Restitution (The Edge of Darkness, #3)

by Leigh Rivers

If Base dies and I don’t find my sister and Stacey, Bernadette better hide on a different fucking planet, because nothing, and I mean nothing, will stop me from ripping that rotten bitch to shreds.

I glance down at the material under my hand – the pink princess dress I bought years ago still has the tags on it; it’s still unworn, still fresh. I grasp the fabric in a fist and lift it my chest, hugging it as more tears fall. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, the two words broken. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you.” How different our lives would be if she’d survived. She would have been so loved by everyone. She’d be spoiled and adored and wild like her mother.

“I’ll deal with Bernadette. I just needed to apologise. You don’t have to ever forgive me, but I want you to know that if I had all the time in the world, I would spend it trying to win you back. I’d prove myself worthy of you, Stacey. Because there hasn’t been a day that’s passed where you haven’t kept me going. My love might not be enough for you, but it’s all I have left. I love you. I love you so fucking much that I want to live.”

“The first time I saw you, I was yours. I’ll always be yours, Freckles. Our girl will be proud of the woman you’ve become. You’ll both always be my girls.”

“It’s you and me, son,” Tobias says, low enough that it’s a whisper, but I’m close enough to hear. “You’re not doing this by yourself anymore. I’m here. I’m not letting you do this alone. You and me, you hear me?”

“They’ll kill you.” His dad chuckles and grips his shoulder. “Maybe, but not before every single one of them pays. Getting revenge, son, is what we are going to be fucking doing. I have a list, and Christopher Fields is at the very top. Help me hurt the motherfucker.”

This Kade Mitchell is a glitch in the universe. But he’s my glitch, not Bernadette’s, not Archie’s, not the men and women who paid for his forced services and punctured him with needles to dope him up. Under the skin of the devil they created, buried in the fucking void of the darkness he’s trapped in, I will find a glimmer of his humanity. Why? Because he’s mine.

I see a blue-eyed little girl with dark hair and a smile that could’ve lit up the world, a giggle that would’ve made the stars shine brighter and a future that was ripped away from her before she reached a single milestone. I see Kade holding her hand while she wears the princess dress he bought her when I was pregnant. And as my mind messes with me some more, I hear my daughter screaming as Chris grabs her. She’s crying for me, for her daddy. Until her sobs are cut off, and darkness falls. Everything quietens in my head. There’s a dull throb in my ears as I stare at him. The blade is in my grasp, but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything but loss. Little princess, this is for you.

“I want you to know that it’ll be me who kills you. Kade might have caused you all the pain you deserved, but it will be me who ends your life.”

“Kiss me,” she whispers against my mouth, knowing how desperately I want to do just that. “It’s just me and you. It’s always been me and you. Against the world.”

She carefully takes my face between her hands, her pupils dilating more with every second. “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.”

“Slow,” he repeats with a slight grimace, as if the word sickens him. “I never want to hear that word from you again when it comes to me and you. We do whatever the fuck we want.”

Nothing about Kade scares me. Even if he did chase me down a highway on a motorbike and point a gun in my face, shoot at me, finger me while covered in blood, along with all the other messed-up things he’s done. He doesn’t scare me. That side – the scary, vicious and extremely dangerous side – is the one everyone sees, but I get to see a different Kade.

Everything he’s done in his life – kill, fuck, torture – he did to protect those he loved. Including me. I almost smile, elated deep within as butterflies bloom, as I look into the eyes of the only person I want to be with. He’s the only person I’ve ever wanted to be with. Kade Mitchell loves me. I’m his. And he’s mine.

“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.”

“What will you do with your freedom?” Kade stares at me for a long moment, breathing the same air while I touch him through his clothes. “Win my girl back.”

“I dream of you,” he says in a deep voice, his eyes darkening as he pulls his belt from the loops of his black trousers. “Every night, I dream of you.”

Dad tilts his head. “How did he taste?” She glares at him, weak, then glances down at the plate. Her eyes lift to me. Base steps forward. “He asked you a motherfucking question, bitch. How did your husband taste?”

I was a nervous eighteen-year-old who couldn’t stop obsessing over her. It seems nothing ever really changes because I’m still fucking obsessed. It feels like I’ve been in love with this girl since I was born.

No matter what I thought she did to break my trust, I was still in love with her. The fifth rule never existed.

Our broken puzzle pieces are finally firmly in place, and they’ll never be torn apart again. Because we get to have this. We get to have everything we’ve ever wanted. Kade Mitchell and Stacey Rhodes – the fifteen-year-olds who met by the pool twenty years ago – finally get to have their forever.