Restitution (The Edge of Darkness, #3)

by Leigh Rivers

We aren’t together – haven’t been for a while – but Stacey is my girl. Mine.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You’re okay. You’re safe with me,” he says softly as he strokes my hair, letting me cry into his chest. “I found you, little one.”

“You are also my priority. I would have always hunted for you to the ends of the fucking earth, little one.

If Stacey ever lets me hold her hand again, will she feel all the death I’ve caused?

My girl. Even when faced with the worst kind of horror, she fucking fought. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more than I already do, but I do.

“I’ll fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness the next time I see her.”

Stacey Rhodes. My girl. My anchor that sank to the bottom of the ocean without me.

“She’s not little. She’s also not oblivious to how evil her parents are. She knew Bernadette was drugging our son, and she still went after him. She witnessed his mistreatment and still demanded he marry her. She’s as much the devil as her bitch of a fucking mother and deserves the same treatment. And when I see Archie? Not even a gunshot to the head will fucking stop me.”

“I’ll leave your hearing, so I can tell you when I win her back, so you can hear her moaning my fucking name. When I marry her. When she births my fucking children. And guess what? I’ll have all of that. You won’t. Because Stacey Rhodes has been mine since the day I fucking met her.”

“Don’t be afraid of me, Freckles,” he calls, spitting out blood that’s leaked into his mouth. “This is for us.”

You made those times I was in hell feel like heaven. I wanted to die so many times, wanted it all to end, but I had you, so it was worth it. Living was worth it.

“I love you. I’ve loved you since we were eighteen. And I’ll love you until we’re old and grey and we’ve lived our whole lives together.”

I don’t want him to hide from me. When I kissed his scar before, I was showing Kade that it’s a part of him, and I love all parts of him. Even the darker ones. I’ll always love those parts of him.

“I want your heart, every single fucking fragment that I’ve broken over the years. I have your past and your present, and I want to be a selfish asshole and have your future.”

“Because you’re going to be my wife. You’ve already taken my heart, my body, and my butchered soul, so you’ll take my fucking last name too.”

In another life, I would probably feel sorry for her and want to help her escape. Maybe the happiness I feel seeing her this way means I’m spending too much time with people who ooze insanity.

“You make me feel alive, Stacey. I’ve been dead for such a long fucking time.”