Page 29 of Complete Me

"Mine?" he repeated.

Her lips thinned into a line and she gave him a scathing look of disapproval.

"I don't see how it's my justice," he continued before she cut him off.

"Why am I here, Smith? You called me this time, but I doubt it was for an update."

"I don't know," he said, but it was a bald-faced lie. She'd known him long enough to see right through him, but even if she'd been a complete stranger, his answer was as transparent as glass.

"You want to claim justice as your own," she answered for him when he could not. "No one could blame you for that. I couldn't blame you for that, because it isn't just about justice. It's about protecting her. You have to know that she's still in danger. You have to see that the clock is ticking on your reprieve. He knows her. He chose her. So long as he breaths, Belle will be a target to him."

"You don't know that," Smith growled. But he did. He had already reached the same conclusion. It was what had driven him to this low point. He'd needed Georgia's help to ensure his wife's safety. Now that he knew the truth, he also knew there were far too many variables for him to turn a blind eye. His stomach twisted under the pressure.

"What's stopping you?" she pressured him.

"The night that Hammond died," he looked up to her, "I went to kill him myself."

"I suspected as much," she confirmed.

So, she believed in his innocence. That meant something to him. Even those closest to him, even the people he trusted, had questioned it when he claimed his innocence. They'd let it go because if it had been Smith that had killed Hammond, no one could blame him.

Georgia knew better than anyone the reasons he had to end that man's life. She might have had even more herself, but she'd been strapped to a hospital bed, fighting for her life.

"I realized I had a choice," his voice was low as he spoke. But it no longer felt that way. Every time he took a fork in the road, it seemed to lead back to the other path. Was this his destiny all along? To be a killer? How had he ever been stupid enough to believe he could escape it?

"Hammond told me I was free. He acted as if he was giving me the option, but I knew in that moment it was my choice. It has always been my choice. I walked away. I didn't want to be him."

"And now?" she said softly, a tone that contradicted her usual demeanor. This was personal to her as well, and she could no longer pretend that it wasn't. Hammond had twisted both of their lives to suit his purposes. He had been responsible for the death of Smith's father and subsequently the slow death that claimed Smith's mother.

But Georgia had been another story. Hammond had groomed her. He had taught her about pain and he had taught her to want it. Smith couldn't imagine what it would take to break a woman like Georgia Kincaid. He didn't want to. It was enough to make him sick. The first time Hammond had ever put a whip in Smith's hands, introduced him to the seedy underbelly of London's bondage scene, he had also given him Georgia to dominate. It was a dynamic that neither of them appreciated or wanted. But, there had been little choice. Maybe that's why it felt like they were still in this together now, because it had been the two of them since the beginning.

"You still have a choice," Georgia told him. "I'm giving it to you now.

"What do you know about him?" Smith asked. He forced the part of himself that felt disgusted for taking part in this man's inevitable death deep inside himself. This was about Belle. His whole life was her now and he couldn't rest until he had ensured her safety.

"He's married," Georgia informed him. "Two kids that they shipped off to boarding school as soon as they were done teething. Everyone we've spoken to suggests his rise to power in Parliament is only just starting. He keeps his anti-Royal sentiments to a minimum, but our sources believe he's swaying more and more members to his side."

"Why doesn't Alexander just go about it like that?" Smith could curse the man despite his own connections with the royal family. Smith himself wasn't particularly fond of the royalty concept. It helped knowing that Alexander didn't exactly love to be King. Smith might not collect Royal memorabilia, but he didn't wish them harm. "And if Jacobson wants to dismantle the Royal Family, why wouldn’t he just proceed through legal avenues?"

"I wish I knew," she told him.

"What else?" Smith prompted. What she'd said so far wasn't enough to go on. He needed information, needed facts. Where did Jacobson live when he was in town? Where was he now? Was he a paranoid man? Smith couldn't help but curse himself for not realizing the monster was within his grasp the day they had gone hunting. It would have been so easy, but harder to cover up. A planned attack meant he stood a chance of getting away with the murder. It was unlikely, but the odds were a little better than shooting a man in cold blood.

"Why don't you want to do it?" Smith asked.

Georgia paused as if considering this. Then she poured herself another bourbon. "I suppose in a way, Jacobson did me a favor," she admitted. "I would never have been free from Hammond, not until he was dead. That's why I didn't go after Jacobson myself."

"He was the one who ordered the hit on you," Smith pointed out.

At the time, he thought Hammond had been the one behind the attempt on Georgia's life, but the more he considered it, he couldn't bring himself to believe it. Hammond was obsessed with Georgia. He considered her his adoptive daughter, never mind that he'd been bedding her since she was a teenager. It was a perverse relationship to be sure, but one that Smith knew Hammond held dear. It had to have been Jacobson who ordered her death. It was the only thing that made sense.

"Jacobson tried to have me killed." Georgia shrugged, as if this revelation had rolled off her back like a light rain. "There are worse things than death, believe me." It was the closest she had ever come to opening up to Smith about the past she kept hidden. He didn't blame her for wanting Hammond dead. She'd played her part well, pretending to be the dutiful daughter. She'd accepted her role, and at times she had enjoyed it.

That was the difference in Smith's eyes. Whereas his wife had a natural submissive streak that turned on his dominant side, Georgia craved the pain for much less healthy reasons. She treated her body as a sacrifice, and Smith had always seen the reality behind the submission. The shame, and the guilt had driven her to moments far more depraved than even he could imagine.

"Don't look so heartbroken for me," she said, calling him from his thoughts. "I'm no damsel in distress, remember?"

If only that was true, Smith thought. The best thing that could ever happen to Georgia would be if she allowed someone to save her. He couldn't imagine what kind of man that would take. He had an inkling that she couldn't either. Maybe that's why she continued to seek him out. The trouble with Georgia was that she looked in all the wrong places.