Scarlett put her water down on the table, shaking her head. “No. Because you’re a goddamn Heir, too, Royal. Because Luis Salvador is hopelessly in love with you. Because you’ve been here with us since the beginning, even when you were away at Yale. Even when you were in Ecuador. You’re one of us. We’re a family, so why don’t you let us take care of you?”
White-hot tears started to stream down my cheeks, and Rachel reached up to grab a tissue, offering it to me with a shaky exhale.
“I’m a grown adult,” I choked out. “I should be the one taking care of you guys. I’m a murderer.” My sobs were broken and sharp. Every failure of mine kept piling up on my chest, and it was starting to feel like I couldn’t breathe. Rachel watched me with concern, but Scarlett didn’t move. “I killed someone, y’all. I killed…” My chest constricted.
“Hey, take deep breaths,” Rachel coaxed while eyeing Scarlett with trepidation.
“I can’t do this,” I started saying. Suddenly, my tongue was just stuck on repeat. My brain was frozen as all the worry, all the fear, all the stress of what I had to do suddenly exploded inside of my head.
“I can’t do this…” I kept saying, over and over and over.
Until each syllable was slurred and strangling me with its truth. How could I think I could handle Aaron? How could I think I could make Mrs. Salvador better? How could I think I could run away? I couldn’t even face one problem without running to my brother.
Each breath was getting harder and harder to take. My chest felt taut like a wind-up toy. My words were a broken mess of sobs and gasps. It all hit me so fast, and it wasn’t until I heard Rachel running out of the room as my vision went black that I realized I was having a severe panic attack.
Every nerve in my body was fighting me. I was shaking but frozen. Filled with air but suffocating. I couldn’t even stutter through a plea for an ambulance. Everything was wrong, so, so, wrong.
“Mi amor. Majesty. I’m here. I’m right here.”
I felt arms wrap around me. I felt warm skin touching my cold cheek. I breathed in the smell of cumin and beer, and I wanted to breathe that instead of the air that threatened to crush me.
I wanted to call his name, but I couldn’t.
Luis. I thought, hoping he could read my mind. Don’t let go of me.
“Breathe with me, Royal,” he said in a soothing voice.
With my face pressed against his neck, I did as he asked. I latched onto his voice, and only his voice. I tethered to his anchor, let myself be pulled down into his orbit. I sunk into his gravity as he slowly counted breaths with me, his arms never letting me go.
Slowly, my vision returned, blurred but sharp with brightness. I sensed that the room was full, but I focused on keeping my breathing even. “In and out. Listen to my voice. Feel how it vibrates in my chest. In and out. I’m here. You’re here. Just keep breathing. You feel this?” he asked, bringing my hand up to his chest. The beat of his heart was steady and sure, so unlike my racing, erratic one.
“Yeah,” I choked out. I started tapping my fingers in the rhythm of his heart.
“Good. You focus on that, Majesty, and just keep breathing.”
I kept my hand on his chest, even as his hand dropped so that he could cup my face instead. I raised my watery eyes to look into his soft brown ones. His expression was filled with concern but not panic. He was strong in a way I couldn’t be right then.
“Tell me, Royal,” he said quietly. It wasn’t a demand, but it wasn’t a plea either. It was something else.
“Tell us,” Godfrey corrected, and I looked over to see that all the Heirs were in the room, circled around me.
They weren’t standing up, either. Every single one of them was crouched down on the floor with me, and that fact kicked me in the gut. When one fell, they didn’t stand above and watch. No, the Heirs all willingly went to the ground too. They showed me in their actions that they were here to help me get back up or to stay on the ground with me if that’s what I needed.
My gaze travelled to Rachel where she knelt beside my brother, and she nodded once, encouraging me. If anyone understood how hard it was to talk about this, it was her. She’d suffered far worse than I had, and the fact that she was so strong gave me hope.
I managed to sit up on my own, and Luis’s hands dropped away. They all watched me as I took a few more steadying breaths. Then I looked into Luis’s eyes, and I spoke. “I didn’t sleep with Dr. Carmichael in Ecuador.”
“You didn’t?” Godfrey asked, confused.
I shook my head and looked down at my lap. “No. I…” When my throat threatened to close again, Luis’s hand reached out to grab mine, squeezing slightly in support. I raised my eyes to Godfrey. “I killed someone. And then Aaron Carmichael tried to rape me. He’s stalking and blackmailing me.”
You know how people say they dropped the bomb with big news? Well, I always expected it to be loud, like an explosion. You think that if you tell people you’re a murderer, there’d be a bit of noise kickback. But instead, I was met with stunned silence.
The words fell from my mouth and slunk to the floor where all seven of us were sitting. Godfrey gaped. Luis paled. Rogue looked pissed. Bonham grimaced, but that could’ve just been because of his foot. The girls exchanged nervous glances.
A tense, eternity of silence.
Then my brother. “I’ll fucking kill him!”
Explosion.
* * *
The Heirs worked fast, I’d give them that.
Within fifteen minutes, Aaron Carmichael was fired, and the owner of his apartment building notified him that he was being evicted. People acted fast when an Heir called in a favor.
“What if he went to the police?” I asked as Godfrey clenched and unclenched his fists, pacing the floor of Rogue’s pool house. There wasn’t much room between the leather couch and the kitchen, so he only made it about five steps before having to turn around and go back the other way again.
“Our reach doesn’t span that far,” my brother admitted. “I don’t even know how it works with international issues.”
“I’m looking into it,” Bonham murmured from his spot on the kitchen barstool.
“I want to get you out of town while we figure out what to do,” Godfrey went on.
Luis was sitting at the kitchen table, head bowed in frustration. I knew I’d let him down—knew I’d failed him. Because of me, he’d trusted his mother with a murderer, and now he couldn’t even look at me. I still hadn’t even worked up the nerve to tell him that Aaron had threatened her. I couldn’t. He’d hate me forever, and I wasn’t ready to see that loathing in his eyes.
“Where do you want to go?” Rogue asked, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall near the fireplace.
Rachel snapped her fingers. “I know! Forty-One has been bugging me for our homicide holiday that we talked about. We could go under the guise of a graduation celebration and take time to figure everything out,” she offered before walking over to Godfrey and grabbing his wrist, forcing him to stop pacing. “If Carmichael really has gone to the police, we need to leave as soon as possible. Like within the hour.”
Rogue nodded. “I agree. Everyone get packed. We leave in thirty minutes,” he said, his voice not leaving any room for disagreement.
“I’m staying. I’m gonna end the fucker,” Godfrey growled.
Rogue shook his head. “There are too many unknowns. He’s obviously a stalker and has been working with your grandfather. Hell, he had her panties. We need to figure out how to handle this. Banning him from the hospital might have protected Luis’s mom, but we don’t know how far he’s willing to go.”
Rachel shivered in disgust just as Luis slammed his fist on the table. “¡Le voy a quebrar cada hueso en el cuerpo al hijo de puta y quemarlo vivo!”
“You can’t burn him alive, Luis,” Bonham drawled.
“Since when do you speak Spanish?” a tired-looking Scarlett asked while boiling a pot of tea. She was trying to be the c
alm one in this storm, and I appreciated her thoughtfulness.
“I don’t. I’ve just heard the threat enough times to recognize it,” Bonham replied coolly.
Luis looked unamused by Bonham’s blasé attitude and stalked over to me, making my body tense at the way his eyes were dark and angry. “Come with me. We need to talk,” he ordered before grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me away.
Godfrey looked like he wanted to stop us, but Luis picked his knife out of his pocket, opened it, and wordlessly threw it at the wall. I watched in shock as it cut through the drywall and embedded itself in the wooden stud.
The room went silent, aside from Luis’s heaving anger as he gently pulled me outside and closed the door. The Savannah night made everything more intimate as Luis’s heated stare seared into me, making me want to squirm.
I let out a shaky exhale, suddenly nervous. “What?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Luis asked immediately.
“Lots of reasons,” I admitted. “I was ashamed. I didn’t want you to view me as a murderer. I was terrified. Aaron holds a lot over my head. You already had a fucking lot on your plate with your mom; I didn’t want to add to it.”
“You just pretended this thing between us isn’t real. ¿Entonces me alejas?”
“I was trying to protect you, Luis.” I shook my head and placed my palm over his chest, taking in the erratic thudding of his heart and wishing I could calm him down the way he calmed me.
“Fuck that. You didn’t trust me. You didn’t trust Godfrey. You held this to yourself and…fuck. I watched you go on a date with him. And then he called…” his voice trailed off as he realized what that morning was. “In my own house! How could you just let him do that?”
“He was threatening me with prison, Luis. I was doing the best I could,” I said, hating that tears were threatening my vision again.
“No. You were hiding. You let him bulldoze your life because you were too prideful to tell us what was going on.”
“This has nothing to do with pride!” I snapped. “I was terrified for my life. He had pictures of us, okay?”
Luis went completely still, his brown eyes widening slightly.
“What pictures?”
“Of me and you. That night in your room,” I admitted.
“Fuck,” Luis said, before he started yanking at the hair on his head, his jaw clenching.
“He snuck into my room and stole my panties. He almost fucking raped me, all while holding the threat of prison over my head. I wanted to go to you, but I thought I could handle it,” I went on. “I thought that if I could just last until I was done caring for your mother, I could get paid and then get out of Savannah before y’all knew the truth. I’m a fucking murderer, Luis.”
Hot, shameful tears trickled down my cheeks. I felt completely, utterly, gutted.
“You were just going to leave?” he asked, his face slipping into a pain so stark that I had to catch my breath. “You were going to leave this? Leave me?”
“Yes,” I choked out.
“I see.” Luis stepped away from me, and it felt like my entire world went up in flames.
It was like the fragile string tethering us together snapped, and now I was falling.
I opened and closed my mouth, not knowing what to say. I was doing the best I could with the information I had. Aaron Carmichael was dangerous and predatory. I wanted Luis and his mother away from him, and I didn’t want Godfrey to have to step in and endanger himself.
“I’m so sorry, Luis. I never wanted—”
“Stop! I’ll help you get this asshole off your back. But then I’m done. And you can just run away like you planned.” He spun around and left me there to stand alone in the Savannah night, leaving two shattered hearts in his wake.
Chapter Twenty
Royal
The plane ride to a private island in the Bahamas was way different from the traveling I’d done as a nurse going to Ecuador. Private jet, food, leather chairs that were more comfortable than most beds, and good company.
We were going on Rachel and her hit man friend’s famed homicide holiday. I guess I fit right in.
Right before we left, Bonham found out that Aaron went missing. Once he got fired from the hospital, he disappeared. Godfrey didn’t like the idea of him running loose, and since we weren’t sure if he’d gone to the authorities yet or had something more sinister up his sleeve, we all decided that the homicide holiday would be the best way to get me out of the country until we came up with a plan of action.
Mrs. Salvador was safely admitted to Shady Oaks, the rehabilitation center owned by Bonham’s family, with round-the-clock security. Luis had also hired extra men of his own to stay with her, shocking the hell out of me when he decided to come on this trip.
I was surprised that he’d decided to come, because not only was he leaving his mom after Aaron had threatened her, but I couldn’t figure out what his reasons were. Was it to keep a united front with the Heirs? He was done with me, I knew that, but as selfish as it was, I was glad he was here. I hated how things had blown up between us. Shards of hurt and anger were stuck in our skin, and his silent treatment was bleeding me dry. I hated that I’d hurt him.
“Damn, Forty-One. Business must be good,” Rachel said while looking over at the oddly dressed man. When we first got on the plane, he was already waiting for us, cocktail in hand.
“Yep. And it’s Forty-Three now,” he replied with a wink.
I’d heard about the eccentric hit man, and he seemed nice enough, but actually hiring him to kill someone? That thought made my head swim and my stomach roil. Despite what a bastard Aaron was, I didn’t know if I could go through with that. The blood I already had on my hands had stained my soul and ate at my conscience. I didn’t know if I could add to it.
“Who are you today?” Rachel asked before sitting down next to him. He was wearing an all-white suit and had blood-red nails.
He looked down at his clothes. “This is number thirty-nine. Socialite. Loved beach parties, drinking, and always wore white. Said it set off her tan,” he said, tugging at his sleeve before looking back up with a shrug. “She got away with a hit and run, so I returned the favor.”
“Huh,” Rachel said, acting like this was nothing unusual. I made sure to pick the seat furthest away from him.
It was surprisingly easy for us all to pack up and leave less than twenty-four hours after I told everyone the truth. Forty-Three had arranged everything, no expenses spared. And if the lavish accommodations were anything to go by, the hit man business was flourishing.
My brown eyes flicked over to Luis who was sitting across from me in his tan leather seat, looking out the window of the plane as we soared above the clouds.
He looked sad. Dejected. Exhausted. Worried.
“You okay?” I asked. It was a stupid question, but I just wanted to get him to talk to me. Anything was better than his cold silence.
We hadn’t spoken to each other since my panic attack and his hurtful dismissal of me. I almost wanted this mess to last so that I could steal a few last days with him, even though I knew I was prolonging the inevitable.
“I’m fine,” he said shortly without looking at me.
Godfrey had closed his eyes in the row ahead of us, while Rachel and Forty-Three spoke quietly. Rogue and Scarlett had disappeared in the back where the single bed was, and Bonham was busy on his phone, typing away without pause.
“Your mother…”
“The rehab center will take care of her, and I have my men and the security team briefed. Aaron Carmichael isn’t getting anywhere near her.”
“But you’re okay with leaving her?”
He finally turned his head, his dark eyes settling on me without their usual warmth. “You’re her nurse and you left. You telling me it’s not okay to leave her? Has Aaron made more threats that you haven’t told me about?” he snapped.
I bit my trembling lip and looked away. I hated the distance between us. Even Godfr
ey and Luis were being weird with each other now, and it was all because of me. The Heirs never doubted each other. I’d caused a rift between them, and I hated that.
Rogue and Scarlett eventually sauntered out from the back room, him looking smug and her looking ruffled. I was happy for them, but I was envious too. I wanted a real relationship. I’d never had one before. I’d just had a string of one night stands or friends with benefits. I’d always been too terrified of getting involved with a man like my father to seriously date anyone. I should have known someone like Aaron would shove his way into my life anyway.
I was lost in my thoughts, staring out at the wing of the plane and being lulled with the sound of the engine when Scarlett suddenly sat in the seat next to me. “How are you holding up?”
I gave her a weak smile. “I’m fine.”
She gave me a look and lowered her voice. “Royal, I’ve known you since forever. This is me you’re talking to—you can tell me the truth.”
I sighed. “My brother always saves me,” I admitted quietly, looking down at my lap. “It’s like I’m a defective older sister—among other things,” I mumbled.
Scarlett grabbed my hand that was tugging on my shirt. “Listen, it doesn’t matter if y’all were younger, older, twins, or adopted. You’re his sister, and he’s always gonna protect you no matter what. That’s just who he is. It has nothing to do with you being defective. And who cares if you’re asking for help? That’s what family does. We help each other.”
I shook my head and looked at her. “The Heirs never need help. They handle everything themselves.”
“Yeah, because they have each other,” she enunciated.
“Rogue’s parents are non-existent, so he’s basically been an adult his whole life,” I argued. “Bonham has always been responsible. Class president, valedictorian, he’s even the damn junior CEO for his father’s company. My brother always dealt with my father’s bullshit, holding the twisted pieces of our family together. And Luis—” I realized my words had gotten too loud, but a quick glance at Luis showed me that he was still looking out the window. “He’s been taking care of his mom and running her businesses. They all handle everything life throws at them, but when I try, I just make it worse.”
Wild: Savannah Heirs Page 19
