Page 39 of Sinister Hearts
“Faye?” Jaxon’s voice placed me back into the present. I looked at Jax with tears in my eyes. “Where did you go, baby?” he asked, holding me as I shook and cried.
I finally told him everything and he just sat there in silence, listening. I could see the anger building in him like a dark tide.
“You’re not going alone, Faye,” he demanded, pacing the room. “I’m going to slaughter him.”
“Jax, listen to me. If he finds out we’re together, he is going to bury me in legal fees, stalling the divorce. I just want to be completely free of him. I’m so close, don’t you understand?” I begged for him to hear me out. Jax looked at me with fury in his eyes. “After the divorce is settled, we won’t have to hide anymore, I promise. But you need to listen to me.” I could see Jax was internally battling with himself and it was all over his face and demeanor.
“If this fuck tries anything, Faye, you call me. Do you understand?”
Jax paced the room in crossness.
“Yes.” I nodded in agreement, hoping it would calm him. His anger was lingering thick in the air. “Jax, please look at me. I’m not ashamed of you or of us, if that’s what you think,” I stated. He took in a heavy breath and finally turned around. “Hey.” I grabbed his face with my hands, needing him to hear me.
“I know you're not ashamed of me, Faye, it’s not that,” he huffed in vexation.
“Then what is it?” I asked. I could see himself battling with whatever it was he wanted to tell me.
“I want to devour his soul. I want to feed on his flesh, Faye.” His skin began radiating a bitter coldness that gave me chills upon my flesh.
“Don’t be dramatic, Jax. You’re not serious.” I chuckled in response.
“I don’t know. Am I?” he said, walking out the door leaving me in my thoughts. What the fuck did that even mean?
Listening to Faye tell me what her life was like the last five years was like a blow to the stomach. The guilt I felt for being so resentful towards her for running away, it was unbearable. The minute she told me it was the only way she knew how to deal with the pain, my resentment melted away like a coal mine. The guilt I felt entrapped me for being infuriated with her for never calling when móðir passed, or even showing up for her funeral. Faye was living a nightmare—she looked lavish to theoutside world, but my girl was stuck in survival mode for so long, diminishing internally. She was just trying to survive for Birdie. She didn’t know how to quit, even if it cost her herself. It made me despise Vadon even more. The way he treated Faye and then would parade himself around Cravyn City like he was the best father. I wanted to throw this bastard around a few rooms like a rag doll.How would he like it?The sound of his fragile masculinity, breaking within each seam of his wicked bones. But she was right, if he found out about us he would try and make her life even more hell and I had seen enough of that. She was mine; married, separated, single, her soul belonged to me. I had to leave. I could feel my emotions getting the better of me. I couldn’t tell her yet, it was too soon and she was dealing with too much. I’d tell her everything when the time was right.
When Faye first got back to Grimstone she was skin and bones. The life was sucked out of her. But, Faye was looking and seeming more like herself by the day. She was mine again and I was determined to keep it that way. Keep her happy and healthy. I wanted to protect her from this creep of a man who preyed on her vulnerability and her pain. More importantly I wanted to protect Birdie, too. Be a good father figure for her. It’s what they deserved and I wanted to be the one to give that to them. All good things take time, even death.
I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. Knowing Faye would be alone with this fuck in the middle of nowhere. If I had to wait, then that’s what I’d do. But I swore to the old gods if he even touched a hair on her head, I’d kill him. Bury him right here on my farm as his bones turned to dust in my soil, while I had a picnic with his daughter. I’d be his Huckleberry.
Would Vadon really hurt me, in the middle of nowhere, while our child was in the car? Sometimes I question my own reality. Like maybe I was insane and the last five years weren’t real. Was this the reality I was really living in? I looked at myself in the mirror and realized it, too, was real.
Vadon was already at the meeting spot, waiting in his Cadillac, which was paid for by none other than his father—a spoon-fed asshole in all his glory.
My heart raced and I could feel a panic surface within myself. I wanted to cave within myself. Freeze right here.No, I told myself. I’m not that girl anymore. I’ve fought, I’ve survived this long, and I wasn’t going back to being that subdued girl anymore. I’ve come too far to let this man put me back in that headspace ever again.
Birdie jumped out of the car and ran to me in her cute gel sandals.
“Mama!” I lifted her in my arms and hugged her so tight, kissing her all over her face while she chuckled. I wasn’t going to give Vadon an ounce of my energy. Not a glance, not a ‘hello’. He didn’t deserve anything from me, but to see that I was doing well and unbothered. I buckled Birdie in as fast as I could, ready to fly back home and have us back where we belonged. Safe with me, and Ma, and Jax.
I turned around and there he was, making me jolt and my anxiety peak.
“What are you doing, Vadon?” I asked, trying to move past him to make it to my door.
“Can we please just talk,” Vadon simmered. I managed to slide by him and open my door. He stood there, holding it open with his arm, not allowing me inside my vehicle.
“There’s nothing to talk about. Please move your hand off my door,” I demanded, fear sneaking its way into my bones.
He refused. “Faye, please, I can’t do this. I want my family back,” he begged. I tried grabbing my door to close it but he refused. I started to panic as we struggled. “Do you still love me, Faye?” he asked, his tone sinister.
“What?” My fight or flight had sparked instantly. Except this time, I wasn’t frozen. I was ready to fight. I turned to face him with no more fear left in me, just simmering anger. “No, I don’t. We are done. Let me leave!” I demanded him as I struggled to shut my door.
He just held it, coming closer. “I don’t believe you!” he shouted at me, his tone threatening.
“You couldn’t love this new person I am, even if you tried, Vadon!” My voice was thick like lava. His car alarm went off and my skin started buzzing, feeling the hairs stand up all over my body. “You don’t know what love is!” I shouted at him in protest, as an ominous gust of wind pushed him back and he stumbled over his own feet.
He looked at me in complete shock.
I took another step toward him, announcing my bravery. “Now let me go, or I swear to the gods I’m calling the cops!” The street lights broke one by one above us, shattering into the streets.
