“Brayden,” I say, reminding him. “Yeah, Brayden, he is a heartbreaker. I can hardly look at him without feeling like I am being controlled by him, kind of like you.”
I pick up each of my sons and carry them to their bed before returning to Nick.
As I enter the room, I start to strip, and Nick follows my lead. Pulling him and his naked body into our bed with me, I curl up next to him and smile when he relaxes and hums his satisfaction to my nude body being wrapped around his.
“Do you remember sitting on my bed with me when I was young, trying to comfort me from my nightmares?” He shakes his head. “One night, I began telling you about a story that I somehow made you apart of. Do you remember that, Nick?” I ask, fighting the tears when I realize he doesn’t. He shakes his head again, and I hide my face from him. “No, of course you wouldn’t.” I hate Savage for taking away our shared memories, the moments that made us.
“I should get back before Ward begins to suspect something is wrong with me. He will come looking for me, and that will only cause more problems for both of us.”
“You will come back though, right?” He turns to me and slowly brings me into his arms. “I want to,” he says, burying his face into my hair. “I want to, but I don’t know how I can. I am supposed to marry someone else soon. I am not even supposed to see you at all. If he finds out, he will be furious with me, and he will want to kill you more than ever. Eventually, I am going to have to say goodbye.”
I shake my head, and he turns away from me. “We are planning something,” I say, wondering if I should tell him or not. “We are planning to save you and … get rid of Savage.”
He turns back to me with wide eyes and obvious concern for his grandfather. “You are going to kill my grandfather?” he asks with a sharp tone. I can’t imagine how torn he must be right now.
“He is evil and is doing horrible things, even to you. He wants to kill me and our children, Nick. You will have to choose between us and your grandfather.” Nick’s conflicted expression worries me. I grasp his lips with mine gently while my tears trail from my eyes to his face.
After seeing Nick last night, I begin to feel good about winning this war with Savage. However, I walk in on the group discussing the next opportunity for attack. No one seems to realize I am even there; they are so deeply involved in their conversation. I am content to stand out of the way and enjoy my memories of last night, that is, until I hear their plans.
“You want to kill Nick?” I yell out.
“Kayla!” Elijah says, looking at me in shock while Ryan won’t even look up at me.
“Kayla, dear, I think you need to understand that Nicholas, your Nick, is no longer. He has been inflicted with the poison; there is no way he could possibly recover from that, especially not after all this time. The poison has hardened him for sure by now. You have to know that Nick has died and what is left is Nicholas, this monster that stands in the way of us getting to Savage,” Gideon says as I shake my head. They all try to convince me to understand that this is our only option, but I know better.
“No. No, he …” I want to tell them that Nick, my Nick, is still within him somewhere, but none of them are in any mood to listen to me. I want to explain what I have seen, but then I would have to alert them to Nick coming into the house with ease and that I allowed it. I fear if I do tell them, they will use me to kill him, the love of my life, the man I am doing all I can to fight for and not against. Think Kayla. Think of a reason for them to consider. Think of anything to change their direction towards your husband.
Ryan stands up and escorts me out of the room before finally looking in my eyes. “You know the last thing I want to do is kill Nick. If there is any sign that he still exists or that he is savable, I will stop them and protect him. I would never let them hurt my brother, but I know Nick would not want to be under Savage’s control. He would not want to be what he is, what Savage has turned him into. You know that too, Kayla. He would prefer our actions than to live like he is now. We have to do this; we have to help release him from the torture he must be going through right now.”
I grab hold of Ryan’s collar and pull him down to me, “Promise me, you will wait to the last possible moment. I …”
“The Ball, we are going to attack him at the Masquerade Ball. So, whatever you have planned or are working on and don’t want to tell me right now, you have until the Masquerade to get it done.” He knows me so well. Kissing his cheek, I whisper, “thank you” and race out of the room and up to my bedroom.
I don’t feel nearly as confident as I did. Panic begins to take me over and I want to scream – Why – How can you take the one person that loves me, that I love? The one person that was so meant for me. I want to tell the world to go to hell! I want to kill Savage with my bare hands, stick my knife so deep into his heart that I can feel his blood stop pumping through it as the life drains from his eyes. I will be at that Masquerade to protect my husband. No matter what.
Chapter 27
Kayla
The Masquerade is nearly here, and everyone begins to finalize plans for the attack. I can barely concentrate as I become more desperate to hear from Nick. I try, over and over, to get a hold of Ro, but he never answers. I imagine that Ward won’t let him out of his sight, and Savage, I am sure considering how close it is to the Masquerade, he won’t let him out of the house. No matter what the others believe, I am confident Nick Jayzon, not Nicholas Savage, will be at the Masquerade, and he will choose his family over his grandfather. I am positive that he won’t let me down. I close my eyes and hope.
Everyone is so tense and concentrating on every detail that has to be performed and the exact time it has to be done.
“We need to take out what guests we need to before they reach the party. If we spot them here, as they travel along this road,” Ryan says, pointing out a place on the map, “…then we can alert our men down here to stop them. I will step out and influence them to give up their invitations for us and send them back home with no concern as to why their night was cut short. The last car we stop will be for me and Eli. We need to watch for these people, according to Gideon and Amery these people will be the most susceptible to my persuasion.” Ryan hands out pictures and license plate numbers of the few guests they were able to track down through Amery’s and Gideon’s personal contacts. “Once we are in, I want Eddy and Terrence to take over the control room while Dwayne, Reginald, and Brady find the marked spots on the map Eli’s father drew. We will position a bomb in each of these places, and when the time is right or if anything goes wrong, we all agree the bombs must stay triggered for the time we have set for them. Aside from the bombs, the rest of us will work our way into the ballroom where we will wait for Nick to choose Catriona. We can’t attack until then,” Ryan says.
“Don’t let him kiss me, or I cannot help you. Ria said the moment she kissed him, she couldn’t think of any other man, including Marius, and she has been obsessed with him for as far as back as I can remember. He must have a powerful hold, and I don’t know that I can deny him.” She looks up at Elijah, and he sighs, fisting his hands.
“Maybe we should change the order of things?” Elijah says as everyone looks back at me.
“You’re still going to kill Nick?” No one will speak. “You can’t kill him! Nick is remembering! I know it!” I yell at them.
“How do you know?” Amery asks harshly.
“I know my husband, and I know he will protect us when it comes time,” I say assuredly.
“He is a cold-blooded killer that needs to be executed as soon as possible!” Amery screams in front of me with nostrils flaring.
I punch him in the face with everything I have. “You don’t know him, and you won’t kill him if I have anything to say about it.” I look to Ryan and Elijah for help, but neither will look me in the eyes. “You two are considering it, too?”
“Come with me,” Ryan says, taking me by the arm. He escorts me away from the others. I think you should stay h
ere. If Savage knows you are there he won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“Ryan don’t do it. I promise you, Nick is coming back to us.”
“No, he is not, Kayla. Remember, he came after us all without even the slightest hesitation. He will kill us himself if he gets a chance. After we talked, I had my doubts too, so I went looking for him. A few days ago I followed him, and once he caught sight of me, he raged at me. I barely got away from him. He would have certainly killed me if not for me reaching a crowded public area before he could.”
“You scared him. He doesn’t know that he can trust you, I am sure. You should have approached him calmer and …” I say as Ryan shakes his head with a sigh.
“I was hoping for the best, but now I know for sure. He isn’t coming back. Nick is not coming back, Kayla. There is no way I am allowing you anywhere near that Masquerade,” Ryan says, and I grip him with anger, ready to fight him on it. Ryan sighs, “I promise you, this isn’t easy for me either, but we have to face it. My brother, your husband, has been killed by Savage, and there is nothing left but this beast that looks like him.” I shake my head, slamming my fists into his chest and crying for him to not hurt Nick. He holds me close to him and whispers every possible thing he can think to try to calm me. Elijah walks up beside us.
“You are not going, Kayla. You have to trust that we will handle it the way you would. Do you really want Nick to live his life like this? This must be torture for him right now. He would have never wanted to be this person. He would have never wanted you to save him as he is now, and the boys shouldn’t have to know their father like he is. They should remember him as the man we all respected.” Elijah says with a heavy sigh.
The more they speak, the more I realize I can’t trust anyone. They have all been blinded by what they think they see. But I see something else, and I know what they don’t. I would tell them everything I know, but they wouldn’t believe me. I’m just a desperate woman trying everything she can to save her husband. I push away from them and run to my boys, trying to find comfort in their smiles and laughter, but all I see is Nick.
I fall asleep near Nicky and Brayden, drifting off into dreams of when we were all together, when Nick was with me every step of the way and I was sure no one could ever break us or tear us apart. Then, the memories begin to fade, and the darkness creeps in. I run as fast as I can from the fury, trying to catch up to my fleeting memories, but I can’t catch them.
“Stop running,” A voice says. I turn to see a man with an easy smile.
“I have to. I’m scared,” I reply.
“Who? You? Kayla, the woman who has, since birth, carried a strength within her like no other? Most would fear you if not for your gentle tone. Their mistake, of course.” He smiles at me with a calm existence, putting me at ease. “Your eyes never deceive you, do they?” I have something for you, something that you lost a long time ago.
He hands me a necklace with a stunning silver owl dangling brightly from its center with its eyes a blue glow. I have seen this before. “This is …”
“It was your grandmother’s. Your mother wore it often, but it was clearly never meant for her which is why you took it from her drawer when you were a child. Correct?” I look up at him in shock. How could he know something like that? “Don’t doubt yourself now, just like you didn’t doubt yourself when you took this necklace from your mother. It was, after all, agreed to be yours before your grandmother died. Your mother had no right to take it back from you.” I put the necklace around my neck and smile, with tears forming in my eyes. “You have been loved, never doubt that, and you continue to be loved like no other. You know it … don’t let him down. It is your turn to do the saving, Kayla.” He simply nods and smiles before walking out as quietly as he came.
I should be scared, but instead, I feel my spine strengthen and my mind clearing of any leftover darkness.
The next morning, I rush out of the house before I can be stopped and questioned. I have only one place on my mind this morning, and that is the lock box I bought years ago. I haven’t opened it since I added the package of my mother’s belongings that the city morgue signed over to me after she died. The old 11x17 envelope is nearly empty. I assumed there would be nothing in it to be concerned about, but just maybe she had it on her when they found her. I take a deep breath before opening the old package. It isn’t much, and there is little there to get excited about, but down in the corner, sparkling from within a plastic bag, is my grandmother’s necklace. I dig it out and sigh before putting it around my neck. The rest of the envelope I throw away. Now, I just need to find a way. “If it is true, Nana, if you are watching over me, then help me.”
“We are all watching you Kayla.” I look up and see the man from my dream. “I was hoping you would come for it. When I gave it to your grandmother, I had no idea how strong our family’s heritage would become.”
“You are my grandmother’s father?” I ask, and he nods.
“My name is Kaori, your great grandfather. I am sorry I have not been able to speak to you before now, but your path was set, and I was not allowed to interfere as hard as it may have been. You were tested horribly but you excelled despite it all.” He looks over me with pride. “Come with me and let me explain some things to you.” He holds his hand out to me, and I take hold of it and go with him to a nearby park where we sit, away from the bustling city. I watch him in awe as he enjoys the breeze and the nature around him. He is calming and peaceful, that is until a man spots us and starts to walk towards us fast. He tenses slightly and lifts his head high with a subtle whisper, “Wrong decision.” The man stops dead in his tracks and then walks away. Kaori eases back and smiles at me.
“I don’t know much about my family. My mother didn’t speak about anyone, especially not to me, and I barely remember my grandmother, except that she was very kind to me.”
“She knew you were the one that would carry us on. I thought it would be your mother.” He shakes his head with a groan. “Nothing but disappointment there. She couldn’t be controlled by Savage, but she could be by alcohol. Amazing, the demons that carried her. Your heritage, Kayla, is of a different sort than most. You can control people in a much different way than your husband. Where Nicholas’s family seeks to control people with pain and demanding influence, you control people with a calming influence. Almost like a peaceful suggestion for them to do as you want them to. Your friend, Kamini, is a distant cousin.”
“So my family was punishers like her?” I ask.
“Yes, although we varied in our efforts. Sometimes we liked to prevent people from doing things before they made mistakes. It was more rewarding I found; however, Savage found it to be intrusive to his own interests. His father and I argued many times, but we maintained a respectful existence until he was killed by his sons. Dennis was so powerful and so overwhelmed by his greed, even more so than Rein, not that Rein has ever been that far behind him.”
“Rein is the Lord of the 8th correct?”
“Yes, and he is not to be taken lightly. Just because he takes a back seat to his brother does not make him any less dangerous. The last time the two worked together was to get me. Little did they know that I had already started my family and hid them from everyone. Like you, I knew something was coming way before it did. I can’t help you other than tell you that you have what you need to get Nicholas … I mean, Nick, back, he says, grasping my hand and kissing my cheek before leaving me again.
Gazing out the window with thoughts overtaking my mind, I am suddenly snapped out of my daydream when I believe I see something in the trees. I move closer and closer until I find myself racing toward the tree line, hoping, somehow, Nick awaits me. When I see a shadow, I run even faster but stop dead in my tracks when she steps out.
“What are you doing here?”
“Please don’t alert anyone. I only want to talk to you,” Galena says.
“Where is Nick?”
“He’s fine. Don’t worry. Father has Ward watching his
every move; Nick is not even allowed to sleep without eyes on him. I can see the distress that is going through him, and I feel for him. I feel for all of you. I wasn’t sure if he was seeing you, but as time went on, I could see him changing back to his old self, and the only way he could have done that … is with you.”
“Why are you here telling me this?”
She looks up at me with sadness. “I loved my brother, Kayla, but I convinced myself that he was a trader to us. Then, when Nick came back into our lives, I felt like I had my brother back, they are so much alike. Nick, just like Dante, protected me, he looked out for me, and even told Marius to stay away from me or else he would kill him. He knew he was cheating on me with my old, best friend Ria, but never told me. He just said stay away from him because he is no good. I thought he was being a jerk until I caught them together.” She breathes in deep. “Like I said, I loved my brother, and I wish I had stood up for him somehow, not that there was much I could do on my own. When Nick first came back to us, he would talk of you and the boys often. I have never seen such love, not from anyone in our … well, I have never seen it before and certainly had never experienced it before except … with my daughter. Kayla, I gave her to Dante.”
My eyes widen as she looks at me with pleading eyes. “Lena?” She nods. “Oh, Dante saved her for you.”
“I thought, when Father found him with only a son, that he had given her up and killed her like Father would have. It was what I was used to, what I would have expected. But, he was my only option for her survival, so I gave her up and hoped for the best. I still can’t believe he saved her, that he protected her. I have been spying on the woman that raised her. She is a very good woman. I don’t think he could have placed her in a better home. And my daughter, Lena, she is so beautiful.”
“And pregnant,” I say.
“Yes, I know. She doesn’t know of me does she?” I shake my head. “She is due anytime now. I really want to meet her and talk to her, but I am afraid if I do my father will find her.”