Page 93 of Delirium
“Fuck,” I cursed.
“Why can’t they leave us alone?” she asked through gritted teeth, her eye twitching. “Why can’t they let us be?”
“Because they feed off of other people’s pain, and that’s what they want. They want revenge.”
“But revenge for what?” she whisper-yelled. “I’ve been trying to figure out who this person could be, who could hate me so much, and every single time, I come up blank. I don’t understand any of this. Why would she want to kidnap me? Why go after our kids? Does she want to kill me or does she just want me to suffer?”
“Maybe both,” I said. “I hate it as much as you do, but we need to do something about it. We need to go there.”
“I’m going with you,” she added, looking up at me. “If you’re going to Portland, I’m coming. Don’t even try to stop me.”
“I wouldn’t.” I chuckled. “But we will need to have a lot more people with us, and I don’t want you unprotected.”
“Uh, I’m happy you guys are talking about whatever it is, but I’m kinda bleeding here,” Simon called out, earning an eye roll from Ophelia.
She didn’t waste another moment. Within seconds, she strolled toward him, stepping right in front of him. “You’re gonna tell me where their compound is. Right. Now.”
He seemed to consider his next words, but all three of us knew that he wasn’t going to get out of here alive, and it was futile trying to postpone the inevitable.
“I need you to promise me that you won’t go after my family,” he said. “Swear on the lives of your children.”
“How do you know there’s more than one?” I asked.
“Because she told us,” Simon answered. “She told us you’re carrying twins and that you’ll need to be handled with care.”
She knew. Belladonna knew Ophelia carried twins. She knew more than I was comfortable with, and I had a feeling that knowledge came from Nova.
She was getting desperate now if she wanted to kidnap Ophelia. Why not before? Why now?
Why hire mercenaries for this? None of this made any sense.
“You have my promise,” Ophelia suddenly said. “I won’t touch your family. They will never see me, never hear from me, and they’ll be protected from Belladonna.”
Tears pushed to the forefront, his eyes filling with regret and pain. As much as I hated what we were about to do, I knew it was necessary.
“Thank you,” he breathed out. “Thank you for that.”
Ophelia simply nodded, giving him time. As he took his next breath, he told us everything he knew. The location where Belladonna stayed, her house, the number of men he managed to see when they went there for the first time to get their payment, and the insanity surrounding her.
He described the man working with her, and it was obvious that it was Judah Blackwood, hiding with that bitch.
“Thank you, Simon,” Ophelia murmured. “Thank you for letting me know.”
Without preamble, without warning, she pushed the knife through the side of his neck, cutting off the artery. In the blink of an eye, his blood started pouring out, covering the entire floor. Simon twitched and moaned, crying out the entire time, while his eyes kept looking at us. Within minutes, he was gone.
The smell of the blood in the air sent a shudder through my body. No matter how many times we did this, it was never easy watching life disappear from another person’s eyes.
“He’s gone,” I mumbled, wrapping my arm around Ophelia’s shoulders. “Are you okay?” I asked, worried about the trembling in her body. “You’re shaking.”
“I’m pissed off,” she bit out, still holding on to the knife. “I’m pissed that we still have no idea who this person is or what they want. More importantly, I’m pissed off that the killing didn’t stop the moment I stepped away from that world.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
“I know it isn’t, but it’s like a domino effect, isn’t it?” She looked up at me. “Maybe I did something in the past that caused all of this. Maybe I was the trigger, and now good men and women are dying because of me. Your chapter in San Diego, even this man, they’re all dead because some psychopath out there is trying to get to me.”
“We can’t know that for sure,” I argued. “I know we all did things we aren’t exactly proud of, but everything that happens afterward is not on us.”
“I wish I could believe that, Storm. I really do. But I’m worried that one day my actions are going to hurt those I love the most, and what will I do then? I can’t run away from my past. I can’t change it—”
