“Or because he lost someone he loved,” Luna said, echoing her thoughts.
Karina studied her, wondering what all she knew—or rather, what she assumed.
“Perhaps so,” she said finally. “Grief can bring even the strongest men to their knees.”
“Is that your plan? To hurt him more?”
“Your focus is too narrow, Luna. You only see what’s right in front of you as opposed to the bigger picture.”
This went beyond her.
Yes, she wanted Uilleam to answer for what he had done to her—and that day would be his reckoning—but she was also doing this for those who couldn’t.
“Consider me an advocate for the forgotten and wronged. Uilleam wasn’t the first bully nor will he be the last.”
She would fight fire with fire.
After nearly forty-five minutes, they turned onto a dirt road and drove through the line of trees on either side. Once they reached the clearing, Micah turned off the car and got out to open the door for them.
Karina smoothed the front of her dress as Cathleen stepped out of the modest house, her expression neutral despite what she knew was waiting out in her barn.
She glanced over at Luna, curious but silent, keeping her questions to herself before looking at Karina. “He’s waiting out in the pens.”
Was it wrong to say that she had greatly looked forward to this day? Did it mean she was finally losing some of her humanity?
If it did, she couldn’t bring herself to care as they were led around to the side of the house.
And the moment Karina saw him on his knees, a wave of euphoria swept through her as she smiled. “My dearest Elias, my apologies for having kept you waiting.”
Not that he probably cared, considering he was huddled naked in the middle of a dog cage, the arrogant expression he was known for wiped clean from his face.
He was afraid.
And no one’s fear felt as good as his at this moment.
Without a word, she gestured for Cathleen to unlock the cage, allowing the man to shuffle his way out with the way his hands were still bound.
“Luna arrived a bit later than I anticipated,” Karina continued.
Elias shook his head, his eyes a little frantic. “I’ve always been loyal to you, but you’ve gone too far.”
“When you approached me about joining my organization, I gave you one rule, did I not?” she asked, thinking back to when he’d wanted in on her plot to take down Uilleam.
“Yes, but—”
“What was that rule?”
“Bella—”
“The rule!” she snapped, losing her patience.
“Never cross you,” he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.
He might not have feared her before—had even gloated one time too many—but those days were now behind him.
“I understood your need to test me—you’re a man, after all—and as you’ve said before, you don’t believe there’s a place for women in this business. But I have rules for a reason, and you broke every one of them.”
Including the one rule she’d made abundantly clear to him from the very beginning.
Uilleam was not to be harmed.
“Whatever I’ve done,” Elias pleaded, “surely, I can make it right.”
“It’s far too late for that.” It had been from the day she found out what he had used Jackal for.
That he had gone behind her back and nearly ...
She shook her head hard, banishing the thought.
“I excused your deals and arrangements that were contrary to my vision. I allowed those pathetic excuses for men to work under your employ so long as you kept them in check, yet you couldn’t manage that.”
“I—”
She silenced him with a lift of her hand. “And what did you give me in return?”
Elias chewed on his lip, his gaze darting to each of them in turn—even to the shadowed corner where death awaited him.
“I’m waiting.”
“He was interfering,” he said suddenly, but the contempt he had for Uilleam was still quite clear in his voice.
“He did what he always does, Elias, except you let it get under your skin. You were no longer content to play the game as I’d instructed, so you went back and forth with him until you got his attention, but that was when you made your first mistake.”
Because the moment he stopped paying attention to what was right in front of him and focused all his attention on Uilleam, he hadn’t noticed what she was doing behind the scenes.
While he thought he’d been manipulating Uilleam, she’d been manipulating him.
“I never made a mistake!” he shouted. “The clients were sloppy.”
Or she’d led him to believe as much. “Perhaps, you could have learned something from him in that regard, Elias, but it’s not your clients I’m referring to. You sent the Jackal on a mission by giving him an order in my name.”
And that had been her breaking point.
That he hadn’t only just been a coward, but he had placed the weight of what he had done on her.
His gaze shifted back in Jackal’s direction, his fear rising once more. “They didn’t care if he lived or died. I didn’t need your permission so long as I had theirs.”
Her mother, she had no doubt. Katherine had made it abundantly clear from the very beginning that she would much rather have Uilleam in a grave than drawing breath. Isla, on the other hand, wouldn’t want him dead if only so he could suffer for the rest of his natural life.
But it didn’t matter one way or the other at this moment.
It only mattered that she now had permission.
“Jackal, I need you,” she said in Romanian, mindful of the way Luna was staring at her, though it was clear from her expression that she was unsure what was about to happen.
“Vointa ta—Your will?” he asked, his voice low.
“Don’t do this,” Elias suddenly begged, his panicked gaze shooting to the man who could kill him far too easily. “Whatever you want! I can fix this.”
“I’m all out of forgiveness, Elias,” Karina said. “Understand something, this could have all been avoided if you would have just listened.”
“Because of her?” Elias demanded, his breaths coming faster as he looked at Luna in contempt.
To him, it would look as if she were the last straw.
All by design.
“I could tell you yes, it’s because you targeted her, and the result of your actions had made an enemy of Nix, and that’s reason enough.”
It was certainly the reason Katherine had finally given her clearance to get rid of him. He’d begun to draw too much attention to himself, and as a result, to them as well.
“But we both know that isn’t quite true though, don’t we?”
Because she wanted him to know that this wasn’t about Luna, or his mistakes, or his arrogance.
This was about Uilleam.
And the fact that Elias had almost taken him from her.
No one had given him the fucking right.
“I just needed an excuse to get rid of you,” she told him honestly. “Kill him.”
Elias didn’t stand a chance.
Not against a man who was twice his size and trained to fight with the deadliest of men.
It took no effort at all for Jackal to get him on his knees, one hand resting on the top of his head as the other gripped his chin.
She looked from the fear in Elias’s eyes to the resolution in Jackal’s before she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
In the next second, Jackal gave a brutal twist of his hands and snapped the man’s neck.
It would have been more humane to say she hadn’t gotten any pleasure out of that, but that would be a lie.
“When you recount this story to your husband, please offer my sincerest apologies,” Karina said passively, turning to face Luna and the stricken expression on her face. “And know that no harm should come to you again. On that, you have my word.”
Luna could only stare at her as if she wasn’t sure what to make of her. Most days, Karina didn’t know what to make of herself.
“I don’t understand. Why would you do this?”
“That’s not really the question you want answered, is it?” Karina asked patiently as she fiddled with her gloves. “You want to know why I’d involve you, and whether you’ll be permitted to leave despite what you’ve seen.”
“Well, yes ... that too.”
“Whether Elias wanted to admit it, Uilleam was getting too close, and it’s doubtful that he would have made it another three months before he was taken by his mercenaries.” And once they got to him, it was only a matter of time before he revealed secrets they couldn’t afford to have out there. “This, at the very least, buys me some time. I don’t think I’m quite ready for my first meeting with Uilleam just yet. I have a few affairs to get in order first.”
Soon, though.
Very soon.
“I do have a favor to ask of you,” Karina said as she led her back out of the barn and away from Elias’s body.
Luna looked unsure. “What’s the favor?”
Karina reached into her coat, her heart kicking up a bit as she passed over a black envelope with the wax seal along the back of it.
“Don’t worry,” she said as she passed it over, “It’s won’t kill him—not literally anyway. As I’m sure you’ll be seeing Uilleam later due to our time here together, it will help put a few things in perspective for him.”
Because it was time he knew the truth. There was no reason for him to mourn any longer.
“Who are you to him?” Luna asked, tracing the edges of the wax.
A chauffeured car was waiting for them out in front of the main house.
Karina considered the question and all it meant. “A distant memory.”
“Distant, but not forgotten? Karina?”
It didn’t surprise her in the slightest that Kit was on to her. She wasn’t surprised at all that the master assassin had figured it out first.
“The question isn’t whether I’m Karina or not, but rather whether the woman Uilleam knew as Karina ever existed at all.”
She’d already been living a double life then with all her secrets. Now ... now it didn’t feel as if she was the same woman at all.
“Good day, Luna. I hope to see you soon.”
Because there was still much work left to be done, and the next phase of it was going to be the most grueling yet.
“Apparently, trauma makes you clever, doesn’t it?”
Karina smiled as she accepted the bundle of blue roses the florist passed her before she turned to find Isla standing behind her, a pair of opaque sunglasses resting on the bridge of her nose.
“For once,” she told her as she headed for the front door, Isla on her heels, “I have no idea what you mean.”
Isla’s soft laughter carried in the wind as they stepped out into the cool, fall weather. “Don’t get me wrong, I hadn’t the slightest idea what you were up to in the beginning, but now after all that’s happened, I’m a little surprised it took me this long.”
This time around, Karina didn’t give much care to the CCTV cameras on every corner, or that they were all recording her image as they headed back toward her former office. In two days’ time, the building would belong to someone else, and a mere few hours after that, it would be as if she had never been there.
But before that could happen, there was one last little thing she needed to finish before she walked away.
The pièce de résistance.
“How long?” Isla asked, easily keeping pace with her despite the heels she wore.
“How long what?”
“How long had you been plotting against him?”
A simple question with a slightly complex answer.
Truthfully, she wished her reason was different because a part of her knew Isla wouldn’t like it. “Since that day at the table,” she answered honestly. “When he implied that you were a …”
She trailed off, not even wanting to say the rest because she knew how words could hurt, and even if Karina didn’t believe any of it for a second, she still remembered quite well how Isla had reacted.
But instead of appearing offended, twin circles of red splotched her cheeks. “I’m the eldest, Karina. I should be looking after you.”
“If you think you haven’t, you’re not giving yourself enough credit.”
Without her, Karina wasn’t sure where she would be now.
Certainly not heading back for the building that would be on the market within the next month, nor the office upstairs that she had called home.
They had all, every person in her life, played a very important role in shaping who she was ...
And what she’d become.
She was no longer a little bird with rose-tinted glasses who saw the world as she wanted it to be rather than what it was. She saw everything now.
Which was how she had been able to use Elias’s weaknesses against him. He’d thought he was so clever—that he was untouchable.
Yet he had never seen her coming.
Isla was quiet as she watched her set the rose on the floor in the very middle of the room, keeping the rest of the bouquet tucked against her chest.
“What are you planning?” she asked after a moment.
Karina considered her answer, and what all she knew would happen once she gave it. There was no turning back now.
“Elias is gone, and Uilleam is still well,” she said carefully, then turned to offer an ominous smile to Isla. “It looks like I’ll need to do this myself.”
42
Did You Miss Me?
Madness and vodka—his old friends.
There were few ailments his favorite brand of alcohol couldn’t fix. He knew that with some certainty as he tipped the bottle—he’d long since stopped using a glass—and guzzled down more of the potent liquor that had set him back a few thousand.
Sure, a cheap substitute would have done what he needed, but this one’s effect lasted longer, and with the dark, dangerous mood he was in, it seemed only fitting that he find something that would mellow out the harsher edges of his emotions.
Because he was close to losing his fucking mind, and that didn’t spell good for anyone.
None of this was new to him—he’d grappled with the looming abyss ever since he’d lost Karina years ago. Always remembering the sight of the blood—so much of it—that hadn’t just coated the floor, but her body as well.
It had been everywhere and unmistakable.
The coppery scent still lingered in his nose, and in the years since that day, the smell still managed to make him nauseous.
And maybe, he might have been able to get past all the blood and gore had it not been for her face.
The rage it must have taken to leave her unrecognizable in such a gruesome fashion left him spiraling into his current wretched state that refused to let go.
Even now, he could still remember that familiar horror he’d felt at discovering her in that pool of red.
Oh, how his father would have laughed to have seen him brought so low—for someone to have made him so weak.
Had Alexander ever found Abigail dead at his feet, he couldn’t imagine his father would have lost himself the way Uilleam had. The man didn’t seem to have the capacity to feel that much. Even his mother hadn’t been able to feel more than a passing discomfort when she’d woken up to find her husband murdered next to her.
Perhaps he wasn’t as cold as he thought himself to be.
And he was certainly not his father.
Because he’d spent the past number of years grieving the death of a woman he’d only known for a short period, yet it felt as if he’d known her a lifetime. He’d certainly loved her as if he’d known her a lifetime.
Scores of people had come in and out of his life since he’d crept out from his father’s shadow, friends and enemies alike, but she was the only one capable of making him feel anything.<
br />
Well ... her and the person responsible for her death.
He had managed to make Uilleam feel the polar opposite of what she did.
And with the damage inflicted on her, he would have thought the man responsible had harbored hatred toward her. It hadn’t been just a beating—it had been a savagery the likes of which he’d never seen before.
But it wasn’t hatred of her, Uilleam had grown to learn, but hatred of him.
Elias had wanted to see him suffer.
And oh, how he had.
He’d mourned and lost himself in anything he could get his hands on that would take the pain away. There were moments he’d been sure he wouldn’t come out on the other side of his grief.
Now ... now, he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
Now, he wasn’t sure if the man he’d been targeting was even worth all the trouble he’d gone through.
None of it made sense anymore.
Kit had expressed his doubts about Elias and just who Belladonna was, but Uilleam hadn’t wanted to hear it. He still didn’t.
He couldn’t bring himself to believe that this agony he’d suffered had been because of ... her.
Not Karina.
Not the woman he’d loved more than life itself.
She was too soft-hearted. Kind and caring. Innocent.
It just couldn’t be.
Besides, he knew her body as clearly as he knew his own, and there hadn’t been a shred of doubt that he’d seen her on the floor of their townhouse.
There was just no way she could be alive and responsible for everything that had happened over the past few years, but that didn’t stop the doubts from eating at him—picking away at his every thought and insecurity until he was sure he would go insane just thinking about it.
A mistake.
It was all just a mistake.
Until this moment.
Until Kit had shown up here with Luna in tow, the latter studying him as if she were trying to form her own conclusions.
“Uilleam?” Luna asked, her voice soft as she waved her hand to get his attention. “Are you listening?”
Blinking, he retreated from his thoughts and focused on the two in front of him, trying to will himself not to form his own conclusions and just listen. Because there was still a chance they were wrong—that their theory was off and someone was merely attempting to use Karina’s memory as a way to fuck with him.
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