Page 42 of The Count
I’d been shot at. Found out I was pregnant by my ex-convict captor/enemy. And now he was taking me back his place. This situation was fucked the fuck up.
I leaned over and cradled my head.
His cool hand met my neck and I sagged back into it. Overheated and my brain going 1000 miles a minute his touch calmed some part of the maelstrom threatening to spill over.
We got to the apartment and he again carried me inside.
He built a blanket fort onto the couch with pillows and heaps of down comforters. His care touched me, and I absentmindedly put my hand to my stomach. Then realized what I did and jerked it away.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I lay my head back against the couch and closed my eyes. Fernand’s face swam in my head. He hugged me tight and pulled away telling me Eddy had been killed in jail. I was twenty years old, already heartbroken from being without him for two years. The news had been the only thing to threaten my rule over my territory in the twenty years I’d been there.
Which brought me full fucking circle to the human life now nestled inside my body. A body that was shot at, kidnapped, threatened, and fucked quite regularly. How did I manage this? I glanced over at Will who fussed with a cup of coffee and a book.
I reached out. “Calm down. It’s some stitches. I’ll be perfectly fine in a couple of days. If the man had actually put a bullet in me, then I’d let you grovel. But this wasn’t your fault.”
He hung his head and then I saw it. The guilt eating at, through him, out of him. It devoured him on multiple levels. It wasn’t about Fernand shooting himself, or now Villefort’s death by cop. No, each time they did something terrible he took that guilt onto his own shoulders. And he’d been slowly breaking under the weight of it since he got out of prison.
He met my eyes again and I kissed him. “We have one more bastard to go so you can be free.”
Seventeen
Eddy
With Mercy’s injury, I had to take care of Danglars alone. I’d planned each of these take downs out meticulously, for years. Now they were in action, not a single one went as I expected. On the other side of facing two of my enemies, I’d revised my plan while Mercy slept, and decided to handle Danglars differently. No one else died because of me.
No surprise this time. I sat in his office. Or rather giant shipping container he jokingly called an office, and waited for him to show up to work. He usually arrived around ten am. And I’d timed it earlier, since his scout on the corner likely saw when I entered the building and alerted him.
His desk and papers all appeared neat and tidy. A small black safe sat on the bottom shelf. It didn’t look very secure. I could pick it up and walk out of here with it. Did he keep more paperwork in there, or jewels, guns?
The door clamored shut and I looked up to see Danglars. He narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I stooped to test the handle of the safe. Pretty solid. Then stood back up. “Making a decision.”
He sauntered closer and pressed around me to get to the other side of his desk. Effectively replacing me, putting himself between me and his valuables. “About what?”
I sat. “What I’m going to do with you?”
He paused in taking off his coat. “Excuse me?”
I didn’t have the time or energy to go through all this once again. “My name is Edmond Dantes. You wrongfully sent me to prison twenty years ago. Now I’m back and taking my revenge.” Delivered deadpan it sounded like the plot of a serial crime tv show.
He scanned me hard and the realization hit him. I was ready when he surged to his feet and meant to make for the exit. I collared him against the wall, my fingers pressed tight around his throat. “No. You don’t get to leave when I’m speaking. Especially when I’m about to let you go with your life.”
That broke through his thick skill. He stopped struggling.
“You took everything from me. And after getting my revenge on your two compatriots I find I’m tired of death. So. I’m going to take your money, your home, every single thing. And you get to walk away alive as long as I never have to look at your face again.”
The man actually considered it. Like his possessions were worth more than his worthless life.
After a quick nod, I released him. He slumped and slid down the slatted wall in a heap. I stepped over him to the desk and eyed the safe. Something nagged at me. “Open it.”
To his credit, he didn’t argue about it. Simply got up, opened it, and waited. I pulled out a large green ledger and scanned the pages. It was coded, but with the key on the front I’d have no problem deciphering it.
“How long does this go back?
He cleared his throat and stretched his neck like I actually hurt him. Playing it up. I rolled my eyes and shook the book at him.
