Page 27 of Oblivion
“Dramatic much?” came from my right and I looked to the side to see Cillian standing there.
“Just a bit.” I smiled. “But we have a major fucking problem.”
“That we do.” He nodded and stalked out of the basement.
7
OPHELIA
I stoodbehind Vincent’s motionless body and leaned against the wall, banging my head, trying to think of everything that had happened while I was in the clubhouse. Nova was always there, but never in a million years would I have thought that she could be a mole.
I figured that there definitely was one as soon as that note found its way to my bed, but I thought it could be Creed, or just one of the other guys that wanted me gone, but Nova? Never.
Atlas had to be informed about this, Storm as well, but I couldn’t move from the spot I was occupying for the last fifteen minutes. I could hear footsteps coming from above, Cillian going from one spot to another.
His voice was loud enough to even reach me downstairs, and he was angry. So fucking angry. He was on the phone with Tristan. I knew he heard most of what Vincent told me, but I had no idea if he was angry at me or the information we got.
I looked down at my bloodied hands, the crimson a complete contrast to my pale skin, smearing all the way to my elbows. The scar running through my snake tattoo looked angry with all the blood covering it, and the night it got destroyed slammed into me in full force.
How angry I was.
How wrong we all were.
There was somebody else out there, playing their own little game, using all of us as their little puppets. I wasn’t sure if it angered or saddened me. All those years lost. All those lives, and for what?
I was chasing shadows, fighting the wrong battles, never once thinking about any other possibilities. What other truths were hidden from me while I was running around, chasing demons that weren’t mine to chase?
“Ophelia!” Cillian bellowed from above, waking me up from the haze in my mind. “Get your ass up!”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed away from the wall and started walking toward the door then upstairs to where he waited for me.
His chest was rising and falling with deep breaths, his hair in disarray while he clutched his phone in his right hand.
“That name, Belladonna,” he said as he looked at me. “I know that name.”
“I gathered as much,” I said flatly and sat down on the bar chair. “Tell me how?”
“Last year, we received a letter directly accusing you of Ava’s murder. As you know, we’ve blamed you for what happened long before last year, and it didn’t take long for us to start looking for you. It awakened something vile inside all three of us and we didn’t stop until we got to you.”
“So, you’re saying—”
“This person was playing with us all, and we went with it. We never once questioned what was written in that letter. We never once questioned the videos we got of you entering the house, but now that I think about it, it was the push we needed. Kieran was already half-crazy, thinking about you. Tristan, well, he just wanted justice, and I didn’t think twice before I started stalking you.”
“But I thought you were looking for me even before.”
“We were, but not like that. It was the fuel we needed, because you were so good at evading us.”
I nodded slowly, absorbing everything he said.
“The Albanians were the ones that told me about Maya and Kieran.” Cillian winced. “I was drowning all that time, just doing things to pass time and to find my sister. But when they told me about it, I was livid. I knew what I wanted to do, and that’s why it was so easy for you to catch me.”
“But the Albanians—”
“They were working with her… with Belladonna,” I murmured, while the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. “But why?” I asked and jumped off the chair. “Why would somebody do that?” His face took a comical look, because we all knew why someone would want to destroy us. “Don’t look at me like that. We’ve all made plenty of enemies throughout the years, but no one that set on killing us. I mean, there are literally countries where I wouldn’t dare step foot in right now, but none of them would deliberately go after me.”
“This is personal,” he murmured, looking at the floor. “Whoever this is, knows all of us. They know what makes us tick, and they knew that bringing up our sisters and what happened to them would be the push we all needed to do something. They didn’t give a fuck who lived and who died.”
I looked through the window at the green forest surrounding us, the perfect, calm nature, yet there was nothing calm inside of me. If we weren’t careful, this person, whoever they were, could be the end of us all.
