Page 51 of Desperate Victory
He and Pretty Boy each had brothers. It was an answer to a question Bodhi had held for so long, that I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking right now.
Only, I knew what our next step was going to be.
And who it would have to be.
“Buttercup,” Bodhi said in a low voice as we reached the exit.
“I’m here,” I promised him. “Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”
He lifted our clasped hands and kissed my knuckles. “I’m going to need your help.”
“You have it,” I said. “Anything.”
Chapter
Sixteen
BODHI
The feeling of the wheel beneath my fingers as we pulled away from the private museum grounded me. When Lainey settled her hand on my thigh though, that helped even more. She’d been the reason I walked out of that house without inflicting bodily harm on every person between me and the door.
An unfamiliar rage had begun to pool in my gut as Hans revealed the names of the two children he’d identified. His flirting with Lainey had been mildly amusing. I found even his less than sly effort to get under my skin to be entertaining, particularly when she shut him down with a careless kind of grace that just made her all that more attractive to me.
Then Hans mentioned the name Ayla…
Ayla.
My bastard of a father not only took my mother’s child from her, he even robbed that child of her name. Anger like I hadn’t experienced in years flooded me. It wouldn’t take that long to drive to the family compound, to let myself in, dismiss the staff and then paint the walls red with his blood.
The provocative nature of that image shouldn’t be so damn tempting. Because killing him would only satisfy me for a very brief moment, on an extremely primitive level.
It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough for what he did to my mother. That said, I wanted to destroy him. I wanted to do to him what he’d done to her. I wanted him to suffer and to understand that nothing he did, ever, would save him. I wanted him to wish for death, but be trapped in a miserable existence.
A few decades like that might actually begin to repay some of the debt he’d incurred in locking my mother up.
Instead of driving out to Long Island, I headed uptown. The penthouse where I’d invited everyone to live was not my only place in the city. Like my step great-grandmother, Sophia, I had my own loft, secured under a holding company and unlinked to me directly.
It was a haven for me when I needed to disappear for a while. I wasn’t Phillip Cavendish there. I wasn’t anyone there, for that matter. With that destination in mind, I kept the speed of the vehicle controlled.
Three blocks from the museum, the volcanic chaos boiling over inside of me slowed even if it didn’t come near cooling. I pressed a single button on the steering wheel and Milo’s phone began to ring, the heads up display showing his contact info.
“One second.” Milo didn’t wait for a reply, but the hum of conversation carried over the open line. The Vandals were still there. So much planning that still needed to be done.
Too many people in my space. Even if they were people I liked for the most part.
“Okay, I’m alone. Everything all right?” The question shouldn’t have surprised me. Milo and I didn’t converse via phone often and I’d brought Lainey with me. He would also be correct in assuming if everything wasn’t all right, I would call him for assistance.
This was not a matter he could help on. I liked him. Respected him. Trusted him with Lainey. But our friendship—it didn’t matter. I needed one person right now and I had her with me.
I was also in no mood to share or be gentle with the others in her life.
Most days, fine. Not today.
“No,” I told him. There was no point in lying. Secrets from others was fine. But we had to be able to be direct with each other. “It’s not. Hans had information. Information. Answers. More questions. But I need a few hours to process it and I need Lainey.”
“Not coming back here tonight?” It wasn’t really a question, but I appreciated the confirmation.
“No.” Then because directness was required, I asked, “Unless there is a pressing need for us to be there?”