Legacy (Sociopath Series Book 2)(85)

There’s not an inch of Lore in you. You’re all heart. What the f*ck did he mean by that?

“It doesn’t matter,” she murmurs, her voice somewhere far away.

“Help’s coming. We’ll get you warmer, get you fixed up…” She’s butt naked; I don’t know why this didn’t hit me sooner, but everyone else will be able to see. “We’ll get you some clothes.”

“I just want to sleep.”

“Soon, sweetheart.” I kiss her hair again. “I promise that, too.”

Heavy footsteps grind into the sand; a bulky shadow falls over us, muttering into a radio in an American accent.

“Get your medic on standby,” he says into the receiver, before turning to yell over his shoulder, “Stretcher, over and out. And blankets. Send a bunch.”

I bring a hand up to shield my eyes, and stare into the red, sweating face of Agent Chen. He’s still in a suit, though he’s rolled up his shirt sleeves and pant legs to reveal acres of hairy flesh.

“Mr. Lore,” he says.

If I had the energy, I’d peel back the many layers of meaning in his voice, but I’m just flaccid. Dead weight.

“Agent,” I manage.

“We’ve located the body.” He clears his throat. “Seems to me that the bastard drowned.”

Ash twists to peer up at him, his breath suddenly uneven.

“He drowned,” I say flatly.

“Very well.” He casts his gaze back over the ocean, his brow dipping at the sudden blot of red in blue. The boat hovers nearby now, a tall figure shaking a huge net over the side. “Quite the tragedy. Did you happen to catch his name?”

Silence. I don’t know what I’m meant to say here—so unusual for me that I just chew on dry balls of words.

“He said he was my Daddy,” Ash pipes up, all hoarse. “But he wasn’t. He definitely wasn’t!”

I nod. “He wasn’t. Don’t worry.”

Daddy, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it, I just—I wanted—I’m sorry! The little pipsqueak wasn’t talking to Blood Honey; he was talking to me.

“I know what it is,” Leo mumbles into my shoulder. “He told me his name was Abel.”

Agent Chen wipes the sweat off his upper lip and narrows his eyes. “Abel Hart.” He lifts the radio receiver, still looking down at us. “We have a positive ID on the suspect. Tell the embassy we’re bringing a body in.”

Another agent approaches him with an armful of silver foil blankets. I snatch a couple for Leo, bundling her into them and holding her tight against my chest. For a second, she opens her black button eyes and my mouth floods with the flavor of smoked honey.

“Your face.” My fingertips hover over the angry bruise her cheek. “What the f*ck did he do to you?”

“I’m not sure,” she whispers. “I went somewhere else.”

“I’m so sorry. I promise, I—”

“It wasn’t like what you do to me, Aeron. I want you to know that. It wasn’t like that at all.”

And then she’s silent, and a stretcher arrives, and I lay her down on the soft fabric while Ash helps to tuck her in.

“Leo,” he tells her softly, “the bad man’s gone now.”

She flinches. “Asher?”

He lingers, his hands shaking.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“I…” He trails off amid another bout of tears. “He p-put me in a suitcase, and I was there for so long!”

Her cuffed hands come out from beneath the blanket, scrabbling around until she finds his. She grips him tightly. “When we get home, we’ll burn a hundred suitcases.”

His brow dips in confusion; he doesn’t know whether to laugh or frown. “Because it will help?”

“Maybe.” She takes a deep breath as the agents haul the stretcher up, and gently releases his hand. “Worth a shot, right?”

He nods. Steadies himself, sniffing. “Right.”

Somehow, amid our reunion, two new boats have pulled up on to the shore. One belongs to an exhausted and bedraggled Hassan; Ethan staggers down to greet him, and I watch, my arms wrapped around Ash’s shoulders so my heart beats with his.

The thing is, firecracker, I’m not a better man. Before, I was the man the world needed me to be; right now, in this moment, I’m the man my family needs me to be. Sweet logic, however you look at it, only the implications are numerous and new laws must be fashioned. The important thing is…I’m alive.

We’re alive.

At the end of the day, you’re just a savage in a suit.

Always such a f*cking bitch, huh, Tuija? Fine. Maybe I’ll switch it up a little.

Maybe I’ll be a savage when it suits.





CHAPTER TWELVE




“This is Kasha Elliot with your six PM news. In an NN24 exclusive on the Blood Honey murders, we can in fact confirm that the suspect has been found, and is deceased. I repeat, the serial killer known as Blood Honey is deceased.

“The FBI, along with the United States Embassy of Sri Lanka, have released a statement confirming that the body of Abel Hart was located in the Maldives, a large cluster of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean. How he came to be in such an obscure location is still a mystery, but agents are expected to announce later tonight that in a covert operation, they tracked him across the globe. Sources say Hart travelled on a number of forged passports in his attempt to escape justice.