"Way before you started working at King Corp, he had been watching you, stalking your every move. He’s—" He paused when he saw I wasn’t influenced by his words.
I was more shocked at myself. I just realized my stalker all those years ago was in fact real, and those feelings I had of eyes on were genuine, yet for so reason I wasn’t alard as much as I hoped to be.
A look of betrayal crossed Reed’s face. "You... You want him back? After everything he has done to you? Put you through?"
I closed my eyes, shaking my head slowly, deeming his words were more like a blow to the face than a wake-up call.
Reed inhaled. "Your parents died because of his father!"
"Stop..." I said. "Stop. You have no right to bring that up every ti you wanna give a reality check. You don’t get to do that.... You don’t get to open wounds I’m trying to heal!"
Reed gave a softened expression. "It’s nothing but the truth, and you told to take you away, didn’t you? You wanted nothing to do with him. To protect Es."
I only did that because of Elias’ threat.
Because at so point, if it weren’t for it, I would have stayed by Ares’ bedside. For years, that possibility haunted , no matter how much I tried to push it aside and tell myself I did what I had to do.
Seeing I wasn’t formulating any response, Reed veered his eyes to Ares, a wild round of emotions flooding them. "It’s always gonna be him, isn’t it?" he questioned.
His finger pressed on the trigger.
"NO!"
I couldn’t process anything that was happening. The sound of a muted shot echoed in my ears, and I was frozen solid until Reed collapsed to the floor.
I ran to him, falling on my knees as I covered my mouth. Reed’s shirt was soaked, and blood spread to the floor. He growled, clutching his shoulder, turning his hand crimson.
"O-Oh no..." I rasped, turning my head.
Ares clutched a silencer he had used to shoot Reed. He took off the tapes attached to it, and it dawned on that he had hidden it under the counter.
It was never there before.
Reed’s pained noise pulled back, and I rushed, breezing past Ares to grab my phone and dial the ergency number.
I pressed the device to my ear, but it was taken from .
"No ergency. It was an accidental call," he spoke calmly and ended the call.
"Mommy?"
A voice ca from upstairs, and I panicked.
"Go to her, baby."
I shifted my attention to Reed, struggling to sit up, leaning against the wall as he gripped the wound tightly.
With a shuddering breath, I glanced back at Ares. The entire ti he had been in Penrose, I had been able to read him, but that was only because he allowed to; now I can’t get even the faintest of his thoughts.
"Will you kill him?"
When he didn’t reply, I gulped, facing the sink and washing the little blood off my hands before climbing upstairs.
Es was already close, and I scooped her up, leading her back to her room.
I lay her back on the bed, and she snuggled into the covers sleepily while clutching her teddy.
She yawned. "Mommy, is everything okay? I heard a noise."
"Everything’s fine, sweetie. I’m sorry for waking you up."
"Okay..." Her eyes grew heavy.
She was really tired; the carnival took a lot out of her. I stayed for a few minutes even though my entire body scread at to go down.
I was patient until I knew she was deep in sleep before I went back downstairs, my steps slowing down when I caught a scene.
"Milady..." Nico casually greeted with a broad grin, his gold gun pointed at Reed’s head. "It’s been a while. Years. But a while."
"N-Nico..."
"Did you miss ?"
I swallowed a lump in my throat. "He needs to go to a hospital..." I eyed the blood, and then Reed’s face, sweaty and pale, doing his best to stay awake.
"No can do, milady, I’m following orders. Reed can never relate to that, can he? He was always rough around the edges, more balls than brains. He broke the code, he betrayed and disrespected the Don, and there are consequences to those actions. But you thought about that, Reed, you thought about it real good, which is why you hid so well."
Nico veered his eyes to . "That explains a lot, doesn’t it? I’ll take a wild guess, you wanted to settle down in a quiet town like this, but he never quite liked the idea."
"D-Don’t listen to him, Cat," Reed hissed.
"Shut it! Little Missy is upstairs. Do you want her to hear the bullet piercing through your skull?"
Reed flashed him a bloodthirsty glare. "Screw you."
"Don’t look at like that... you brought this on yourself. If It had been up to I’d have killed your sorry excuse of an ass the instant I set foot on Penrose... lovely town by the way." He ate the pizza I had stored in my fridge. "I hope you don’t mind, I was starving."
Hearing the glass chi, I flinched. Ares was in the middle of pouring whisky into the glass before setting the bottle down.
My pulse raced as I neared him, knowing there was no use reasoning with Nico. The air had shifted around Ares, and sothing told to tread carefully.
Reed’s life was in his hands.
I don’t wanna point fingers, but this was Reed’s fault, because in that split second, he was gonna pull the trigger and shoot Ares. I didn’t even wanna think about that right now; all I knew was that I did not want anyone dying today.
"Ares..." I began softly, but he didn’t look at , keeping his steady eyes on Reed as he sipped from the glass. "He needs a doctor."
This wasn’t going well. Call it a feeling, but I knew deep down, Ares wasn’t objecting to watching him bleed to death.
"Ares, please..."
Finally, his eyes connect with mine. He set the glass down and straightened his spine.
I tensed when he approached, and stood so close that goosebumps rose on my skin. The blend of danger and stillness rolling off him was suffocating. It was so hard to believe we just spent our day playing gas at the carnival with Es.
Oh God, is he even gonna listen to ?
"Under one condition."
What now?
"Kiss like you’re mine."
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