34. Derrick

CHAPTER 34

Derrick

Raleigh’s hand in mine and the open road ahead almost make me forget that I’m likely driving to my death. At least if I don’t make it through the day, we’ll have made things right between us.

When the city comes into view ahead of us, Raleigh’s hand spasms. I glance over to see her face drawn tight with worry.

“You should still run,” she says, not looking my way.

That jars me out of my peaceful resolve. “What?”

“When we get close to the estate,” Raleigh clarifies. She’s still refusing to look at me. “You could drop me off at the base of the hill, and then just… go.”

“Raleigh-”

Raleigh whips toward me. “If Thomas hurts you again, I will never forgive him. And there’s so much shit between my brother and me already that-” She flaps a hand, encompassing years of dysfunctional sibling relations. “Besides, if I hate him, that’ll make Clara upset. And on top of that , you’ll be hurt- or worse. I won’t allow that.”

She gives this speech with such passion that my chest aches a little. “It’s not like Thomas broke my nose just for the hell of it,” I say gently. “I double-crossed him. That’s still true, no matter what’s between you and me.”

Raleigh’s hazel eyes are sharp as daggers. “Then he can get over it.”

I let out a startled laugh, but Raleigh’s hand squeezes mine hard, urging me to take that more seriously.

“Despite what you tried to do, Morgan still died and Thomas still succeeded. And since then, have you put a toe out of line?”

It’s a little galling when she puts it like that, but I smile tightly in reply. Raleigh continues.

“The fact is that Thomas owes you for doing what you could to protect me from Silver. And now, you’re the father of a child that I am very invested in having and raising with you. Thomas may be my family by blood, but he’ll be the first to tell you that that’s counted for shit where Warwicks are concerned. If I’ve decided that you’re my family now too, and he doesn’t respect that, then he and I are enemies. If he attacks you, he attacks me.”

“Raleigh-” I start again, but I don’t actually want to refute her words this time. All I want to do is pull us over to the side of the road so I can make love to her all over again. But if we keep Thomas waiting much longer, he really will kill me, no matter what Raleigh wants.

“I’m not leaving, okay?” I say instead. “We’re not doing that again. If Thomas tells me to give you up, I won’t, and we’ll deal with whatever happens after that.” I squeeze her hand back, grounding us both. “Together.”

It takes us another two hours to get into the city and to the base of the hill that leads to the Warwick estate. If I want to leave, now is my last chance.

But I don’t, so we pass through the gate and continue up.

As we weave through a neighborhood filled with luxury homes that Thomas Warwick built for the elite of the county, I feel like I have a clock over my head that’s rapidly ticking down. Thomas already knows I’m here, I have no doubt of that. There’s no missing a bullet-riddled police cruiser in a place like this. But despite the eyes I feel all over me, I don’t see anyone out and about, residents or Warwick members.

Just before we reach the top of the hill, just before the gates of the estate come into view, I pull the car off to the side and turn to Raleigh. Our wrists have stayed handcuffed for hours, and at this point it feels strange to let go of her hand, but we can’t approach the house like this. Reluctantly, I unlock the cuffs and toss them to the floor of the car. With my fingers and thumb, I massage the little red indents left at the base of Raleigh’s palm.

This isn’t the time and place for this, but I say it anyway, because it might be my only chance to.

“I love you Raleigh,” I tell her, holding her gaze captive with mine. “I love you. And if I get the chance, I’m spending the next several decades with you.”

“Not the rest of your life?” Raleigh says jokingly, though her hazel eyes are glassy and her eyebrows knitted. She knows why I’m saying this now, instead of waiting until I’ve taken her out to dinner or we’re tangled together in bed.

“My life might end up being pretty short,” I say, flashing her a wry smile. “So let’s not put it like that.”

Raleigh leans forward, cupping my cheek in her hand. “I will not let him-” she starts, but movement in our periphery makes us both whip our heads toward the windshield.

A woman in a crisp white button down and pencil skirt stands in the road several feet in front of us, sunglasses protecting her eyes from the afternoon glare of the sun. Her perfect brown arms are folded over her chest, her shock white hair pulled up in a high ponytail, her heeled foot tapping impatiently.

It’s Iris Agostinelli, come to escort us inside.

I set my jaw. We can’t even say a proper goodbye in privacy now.

Before I can say another word, Raleigh throws open her door and jumps out of the cruiser. She goes straight for Iris, her mouth already moving.

“Iris, whatever you think is happening right now, it’s not-”

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Iris says stiffly. It’s impossible to see with the sunglasses, but I’m sure her gaze is on me alone as I get out of the cruiser and walk slowly toward her.

“Iris-” Raleigh tries, desperate, but Iris cuts her off with one raised, perfectly manicured hand.

“Thomas will see you in his office,” she says to me. “ Just you.”

Raleigh opens her mouth again, no doubt to insist that she’s coming too, but I’m the one who stops her this time. “It’s okay,” I say quietly. “Raleigh, I should talk to him. He needs to hear the truth from me.”

She turns wild eyes on me. There’s too much color in her cheeks, and her jaw trembles. She’s fighting hard to keep back her tears and rage, and I want to comfort her more than anything. But if I move toward her, Iris might shoot me just to satisfy her own simmering anger.

Besides, if Thomas is about to execute me, I absolutely do not want Raleigh to see it.

“The truth,” Iris scoffs. “That’ll be something.” She turns sharply on her heel and starts marching up the street. “Come with me.”

For the second time in my life, I find myself escorted through the Warwick estate as a prisoner. This time, though, Iris and Raleigh take me into the depths of the house to a closed door, which I have to assume belongs to Thomas’s office. Iris taps twice at the door, then opens it halfway before turning to me expectantly.

And I turn to Raleigh.

I don’t kiss her, no matter how badly I want to and how much she needs me to. Instead, I give her a single nod. “The truth,” I repeat, and step inside the room.

I hear her try to step after me, but Iris must hold her back, because when the door shuts behind me, I’m alone in the room except for Thomas Warwick, sitting behind his heavy desk.

He’s tanner than he was the last time I saw him, his neat hair more burnt gold than blond. His European honeymoon definitely treated him well, though there’s no sign of material bliss on his icy face. Like a king sitting on a throne instead of an ergonomic office chair, he leans back, arms on either armrest, glaring down his nose at me.

“Sit down, Derrick,” he orders. It galls me to obey, but there are more important things than my pride on the line right now. Like my life, and Raleigh’s happiness.

I take a seat in the chair set before Thomas’s desk and, because I know we both have to be thinking about the last time one of us was at the mercy of the other in their office, I joke, “Looks like our roles are reversed this time, Thomas.”

Not a muscle twitches in Thomas’s face. He’s so still that if he hadn’t spoken before, I’d think I was sitting before a very well sculpted wax figure. Finally, though, he opens his mouth to speak again.

“Walk me through your thought process,” he says, as if I’m an employee who’s made one fatal mistake too many and is about to be mentally tormented before being thrown out of the company. Though, since I was once on his payroll, that’s almost exactly what I am.

I’m also remembering why I went behind this man’s back nine months ago for the sake of my career. He’s goddamn insufferable. “Thought process?” I repeat, pasting a banal smile to my face.

“Your thought process,” Thomas confirms, “behind kidnapping my sister and removing her from my city.”

I’m tempted to let my teeth grind together, but I force my jaw to remain relaxed. “I was under the false impression that she might be in league with Silver, a street gang leader who’s been-”

“I know who Silver is.”

I force my smile to widen. “Of course you do. Anyway, because I’ve been trying to determine his whereabouts for months, I… detained your sister for questioning.”

Thomas’s expression doesn’t change, but something passes through his eyes that raises the hairs on my neck.

“I quickly determined she wasn’t really involved,” I go on, “but by then Silver already had his eye on both of us. We were pursued, and I determined that the safest place for us was-”

“For you,” Thomas interrupts.

My hands, folded neatly in my lap, twitch. “I beg your pardon?”

“The safest place for you . The safest place for Raleigh is here .”

“It’s not the place she wants to be,” I say, before my good goddamn sense can stop me.

Thomas’s head tilts, just the slightest bit, making him look more like a bird of prey than a man. He was enraged before I entered the room, but now I’m sure he’s made up his mind to never let me leave it. And since I have minutes to live, I do what I told Raleigh I would.

I tell the truth.

“I understand why you don’t approve of my methods,” I allow, “but at no point did I mean your sister harm. I wanted answers, and when I figured out that she didn’t have them, we worked together. When we were in danger, my priority was her safety. When I took us to that farmhouse, I did it because I knew it was the best thing for me, for her-”

I close my eyes briefly, sending one more apology to Raleigh in my mind.

“- and for our child.”

For a long, deathly silent moment, Thomas doesn’t react. I know he’s armed, and I brace for the gun to appear, for the last thing I see to be the flash of a flying bullet. But when Thomas stands, his hands are empty.

I suppose he could decide to finish what he started when he left my face a bloody mess nine months ago.

“Give me a single reason to let you leave this room alive,” Thomas says, his voice so low I feel it more in my spine than I hear it in my ears.

“Because I love her,” I say, without pretty words or a pretty smile to punctuate it. Just the plain, entire truth. The only thing I have left now.

Thomas leans forward on the desk. It creaks beneath his hands. His eyes, identical in color and shape to his sister’s, stare right into my soul. He’s searching for the seams in my mask, which I’m sure he’s always been able to see. The man is far too smart for either of us.

But this time, there’s no trick to find.

“Prove it,” he finally says, because of course he still doesn’t believe I’m capable of being truthful, even staring death in the face.

Slowly, very slowly, I unfold from my chair. Thomas straightens, ready to kill me at the slightest sign of stupidity. But I don’t move toward him. Instead, I take a step to the right, clearing me of the chair.

Bowing my head, I lower myself to my knees in front of his desk.