Page 53 of Before the Fall
As I think about that, I can’t help but smile. My father would love seeing me like this. He always believed I was too feeling. I let my emotions control me, and for him, that was the worst thing a son of his could do. That’s why he believed Victor was a natural leader, and I wasn’t.
So now that I feel nothing for my own brother’s death, I’m sure my father would approve. I don’t know if I do, though. For as much as Victor did to me and the people I love, and as much as his actions weren’t in line with my beliefs regarding how business should be conducted, he was my blood.
And now he’s nothing.
“We need to get going,” Cason says as he stops next to me on his way to the car.
I turn to look at him and ask, “Are you okay?”
Far more like me than his father, Cason answers in a distinctly Victor-like way. With a shrug, he says, “Sure. Whatever that person was, he hasn’t been my father since he killed my mother. If anything, he had this end coming a long time ago. You just gave him more time. More than he deserved.”
I glance down at Victor again as Cason walks away without another word and can’t help but feel like that’s my brother’s legacy. His own son can’t even be bothered to shed a tear at his passing. That says a lot about a man.
If I do nothing else in this world, I can only hope when it’s my time, Maxim will care that I’m gone. To be someone who no one misses when you leave this world is a crime no man should commit.
Kane walks up to where I still stand and nods before looking at me. “You know you had to do it, right?”
“Doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Fair enough,” he says before sighing. “Would it help for me to remind you that he would have happily sent you out of this world without a second thought?”
“No. He never gave a damn that I was his brother. That’s where we were different. I actually cared.”
“Then let me remind you he took your wife,” Kane says flatly.
I shake my head and chuckle at his attempt to make me feel okay with what I’ve done. “It’s all right. I know I had to do this. It’s not like I’m bawling my eyes out over it.”
My dear friend slaps me on the back and begins to walk away. “Good. He was never worth anyone’s tears.”
Jaxon and Tia walk the other way so she doesn’t have to see Victor’s dead body. I don’t know what my brother did to her, but she’s going to need a lot of support for a long time to come. Thankfully, she’s got Jaxon.
“Come on, Ryker,” Kane says in a low voice. “It’s time to go.”
I look around my brother’s estate and nod before turning to walk to the car. Tomorrow, the news will report the head of the Varens crime family was murdered tonight. The police will congratulate themselves on a win. One more villain gone from this earth. The people he hurt will rejoice at his death.
And no one will care the day after tomorrow. Not a life well-lived at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Jaxon
Since we returned to Ryker’s, Tia has been uncharacteristically quiet. I need to hear her say something, but she simply walked directly to the bedroom and into the bathroom to take a shower. Now she’s sitting on the bed staring down at her crossed legs after getting dressed.
“Are you hungry?” I ask, unsure what to do to get her to talk.
She shakes her head but doesn’t look up at me.
“Do you feel okay?”
I wait for a few moments before she nods but still says nothing.
Concerned about what’s happening, I sit down next to her and wrap my arm around her shoulders. She doesn’t flinch, which I was worried about, but she simply sits as still as a statue. It’s as if all her emotions have left with her words.
“Tia, please talk to me.”
Seconds tick by without her saying a word. I lean my head on her shoulder and sigh, not knowing how to reach her. I know what happened at Victor’s is affecting her. That’s why I want her to talk to me.
Actually, my need to hear her say something is far more selfish. What if she isn’t talking because she’s decided she can’t handle living in my world after all she’s endured? What if she has no words for me now because there’s nothing more to say?