Page 81 of Unorthodox
Max just stares at me blankly, and I don’t even know if he’s listening. I don’t even know if he’s still here, in these woods.
I don’t care.
Without another word, I turn, catching a glimpse of Dante’s lifeless body, face down on the forest floor, and I run as fast as I can, deeper into the woods, away from Max’s house of horrors.
I watch Addison run,looking once over her shoulder as she does. It’s a compulsion for prey to keep their predator in view, and she can’t resist the impulse.
Just like I can’t resist the urge to chase her.
But I give her a head start. Make her think she can get away. Little does she know there’s another fence around these woods, more guards surrounding it at intervals. There’s no escape for her. Not now, not ever.
She should have learned that lesson from what I did to Dante.
His final words ring in my head:“Tell him it gets better.”
I clench my jaw. It doesn’t get better. The fact he’s a fucking dead body in this forest is proof of that.
But for Ollie…for Ollie, I’d spend my dying breath trying to comfort him, too.
Regret threatens to seep into my mind, but I fight it back. Dead bodies cannot be brought to life, for any amount of money.
Besides, I try to reason with myself, my options where Dante was concerned were few. I could have kept him, always wondering when he’d slip again. When he’d betray me. I would forever think about what would have happened if my plane hadn’t landed earlier than anticipated. If I hadn’t walked in on him ruining my merchandise.
About to ruin my goddamnlife.If she had gotten away…
I can’t risk what it would cost me.
As it is, now I’m put in the position of lying about her virginity or confessing to the truth and risking Ollie.
Ollie.
I close my eyes tight, thinking of what my personal guard did to fuck me.
I would never trust Dante again if I had let him live, and as the man responsible for looking after mylife, that wouldn’t work.
I could have demoted him, made him a guard along the back fence. But that could have ended up worse. He could let someone into my home, lead them to my most guarded secrets, and I could have had a fate worse than death.
And those exist.
I’ve lived them.
Oliver’s lived them.
I won’t again. And I won’t lethimagain.
The humane choice was to shoot Dante.
I put the gun back in the holster, turn to glance at his body as Addison keeps running. Blood pools underneath him, and I catch sight of the bloody ace, a few feet from his outstretched hand, as if he tried to hold onto it even as he fell. Ridiculous, because he was already dead before he hit the ground.
Still, it’s almost fascinating, the way he was reaching for that card.
I think of my mother’s body.
Oliver, missing. The only sign of him a single, bloody ace by the front door.
I didn’t leave that apartment for three days. Three days, after I had run as far as I could looking for him, screaming his name until I lost my voice.
Three days, my mother’s body stayed in the bathroom and I couldn’t look at it again. I pretended she was still alive. I pretended Oliver was safe.
