held up his hands, palms facing her, in a peace offering.
“Darling, I heard every word you said on those nights,” he murmured. “I heard you, and I heard the space between what you wanted to say but didn’t feel like you could: that you want this raping, pillaging, murdering asshole to face some justice. That you don’t want him to ever be able to hurt anyone again. And that you wish you could see him suffer.”
She trembled, hating herself for how emotional she still was about what had been done to her. But Cade had read her right—of course he had. He’d seen what was in her black heart. She didn’t want to be the ‘bigger person,’ in the end. What good did that do? All her life, she’d let people abuse and take advantage of her, and she was done being a victim.
“I’m laying that justice at your feet,” Cade said, low and determined. “It’s not just that I’m asking a favour, Asha—I alsowantto give this to you. I want you to know, in your bones, that this piece of shit is dead, and that he will never, ever hurt you again.”
He put his arms around her, drawing her against him. He rubbed her arms, soothing the shakes that still wracked her body.
“I know what it is to kill a man who took something from you that you can never get back,” he continued, his touch gentle, his voice brutal and dark. “How it feels to watch the life leave the eyes of your tormentor. There’s no peace quite like that, my angel. The people who ramble on about the morality of revenge never had anyone who destroyed their whole world in one fell swoop.”
He lowered his lips to her ear, and there was something sickeningly seductive in his tone as he said, “This is where you use your fire to burn the world, darling, and unlike some, I won’t resent you for it. Burn down this ugly world and we’ll make a new one together. I’m handing you the match.”
It was a pretty picture that he painted: Angel’s downfall, the end of his exploitation and cruelty. She imagined him pleading for forgiveness, for mercy, begging her to spare him. The panicked, desperate glint in his eyes. Him feeling even a fraction of the pain and terror he’d inflicted on countless others. And then, his blood pooling under him, his mouth slack, his eyes open and unseeing. The knowledge that he was gone, and that even this post-apocalyptic hellscape was undoubtedly better off without him in it.
“What’s your plan?” Asha asked, folding her arms over her chest.
Cade let out a breath. “It’s simple. But it’ll require some acting on your part.”
“Will he suffer?”
He smirked. “Asking the important questions. I like it.”
Chapter 24
Afew evenings later, Asha left home at the agreed-upon time and headed toward the clubhouse. Despite the August heat, she wore a long, dark coat, buttoned in the front. It belonged to one of the clubhouse girls—a young woman called Nina who was in on the assassination plot. She’d been feeding information to Cade for months, and she loaned Asha her coat and the unusual outfit she wore underneath. Asha didn’t want to think too closely about that, or she’d lose her nerve. With her, she carried a bag filled with her belongings…and everything else she needed to complete her mission.
When she arrived at the clubhouse, she sought out Lana, who looked dismayed by her predicament.
“I can’t believe that Cade just…dumped you like that,” she said with a shake of her head. “You two were so…when we were all together…ugh, I just can’tbelievethat man. I thought he was one of the better ones. What the fuck?”
This would be the hardest part for Asha: deceiving Lana, who knew nothing of the plot because Cade had judged her as being too close to Angel. Lana benefited from Angel’s rule as his favourite, he’d reasoned, and couldn’t be trusted to turn against him, as unfair as that judgment seemed to Asha. She hated lying to her, especially after the incredible night they’d had together, but there was nothing else to be done now.
“There was a lot of stuff behind closed doors,” Asha said, and it wasn’t difficult for her to look crestfallen, since that was how she’d feltso often in the days after her old life had ended. “I just…I’ll talk about it more when I’m ready. Right now, I just want to forget it.”
