Third Time's a Charm (Holland Springs #3)(57)

Her eyes widened. “How can he?”

“Vladimir can do any damn thing he wants. He’s the executor of my father’s estate and makes all of the medical decisions for my mother until I’m thirty. Less than two years away, but it seems like eternity.”

Understanding dawned on her face, and he wanted to kiss her. She let go of the cross pendant. “This isn’t the first time he’s done this, is it?”

So great was his relief that he could barely get out the words, “It’s been my life for the past nine years. He started using me when I was nineteen.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped, “That’s why you were in the Johnsons’ cucumber field.”

“The only reason he had the living hell beat out of me is because he can’t actually allow my mother to die. Who’d be his minion then? But she’s a little stronger now, more stable.” Self-loathing shot through his veins, corroding them with its poison. As always he was trading someone else’s life for his mother’s.

“Your uncle’s flat out evil,” she said.

So was he, if only by association. Rose had to know the full extent of his sordid past. “At first, I didn’t mind doing things for my uncle,” he said, not bothering to spin it and paint himself as a victim. Only women like his mother and Rose were victims of his uncle’s schemes. “Well, to be honest… I rather liked it. The attention I received from him. The illusion of control and power. All for starting a rumor or hacking into personal email accounts to dig up dirt. Or finding incriminating pictures—you wouldn’t believe what people store on their computers. It was as if I had replaced the son he didn’t want with the one who’d do anything for him.”

Rose made a little noise. “By loving you with conditions. That’s not love. It’s manipulation, plain and simple.”

She said it with such conviction that he wondered at it, but he had to get everything out. He couldn’t stop it. He didn’t want to.

“Eventually, I wised up and started saying no. Then Vladimir began playing Russian Roulette with my mother’s health. The first time he put her at Childer’s, they didn’t check on her for days and she got an infection that nearly killed her. Sometimes, I think he’s toying with me for his sadistic pleasure. Only when she’s too weak for even the people he buys off to move does he take it out on me.” He turned the phone over and over in his hand. “I hate him, but I hate myself even more.” Face heating and stomach roiling, he looked away. “If you only knew the things I’ve done, the lives I’ve ruined—”

“Don’t,” she said, placing her hand on his chest.

Grabbing her hand, he pressed it tightly against his skin. “I swear to you…I swear on my father’s grave I didn’t set out to seduce or use you. I tried to keep my distance, but I—you’ve, for lack of a better word, bewitched me, and I fell under your spell. Willingly.” He gave her the barest hint of a wicked grin before he sobered. “Ivy as well. With the exception of my mother, the two of you are the last people on this planet I want to hurt.”

When she said nothing, he let go of her hand and it fell away. Cold air rushed over his chest. He chucked his phone on the nightstand. There was no going back now. Any minute Rose would storm out of here in completely righteous indignation. Perhaps even kick him out before she got to the door. But he deserved it. He deserved every last drop of her vengeance.

Suddenly, Rose threw back the covers and got out of bed. He watched in disbelief as she grabbed a shirt from the wardrobe and hastily put it on. Not until she finished rolling up the sleeves did she look at him and say in an exasperated tone, “Aren’t you coming with me?”

“What?” She wasn’t kicking him out?

Her spine straightened and she seemed to grow taller as she smiled. “I’m going to help you keep your mom safe.”

“How?” he croaked. Jesus, he sounded like a right git.

“I’m going to rescue you and your mom,” she said slowly, as if speaking to a small child who was refusing to listen.

“But isn’t this the part where you kick me out?”

“No, I—”

“Curse me with impotence?”

One side of her perfect lips lifted at the corner, her gaze sliding over his body and arousing him to madness. Tempting him to jump out of bed, only to get right back in it with her.

“Why should I deprive myself?” she asked in her soft drawl, and the fine hair on the back of his neck rose.

He gulped. “Why are you helping me?”

Laying one hand against her chest, her fingers began to toy with a button. “Because your momma needs it. You need it, too.” Her head dipped. When she lifted it, a wealth of emotion filled her eyes. “I know what it’s like to have the people who should be looking out for you leave you to fend for yourself. Or worse.”

Her words were entirely meaningful and kind. And extremely Rose. But his humiliation couldn’t have been more glaring in his mind. “Don’t pity me, sweetheart, I chose this life. Never forget that. Never forget that I am a very bad man.”

“Who does very nice things to try to make up for it. A very bad man wouldn’t bother.” She let her arm fall to the side.

“Don’t afflict me with qualities I can’t possibly survive.” He raised his knee and rested his arm on it, looking around the room. The idea of someone helping him was foreign. It was almost too much, but like any other drowning man, he would grab on tight and never let go. “When everything is said and done, I’ll have to leave. But I’ll come back to…Holland Springs if you want me to.” Ask me, he silently commanded. Ask me to stay with you and we’ll…He mentally shook his head. They would do nothing, because his mother would never be safe. It would be damned unfair to ask her to wait two years for him. Like a valiant soldier going off to war. As if he’d ever had that noble of a purpose. Hell, his entire life was purposeless.