Page 53 of Perfect Sin
I hold my hand up to stop him before he pisses me off even more. “Before you say one more thing about him, I’ve got a question for you. Did you know he was obsessed with Raven? I’m assuming you didn’t know he sexually assaulted her multiple times, because if you did and still sent him this conversation we’re having is going to have a very bad turn.”
“Did she say that? I’ve known that boy since he was born. I’ve been friends with his father and his brother for decades. Kyle would never hurt a woman,” Arthur dismisses.
“You’ve got a serious judgment problem, Arthur. There’s video of him raping her,” I say through clenched teeth.
Lucien cues up the only copy of the video left and holds it in front of my father’s face. He tries to turn away from it, but Lucien grabs his chin and forces him to watch. “This is the fucker you sent after my baby sister.”
Carina’s eyes widen and she gags behind the tape. I peel it off to prevent her from choking in case she pukes. “We didn’t know. I swear we didn’t. Oh God, what have we done?”
“Be quiet, Carina. Video can be edited. We don’t know what we are watching,” Arthur snaps.
My hand twitches to grab the gun and end him here and now. Lucien sees me and subtly shakes his head. I clench my fist instead.
“Several times now you’ve tried to take away what means the most to me. Now, I’m going to return the favor. I’m going to take the one thing that seems to be important to you, your office.”
“You’d put Damien Blackthorne in the governor’s seat to spite me? Think of all the people who will suffer under his administration,” Arthur implores me.
“You know who won’t suffer? My wife. I warned you not to make an enemy of me, and you ignored me at every turn. Come after my wife again and Lucien won’t stop me from putting a bullet in your head,” I warn.
“Jackson, please, I just want to get to know you,” Carina begs.
“That possibility vanished when you went along with his efforts to separate me from Raven.”
“You’d choose her over your own family?” she asks, shocked.
“Raven and Lucien are my family.” I turn and walk out of the room leaving Lucien to cut them free.
* * *
We ridemost of the way back to the hotel in silence. Lucien hands me the keys, knowing I need to have a task to focus on to stay sane. I tap my thumbs on the steering wheel and my left leg bounces.
“Are we really going to help my father become governor?”
“What choice do we have? Arthur has proven he’ll go to any lengths to separate me from Raven. I won’t leave her, which means the only way to keep her safe is if Arthur loses.”
“In the long run, none of us will be safe with my father in power,” Lucien argues.
“Then we bring him down after Arthur.”
“What’s the move here?” Lucien asks.
“We start digging up dirt on both of them. Except, we save everything we find out about Damien until after the election.”
The hotel room is quiet when we arrive. Lucien and I separate in the common room for our own rooms. I find Raven sitting up in our bed waiting for me. She looks me over and relaxes when she doesn’t see anything amiss.
“Did you expect me to show up covered in blood?”
She shakes her head. “Not really. But your father has proven he’s willing to go to just about any length to get what he wants. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you did hurt him. Part of me wants to do it myself.”
I sit on the edge of the bed and start to take off the stiff dress shoes. “I guess I wasn’t very sneaky about where I was going.”
The rest of my clothing follows the shoes, and I slide in next to Raven. The sheets are cool and crisp against my skin, and exhaustion washes over me.
“It wasn’t hard to guess. Don’t worry though, I’m sure most people still find you mysterious.”
I yawn. “I know you want to hear all about what happened, but can it wait until tomorrow? I’d really like to hold you right now.”
She snuggles in next to me. “Sleep. Everything will wait until the morning.”