Page 74 of Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy 3)
“Destiny—”
“No. I’m J now. Isn’t that how it works? First letter of my last name. You’ve spent almost twenty years protecting me, and now it’s my turn. I will prove myself. I’m not a kid, Mount. I’m an asset. Use me.”
“That’s not why I sent you here. You’ve got a shot at a normal life—”
Destiny’s expression twisted into one of mock humor. “Really? Because I don’t come from the same shit that you do? You think somehow I’m going to turn into Suzy Homemaker and pop out a few kids for some upper-middle-class salesman who probably fucks his secretary? Is that what you really want for me?”
“I’d kill him.”
Her smile turned triumphant. “Exactly. And if anyone crosses you, I’ll kill them. It’s my turn to repay what you’ve done for me my whole life. I’ll prove to you that I’m strong enough. That I’m good enough. This is how it’s always been meant to be, Mount. You and me against the world.”
I yanked open the door and took a seat inside, jamming the key into the ignition as she settled into the passenger seat. As I started the car, I wished I could say I didn’t understand where she was coming from with this, but I did. I knew what it was like to want to prove your worth. To prove that you belonged somewhere.
“Don’t make me regret this, J.” I shot her a sharp look as I shifted into reverse.
“I’ve got your back, boss. You’ll see.”
Keira
Present day
With each story he tells me about Hope and Destiny and what they endured, especially the part about carrying Hope’s body out of the burning house while Destiny watched, my heart shatters into smaller and smaller pieces.
Not for myself, but for them. All of them. For the children they never got to be. For the chance they never got at a normal life.
Lachlan has spent the last hour telling me everything. Well, telling my shoulder. Or the wall. Or the ceiling.
Until he finally meets my gaze, and the pain and anguish in his is almost more than I can bear.
“If she were anyone else, she’d already be dead for what she did to you. But I couldn’t pull the trigger. It makes me the biggest fucking hypocrite in the world, because I wiped a goddamned cartel out of this city for spilling your blood, and she was the one who put it all in motion. She hired a low-level cartel member to take the shot. They didn’t order it, she did, and I’ve spent the last week while you were in the hospital undoing the damage she caused. She’s the reason I cut a deal with the other cartel. They’re taking responsibility, and in exchange, they get a monopoly on sourcing all the drug trade in the city.” He glances up at the ceiling again. “And still, I couldn’t put a bullet in her brain like she deserves. Fuck, I couldn’t even order someone else to do it, because I’m—”
I cut him off. “Not the monster you thought you were? Because you’re human?”
Lachlan’s hard gaze cuts to mine. “No—”
I stand and walk around the desk, coming toward the man I married, realizing that in some ways, I know him better than he knows himself.
“You shouldn’t—”
“Love you? Tell you that after everything you’ve shared with me, I couldn’t kill her eit
her if I were you? Because that’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
Carefully, I lower myself onto his lap and pull his stiff arm around me.
He watches me with confusion creasing his brow. “You should want her dead for what she did to you and Magnolia. And, God . . . the rest of them.”
My stomach twists at the thought of all those bodies in that mausoleum, but I shove it down. “How can I want her dead when you’ve been watching out for her practically her whole life? She’s like a little sister to you. None of you got a fair chance, not from the beginning. She’s broken, Lachlan. You didn’t do that. Her life did.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s not culpable for her actions.” His words sound almost as rusty as V’s did.
“She’s as culpable as anyone who’s criminally insane. Her mind isn’t right. You can’t tell me it is.”
He looks away, his jaw tense. “She’s a fucking genius, Keira. She graduated at the top of her class at MIT. I won’t make excuses for her—”
I grip his chin and turn his face back to me. “Then I will. Because she can be a genius all day long and still have severe mental-health issues that she’s done an incredible job of hiding from you. She needs help.”
He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “And how the hell do I help her? She knows too much for me to hand her off to some clinic to put on lockdown somewhere.”
