Page 34 of Desperate Victory
Yeah, I did.
“Anyway, the house, the land—all of it. It should rightfully be half yours, half Em’s…” He looked around the room. “There’s actually some nice stuff, I suppose. The best art pieces are down in the vaults below, so not too worried about losing them and Dad’s taste was pretty shitty.”
“I really don’t care about the house. I don’t need some giant ass palace or pseudo mausoleum.” Not that I’d tell Adam that, but the Reed place felt more like a crypt than a mansion. Lainey’s grandfather’s place had lots of personality but I was pretty sure that was Lainey and Leopold.
“You really don’t care,” Ezra said, amazement creeping into his voice.
“Nope,” I said. “I’ll earn my keep and do my work. This place? It’s more a house of horrors for you. So burn it down, sell it, demolish it—and build something new in its place. But do what you need to do to heal.”
“You do cousin real well,” Ezra said after a minute. “Nicky says I suck at it, but I’m gonna get better.”
“You’re fine,” I said. “Now let’s go, we’re going to be late and make Mayhem worry.”
“She wants to know how to burn a house down and get rid of a corpse,” Ezra actually chuckled at the end of that sentence. “Is that as attractive to you as it is to me? Or am I just warped?”
“Oh, you’re warped,” I assured him. “But it’s really fucking attractive too.”
Some of the weight seemed to leave him as we walked out of the bedroom and then the suite. He was abandoning a childhood that had abandoned him a long time before.
Frankly, it was a damn good thing. Burning this shit down felt right.
Chapter
Eleven
LAINEY
The fire they set at Harrows Park had been incredible. The smoke was visible for miles around. The storm of flames swept through the marbled halls consuming everything in its path…
The unfortunate fate of some of the staff as well as the “master” of the house would take a few hours to be discovered. We didn’t hide from the fire department and the police when they arrived—though it took them far more time than I expected to get there.
Maybe they weren’t fans of Wallace either. Everything stank of smoke. It was in my hair and my clothes. It coated everything. The heat from the fire damaged the glass, scorched the stone, and there was a collapse from farther inside.
The crews stopped trying to save the house and focused on containment. Bodhi had wrapped his coat around me and I leaned into Milo as we all stood there, watching it burn.
I suppose we could have left earlier, yet none of us had made the move to leave. Ezra stared at the mansion as it burned. Harrows Park, even if any of the structure was left, would need to be demolished afterwards.
There was no saving the main building from the flames consuming it. The greed with which the fire acted, mirrored the home’s former master. It had become a funerary pyre of sorts. For Ezra, we could stand here and be witnesses.
Eventually, Ezra turned away and Adam slung an arm over his shoulders. It was time. The twins had left earlier after the body disposal conversation. If we really needed assistance with the cleanup, we could call Fletcher and Vienna. Adam’s cousin knew a lot of skilled people.
As it was, Bodhi spoke to the authorities. I had no idea what he said, but they accepted his answers and let us leave. The drive back to the city would have been a long one, only we weren’t going to the city.
We went to Der Sonne where Grandfather was already striding out of the front door before the car even stopped moving. Milo exited first, then helped me out of the backseat. I barely got to my feet and Grandfather hugged me so tightly I wanted to cry.
“I saw the smoke,” he said, his gruff tone a balm and a chastisement in one. He smelled of familiar cologne, and a pipe tobacco he favored when he thought no one paid attention. “Now I smell it all over you and you didn’t answer your phone.”
He pulled back, his grip on my biceps firm but hardly painful. The searching look in his eyes was far more of a rebuke than him yelling. I’d scared him.
“I’m sorry, Grandfather. There was a lot going on and I didn’t realize my phone was buzzing.” I wouldn’t make excuses. “I shouldn’t have worried you that way.”
One by one, Adam, Ezra, and Bodhi exited the car. We were a sight, I was sure. Smudged from the smoke, and more than a little disheveled. Grandfather gave us all a once over.
“Inside,” he said firmly. “We’ll have coffee and something to eat. You need to get cleaned up.” When he touched my cheek with a weathered hand, I leaned into the contact.
He was mourning my mother in addition to the grief he felt about my grandmother every day. Then I scared him. “I am sorry… I promise you, I was safe. The guys would never let anything happen to me.”
Without a word, Grandfather pressed his lips to my forehead and held the kiss there. “Forgiven, darling girl. Absolutely forgiven. I am just relieved to see you. Go on up, I’ll sort your gentlemen out with the guest rooms.”