Chapter 34

Dmitri

Daelyn’s being irrational. She’s lost her mind if she thinks she can convince this guy I’m not the one he’s looking for. She’s pulling on every little strand she can find to validate her line of thinking, which is fucking delusional, too. Deep down, she knows that and her desire to cling to the notion that this man has never once lied to her baffles me.

This mystery enemy of mine has altered her brain chemistry with how he’s manipulated and used her over the years. It makes me want to skin him alive.

She’s standing as the barrier between me, Addie, and the man who’s terrorized her for a very long time. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Daelyn would set herself on fire to keep those she loves warm. It makes her being manipulated that much worse. Besides, I don’t need her protection and it’s frustrating that she won’t back down with this. Maybe she’s played the part of protector for so long, she’s incapable of stepping out of the role.

“It’s fine. Everything’s going to be fine.” Her limbs tremble as she falls apart at the seams. “Right? This is going to work, isn’t it?”

Unwilling to lie to her, I shake my head and watch her crumble.

I catch her before she hits the floor and hold her close. “Shhh.” I pet her hair and tuck her into my body for safekeeping. “I got you.”

It’s like a lifetime of misery pours out of my girl. Sobs wrack her. Snot and drool drip out of her face while she ugly cries against me. My heart cracks more and more with each agonizing sound she makes.

Swiping the hair from her face, I pepper her forehead with kisses. “It’s going to be okay.”

I’ll finish this, one way or another, and make sure Daelyn and Addie come out unharmed.

“How can you be so good to me, when I’ve been bad?” She hiccups, hugging me tighter. “I deserve punishment, not… this .”

Closing my eyes, I let that sink in. Bet she’s punished every time she steps out of line with that guy. Christ, how did this piece of shit make Daelyn this fucking loyal to him when he treats her so horribly?

You were loyal to your mother , the angel on my shoulder chimes.

To a fault , the devil adds.

Fuck you both .

“I’m not like him,” I say into her hair. She smells like my soap. I miss her floral scent. “I’m not going to hurt you for doing things I don’t like, Firefly.”

She wails against me, like pointing that out makes this all so much worse. I’m in over my head here and can’t find leverage to help me stay afloat.

“You did what you had to in order to survive.” I cup her face. “Don’t be sorry for that.”

Her nose is red and running. Her eyes are a puffy mess. Her chin trembles so much, her teeth chatter. She hooks her arms around my neck and hugs me tight again. “I’m so sorry I did this. I should have fought back harder. Told him no.”

“And suffer his consequences?”

“I might have survived it.” Daelyn pulls back and looks me dead in the eyes. “But I won’t survive losing you or Addie.”

My heart rips in half. I think my soul just left my fucking body.

Swiping the tears off her face, I clear my throat and try to remain steady. “You’re not going to lose either of us. But it’s time you put your sword down, Daelyn. For just one day, lay it down.” I kiss her cheeks, nose, chin, eyes, and finally her mouth. “It’s okay,” I whisper.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m a big boy. I can handle it.”

She starts closing up on me again. “No. I’m not willing to risk it.”

“It’s not your risk to take, Firefly.” I tip her chin. “Your only priority should be taking care of yourself and Addie. Let me handle the rest.”

Daelyn shakes her head. “My head is so messed up.” Her nails dig into my shoulders while she clings to me. “I know it’s far-fetched, but he’s got to be wrong about you, which doesn’t make sense, because Kaleb’s never wrong.”

Boom . I just got what I needed.

“Not ever?” I say, rolling with the convo, not giving any hints that she just dropped his name.

“No. He’s way too calculating for it. He never makes a move without knowing the next three already. He sets things up way in advance. He says you’re the killer.”

“Did he say he saw me commit the murder?”

Daelyn shakes her head. “I didn’t ask. His dad is a touchy subject.” She runs her fingernails up and down my back, over some of my scars, like it soothes her. “Maybe his dad was in a cage fight with you and died of injuries later?”

“It’s possible.” My brain’s going a mile a minute, grasping at straws. Although I’d like to think Silas would have told me if someone I fought in the cage died later from their injuries, he probably wouldn’t have, just to spare me the guilt. Mentally tracking every opponent is a no go, considering I’ve blacked out more than once at the Scrapyard. I have no clue how many men I’ve knocked down. Now I feel sick. I could be a murderer. Fuck me.

No. I’d have found out if I killed someone. Right? Shit. Okay, I need to piece this together with some dates so I can at least narrow down my list of potential victims. “How old was he when his dad died?”

“Thirteen.”

Whoa. Hold up. “How old is he now?”

“Twenty-nine.”

Quick math says I definitely was not beating grown ass men to death when I was sixteen.

And this guy is older than Daelyn by four years. A little more math and it finally dawns on me why she’s been protective of him. “He was your first love.”

“Yes.” She cautiously looks at me like a child in trouble. “He was my person. My safe space. But…” Her brow crinkles and she clamps her mouth shut.

“But what?”

It takes her forever to speak again. While my patience wears thin, I hold her and wait. Pushing Daelyn for answers will only make her close up more. She has to do this on her own.

“Sometimes I lay awake at night and pull out all the fragments of myself,” she finally says, sinking into my embrace. “I look at each piece and try to remember why it’s there. How it came to be that way.” She sniffles and wipes her nose. “I look at the things he’s done, the things he says, his reasons and logic for dragging me along, and I see why there are so many torn up parts of me. It’s because he ripped them up that way.” Daelyn blows out a long sigh. “I always owed him. That’s what he’d say. I owed him because he’d helped me. I owed him because without him, I’d still be miserable. I owed him because he kept me safe. Then he’d send me out to do something that put my life in danger and would look me dead in the eyes and say, ‘don’t you trust me, Dae? Do you really think I’d send you out there if it wasn’t safe? Come on, babygirl, you know me better than anyone.’ And I’d trust him to have my back, and I’d do whatever he sent me out for. If I push back or question his orders, he stonewalls or gaslights me. Manipulates my words, fears, and feelings until I cave. Then he beats me for making him have to do that to me, just so I’ll listen and obey.”

My vision hazed red at the beginning of her story, and right now there’s a terrible ringing in my ears. I’m locked onto each word, every motherfucking syllable, coming from her sweet mouth like it’s a cliff I’m hanging onto for dear life and it’s crumbling under my grip. If I fall, I’ll undoubtably shatter.

Black out.

Tear the world apart.

“Deep down, I know he’s not my safe space. He never was.”

My heart’s thudding too hard against my ribs. I can’t take a full breath.

“Chaos is my comfort zone. I don’t think I know how to live in a calm, safe space. I don’t trust it.”

“Makes sense,” I say, stroking her hair. “If you’ve always been in high stress environments, leaving it can make you feel lost and scared.”

I remember how terrifying it was after my dad went to prison and my mom left. I stepped into my house and, with the threat of my mother’s anger no longer present, a unique brand of fear grew in me because I didn’t know how to function in my own home when I no longer had to tip-toe around. So, what did I do? I ran to the Scrapyard and moved in there because chaotic violence was my comfort zone.

“Every time we’re together, I keep comparing you two.” She pulls back to look at me. “You’re nothing like him.”

It takes great effort to swallow around my tightening throat. Focusing on the brilliance of Daelyn’s blue-green eyes, I remind myself of what’s important here. It’s not revenge.

“If I say his name,” she whispers. “If I give it up… does that make me a bad person?”

I hold my breath and grow still.

“Does that make me a traitor? A snitch? A disappointment?” Tears well in her bloodshot eyes again. “Does that make me worse than him because he did so much for me and now I’m turning against him?”

“Everything he did wasn’t for you,” I say cautiously. I’ve got one shot to make this clear, and my brain is short-circuiting already because I’m so goddamn angry. “He did it for himself . There are things going on that you don’t know, Daelyn. Things with Addie.”

The change in her is instant. She shoves away from me like I’ve electrified her. “What?”

“You really don’t know what Addie has to do with this?”

Fury and confusion dance on her face. “Addie has nothing to do with this, Dmitri. Other than being the string he uses to keep me in line, that girl has nothing to do with anything.”

“She has to do with me .” I swallow hard, feeling the change in the room we’re in. It’s darkening because I’m losing my fucking head. “She’s my half-sister.”

Daelyn stumbles back. “What? No. That’s…” But even as she tries denying the possibility, gripping her head as if she can squeeze the information back out, she realizes I wouldn’t lie about that.

“Remember when I said the worse thing I did was cry in front of my mother?” I make my way closer to her. “Remember, I said she was pregnant? The child wasn’t my father’s. She left soon after my dad went to prison, and I never saw her again. Her name is… was … Anya Petrov. She married a man named Matthew Kenzel, who was the father of her child. They had a little girl. I even have a copy of the paternity test.”

There’s no word to describe the way Daelyn takes this news.

The color drains from her face. Her knees buckle, and she slams onto my concrete floor. Her eyes lose focus. Her breaths drag out of her in rasps.

“He knew,” she finally whispers in a low, steady voice. “ He fucking knew .”

I don’t say another word for fear of shattering her. The way she just flipped from a trembling leaf to a crouching tiger is alarming.

Daelyn swipes her hand over her mouth, her eyes darting across the floor as if she’s piecing things I don’t know about together.

“Holy shit,” she whispers. Then she nails me with a deadly gaze and all the fragility in her explodes, leaving cold, iron armor in its wake. “He said he was going to take everything from you like you did him.”

Which means he’s going to take Addie.

“Kaleb Calloway,” she says. “His name is Kaleb Brent Calloway.”

Jesus fucking Christ . “Brent Calloway is the man my father killed and went to prison for.”