Restitution (The Edge of Darkness, #3)

by Leigh Rivers

Did I tell you I locked her in the bathroom and tried to blow her house up with us both inside?” My eyes bulge. “You didn’t.” Some details were kept out of the reports. “That’s kind of messed up.”

“I was never supposed to be here,” Tobias continues, helping me down the steep, muddy slope. “I actually asked for the death penalty ten years into my sentence, but Aria fought it until it was thrown out. I was insane and suicidal, they ruled; not capable of making a rational request.” I frown. “You wanted to die?”

“I managed to save you, didn’t I?” “This is not the same. You’re not rescuing anyone. You’re saying you’re going to kill the woman who runs Scotland. Her and her husband are vile and corrupt and deep in the underworld. Are you insane?” “Yes,” he replies bluntly.

“Tobias…” He pinches the bridge of his nose for a second and drops his hand. “Look what they’ve done to my son. They tried to sell you and my daughter. Of course I’m going to avenge you all.” He throws his arm over my shoulders and directs us to the patio. “I would do anything to protect my people, little one.”

Dark hair and a beautiful face lean down to me, and the scent of vanilla and coconut fills my senses. “Kade. Breathe. You’re okay.” She’s stroking my cheek, my forehead, my hair, pushing it out of my face.

“Wake up.” Screw Tobias and his habit of ruining my naps.

“Sometimes I struggle to find reasons why we’re friends.” “We aren’t friends. We’re family. Now – out of bed.”

He glances at Kade, and his smile drops. The big, bad psychopath has a heart, because I see it every time he looks at his kids, at Aria, and I’m sure it grows in size like The Grinch’s when she grins at him. When she giggles. When she reaches up and kisses him on the cheek.

He’s exhausted. Three years of constantly being used and abused, drugged and raped, turned into a killer. All for a deranged woman’s entertainment.

Regardless of everything he’s done for Bernadette, I love him. I’ll always love him. Tobias and I tried to track how many victims fell to his violence, and we stopped when the numbers neared five hundred.

A shaky hand rises to press over my own hand, holding it to his face. I slide my thumb under his eye and smile, even though he can’t see me. He pushes his face into my palm harder, clearly starved of this kind of touch.

Even though he’s technically the heir to the Russian mafia and marrying into another Russian empire, ultimately making him soon-to-be one of the most powerful leaders in his home country, Base still pales when he sees Kade’s father. “Sebastian Ivanovich Prince,” Tobias greets Base as he closes the door to the driver’s side.

“You’re with us, Kade. Not there. They can’t hurt you anymore. Say it.” “They can’t hurt me anymore,” Kade repeats quietly. “They can’t hurt me anymore.” “No, they can’t. Say it again.” Silence, then Kade fists his hands. “They can’t hurt me anymore.”

Tobias grabs his face. “You aren’t alone anymore, son. If those bastards try to come anywhere near you, I’ll make them pay. Do you hear me?” “I want them to pay,” he says, his chin and bottom lip trembling.

“Keep an eye on Kade and Ella. I can’t come back. I was only allowed to bring her here as one of my conditions for accepting the marriage. Once I leave, I’m gone.” “Are you really marrying someone?”

Every now and again, Tobias looks over his shoulder at me, mouthing, Are you okay? He winks when I nod.

I walk to my own room to get changed, catching a glimpse of Base sitting on Lu’s chosen bed, her standing between his legs, crying again. The only thing I catch before I keep walking is him saying, “Come on. Don’t be upset, princess. Don’t say goodbye like this.”

“Ewan’s in the room with Kade,” Barry says. “We need to keep them as far away from him as possible.” “And my girls,” Tobias says, glancing at Base. “You, go with them.”

Base grabs Luciella’s hand and leads her upstairs, even as she yells at him to leave her alone, but Aria and I stand our ground. “Go with them,” Tobias barks at us, and we both shake our heads. “Goddammit, go with them now!”

“Hmm,” she replies, her eyes snake-like and evil. “So, you’re his mother. I should shoot you right now.” “You will not,” a deep voice says. Bernadette’s eyes land on the man beside me.

She visibly blushes and licks her lips. “The famous Tobias Mitchell. I’ve waited a very long time to meet you.” I peek at Tobias, who looks like he’s about to punch her in the face. But he’s remaining calm. His kids are here, and if he loses it, he dies, and then he can’t protect them.

“You love your son. You’d do anything for him?” Tobias doesn’t deign to respond, but he does push Aria behind him. “I’ll give your son his freedom, destroy all evidence of his crimes, and he can walk free. But in return, you’ll be mine.” Aria steps forward, and we all tense as Bernadette points her gun at her.

Tobias yanks her back behind him again, scowling at Bernadette. “Don’t you ever point a gun at her again. You hear me? Lower your aim on Stacey too.”

“You hurt my son,” he says to Archie. “I’m going to shred the skin off your revolting body and make you eat it.” Tobias shoots him right in the shoulder, knocking the beast back against the wall with a wail. Guards point their guns at Tobias, but Bernadette huffs.

“Do we have a deal?” Bernadette asks, annoyed now. Tobias caresses Aria’s hand with his thumb and nods once, his eyes blazing, shoulders tense, jaw tight. His gaze is darkening, and I know he’s going to close himself off as soon as he leaves with them.

He shrugs away from them and turns to Aria, who’s sobbing and begging him to stay, to find another way, but all he does is smile at her, take her face and kiss her on the lips. It’s more than just a kiss. It’s everything he wants. Everything he had. And everything he’ll lose. It’s a goodbye. A see you later. An eternity of wondering what if.

When he pulls back from the kiss, he presses his lips to her forehead. “I love you. Every broken part of me has loved you from the moment I met you.” “I love you too,” she sobs. “I need you to come back to me. Please. Please, Tobias.” “It was never going to be an easy road. At least now I can do something good for my family. Live your life the way you were supposed to without me, Doctor.”

He steps back from her, nods to Jason and Barry, and looks at me. “You take care of yourself and my kids.” He hugs me to him, and I sink into his hold and shake in his arms. “I’ll make it worth it, little one,” he whispers against my hair. “Just you watch. Heaven and hell will see the flames of their downfall.”

Where does one go when they pass? Their memories stay with us, their lifeless bodies waiting to be buried or cremated. But what truly happens? Do they become stars? Are they ghosts who stand by our sides when we need them the most? Are psychics legit, and do the dead communicate during readings?

When we get a shiver up our spines and the hairs rise on our arms, is there someone with us?

Jason was getting clean. He was going to therapy, he’d started back at the gym and had a goal to be better. Not just for the woman he loved but for himself. He was supposed to live. To get his life back. To help Kade get his life back and fix his relationship with his brother. He isn’t supposed to be gone. He wasn’t supposed to jump in front of a bullet for me. But he did. And now he’s dead.

Even if that means taking a bullet for you… Jason kept his promise. It’s been mere minutes since the shot was taken.

Her words are angrier, louder, full of venom. “Who killed my brother?” Tobias Mitchell’s genetics runs deep in her, and with the dark look on her face, the tension in her jaw and the tone in which she snarls each word, I can see that side of him everyone fears. Luciella is her father’s daughter. Through and through.

It’s the wrong time to be looking at him this way, but I haven’t seen Kade like this in so long, I’d forgotten just how handsome and perfect he is. My eyes fall on the scar he hasn’t covered, my gaze following the purple line from the corner of his mouth, all the way down his throat to where it stops, above his heart. He follows my gaze, and when he looks back up at me, he doesn’t try to hide it.

Kade’s eyes drop down my body, taking in the blood soaking my clothes and staining my skin. “Are you hurt?” I shake my head, unable to speak as my eyes burn.

“Hey,” he says softly. “Talk to me, Freckles. Why are you so sad? Did Chris hurt you again?” I shake my head, my chest tightening. “No. Chris is dead,” I reply with a wobbly bottom lip, opening my eyes to look at him. “We killed him. Me and you. He can never hurt us again.” “Never again,” he repeats with a frown, and I nod.

“Kade!” I almost slam into his back as he stops at the entrance of the sitting room. His brother’s body lies limp in his stepfather’s arms as he struggles to lift him towards the front door with Aria trailing behind, distraught. All eyes turn to Kade.

And when Kade eventually looks at him, I see it settling into his blood. A devastating hunger for revenge. “What happened to my dad and brother?” His voice is eerily calm.

Kade glances at me and drags his gaze down my bloodied clothes then up again. When his eyes clash with mine, I see nothing but darkness behind them. No emotion except anger.

His hands fist at his sides, his once sleepy eyes filled with something dark and sinister. I think of the videos I’ve seen of him torturing people. I think of the way he had no expression as someone begged for their life and said they had children. Or when he stalked people and drove them into a mental hole.

Archie rattles the chains as he struggles, his restraints cutting into his skin. Cuffed at his wrists and ankles, he stands spreadeagled in the centre of the walk-in freezer with nothing but his underwear on. I cut his clothes off while he was passed out. I wanted him fucking exposed while I carved my name into his back.

I smirk. “How does it feel? You’ve been married since you were eighteen, yet your wife sought out a teenager to get pleasure. She was so damn bored of your pathetic ass that she used drugs and manipulation to get others into bed.”

“Get me the nail gun.” Archie’s eyes go wide as I walk towards him with it. He thrashes as I press it directly to his crotch and screams as I shoot a long nail right through his limp dick, pinning it to his inner thigh.

I lower my voice, whispering into his ear. “You’ll never touch me again. I highly suggest you keep your threats to yourself, or I might just order my largest guard to split you in two.” I toss the nail gun on the ground as he wails in agony and head out the door. Barry follows, locking the door behind us.

I’m done being her chained pet. The defective Kade Mitchell with no free will who was drugged and fucked by her family to save his own. Raped by men and women. Pathetic. Dirty. Useless.

He stayed by Stacey’s side while she was in America and was even helping my dad. Fuck, he even pointed a gun at me when I met up with Stacey after shooting her. He cares for her. He puts her safety before mine. And that’s what I need – Stacey safe at all costs.

Barry lowers his head. “Thank you, sir.” His eyes flicker to the side. “And I’m sorry for your loss. I know I haven’t said it yet, but I truly am sorry. Don’t beat yourself up about it, alright? Eat something. Drink water. Sleep. Jason knew the position you were in when things went down with Stacey. He forgave you. He loved you.”

It takes me five tries with my unsteady hands to spark a flame, and I inhale deeply, until my lungs burn more than the thoughts running rampant in my mind. Dirty. Pathetic. Useless. You were raped by men and women. Your dad is going through it all now. And your brother is dead because of you.

I drop my head and keep my eyes closed, focusing on the one thing keeping me stable, keeping me on this side of the fucking world of sanity. Revenge. My dad thinks he’s a hero for swapping with me, but he’s wrong.

He’ll survive through violence, not the pressure of keeping his family safe, because he isn’t wired that way. He’s impulsive and dangerous. Un-fucking-hinged.