Seduce & Destroy - Page 96

“No,” I said, simply.

“Malachi, just drop this, please.”

“Kil, why are you okay with having an enemy in our midst?” He said, his gaze never wavering. “And then I found out, it wasn’t even you who killed Richard Ravencroft. We need to kill your weakness.”

All she did was sigh and grabbed the hand I had at my ankle and placed it on my bent knee. “Stop being annoying and find somebody else to taunt. This isn’t happening.”

“What happened to you, Kilina? You’re soft.”

“No.” She said, sitting down at the table. “I’m not. I just pick my battles, and this isn’t one of them. Do something useful, the artillery van arrived a couple minutes ago, transfer that inventory.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t belong here.”

“We can choose to be better leaders,” Kilina slammed her hand on the table as cutlery bounced to the floor. “And if that’s with the heart–”

The heavy footfalls of boots drew our attention away.

Then, Terrence joined this sibling reunion. He stood to the side, not looking remotely interested in the stand-off that was occurring in front of him and announced in his usual baritone manner. “I need your help with something.”

“Sure,” Kilina said, standing.

“I didn’t mean you.”

I looked up at him, surprised, pointing a finger to my chest. “Uhh…what for?”

“We’d benefit from your expertise on a matter concerning security.”

With a firm nod, I followed him out the door, wiggling my eyebrows inquisitively at Kilina. “I can lend a hand.”

A moment before I rounded the corner, I remembered. “Kilina, meet me at the firepit at sundown. Yeah?” From the corner of my eye, I could see the slight nod she provided.

Then, I left following Terrence down the shadowed corridors of the estate that I used to call home. It was no different to before, yet it carried with it a new air, as if the oxygen I breathed was suddenly purer and the drafts that came in through the old windows were more fresh than haunting. It had a new life.

Without warning, Terrence stopped and produced a small white object from his pocket. “It was my mission to track your grandfather.” He confessed as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. It didn’t occur to me that he was a particularly affectionate man, so his sympathy surprised me. He lowered his voice. “When I got up there, I patrolled him and learned his routine, his habits, his desires. It surprised me how open and free he was. I thought he was the merciless leader, I had been taught to believe he was. But he was kind. The locals all talked about him fondly.”

My hands began to shake. These last couple weeks have been a stressful distraction from my greatest loss, I didn’t want to face it in front of Kilina’s brother. But the man he described was exactly the man I knew. I missed him.

“I surveilled him for a couple days as he ran his errands until one day he stopped. Completely out of the blue. So, when I approached his home, I thought he might have fallen or something, but what I found was much worse.” He gulped between sentences, and dread swirled in my stomach. “He must’ve known we were coming because…uhh…because when I entered his front door, I saw redness sprayed across his living room wall in a perfect circle. The bullet had went straight through his skull.”

Tears sprung to my eyes, and I had to clutch on to the wall for support. I wasn’t sure I could hear this, not in any amount of detail, it was brutal. I wished he would stop, but I couldn’t say a word.

“He was slumped on the floor.” I looked up at Terrence and noticed the sheen in his eyes too. “And this,” he extended his shaking hand. “This was beside him. I meant to destroy it but…”

“He killed himself.” I whispered, interrupting.

“I haven’t read it. I made myself believe he didn’t deserve his voice being heard. That he couldn’t beg for mercy after what he had done. But after learning about him from the community around him. I just couldn’t hate him. I think you should have it.” He waved the thing around as if it burned him.

“He didn’t know about the fire until after.” I said, but in the back of my head, I knew that my explanation didn’t matter. It was one thing to deliver the final blow to a man you believed deserved it, but it was a struggle to witness the death of someone you believe didn’t. This man was haunted. His gaunt expression now, despite the unshed tears, proved it to me. He wasn’t a villain.

“I know,” he replied. “I’m sorry.”

We exchanged deep breaths where we stood in the cold shadows of the manor. My office, or what had been my office, was only a stone throw away from here. This man prompted the suicide of my grandfather, yet I couldn’t hate him like I should. He was a good man associated with a family name that had been cursed by his son. I was a victim of our family name as much as him.

It’s with that thought that I begin to grieve Grandfather. For too long, I had put my process of his grief on the backburner, but with the knowledge that he died in a resolute way, kneecaps the injustice of his death.

“I needed to tell you that, Laney.” Terrence said. “I couldn’t live with myself if you went on thinking his life was robbed.”

He sacrificed himself. If to spare himself from the pain of his son’s betrayal or to avoid a confrontation with the family his name ruined, we will never know. But with that mystery solved, I might finally close the chapter on his book while still keeping it on the shelf. Some part of me would never get over the brutality of it.