I saw that he was a good guy,” she begs me to believe her. “Before I knew he actually gave a damn about us.”
I move to speak, but she cuts me off.
“Before I knew you.”
“Me?”
She swallows audibly. “You have to understand, you were no one to me.”
“I—”
“She wanted access to you both. You and Rocco.”
Understanding hits and my hand drops away on its own accord.
She bargained with my life. Rocco’s daughter, his flesh and blood, negotiated my life like a transaction.
“All I had to do was give her access to you both and she’d give me five hundred grand.”
“Jonathan,” I surmise, so many emotions running through me in that singular beat of time, I can’t determine how I actually feel.
“I assume so,” she offers. “I don’t know who he is. I hadn’t even met him. I texted Sarah last week telling her the deal was off.”
“Jonathan was my ex, Blake.”
I don’t tell her that he’s a villain of the highest order. One that feeds on pain and suffering.
“You pissed Sarah off.”
She lifts her shoulders in dismissal. “I started seeing my dad for who he was, who he could be for us. No amount of money in the world is worth losing him. I get that now.”
I brush at a lock of her blonde hair, moving it away from the wet line of her cheek to tuck it behind her ear.
“Jonathan sent me a text earlier this week asking to meet, but Jesse had taken my phone. He took the meet, told him to fuck off out of our lives.”
“He knew?” I ask, their knives of deceit plundering deeper and deeper. “Jesse?”
“Jesse doesn’t trust anyone, not even me,” she confesses sadly. “I guess he was right not to. He knew something was up with how quickly I wanted to attach myself to Rocco. He was watching me too closely.”
Using the collar of her shirt, she wipes her nose.
“He called me out and I don’t lie to my brother.”
“What does Sarah want with Rocco?”
“I don’t know, revenge for something?”
It doesn’t make any sense. Is it self-preservation? Is her plan to hurt Rocco before he does her?
“You were to hurt Dominic, I knew that much.”
I bark out a sinister laugh. Mother of the year, that one, bargaining for her daughter’s death all to hurt the man she felt wronged by.
“They’ve taken Jesse as insurance. They’re gonna force my hand and I’ll have to play it, Camryn, he’s my brother.”
I don’t want her to tell me she’d sacrifice Rocco’s life for her brother’s. I don’t want those words to break for her lips, forever out in the wild.
“Hey.” I grab her chin. “You don’t have to do anything.”
Something a liken to peace settles inside of me. “Sarah Rein wants to hurt my father more than she wants to hurt your dad. Jonathan.” I swallow the acid his name brings me. “He wants me, Blake. Not Rocco. I can end this.”
“What?” She backs away from me. “No.”
I smile. “Yeah.”
Because it’s true. This could end with me.
The threat of Jonathan has never left me. He stands behind me always, a ghost readying himself to pounce. To claim what he deems his. I threatened him once upon a time to find my freedom. I took control and that would’ve haunted him in a way nothing else could. He’ll never rest until he has me back. Until I’ve walked into his castle, a willing prisoner. I think I always knew that. That’s where the nightmares stemmed from. The imminent fear of him.
Rocco was my saving grace for a time. He taught me how to protect myself. More, he stood behind me, reinforcing the power I held with the strength within him. Together we were invincible. Only now, to protect him, I need to be seen.
Sarah won’t rest until vengeance is hers. Dominic and Rocco went after her and in her eyes that kick-started a challenge she’ll never back down from. She doesn’t want to take his life. That gives her nothing, and she’s smarter than that. My demise will force my father to suffer for the rest of his days. Codi and I are his Achilles heel and she’s more than willing to slash it wide open.
It’ll be an easy swap. One my mother and monster ex will jump on.
Me for Jesse.
A life lost and one saved.
Rocco finally has something to live for. Something that has fired his will to love. His world is happy now and he deserves to live that. My beautiful, devoted soul has spent