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Despite my failing him, he has turned out to be an incredible man, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. I do wish that Alaric hadn’t told him about the past. I was fine being the bad guy, I didn’t want to throw anything else at him. He’s been through enough.

Alaric thought otherwise, and as always my little brother took matters into his own hands.

I’m not going to tell the fucker, but I’m actually grateful. It’s been a heavy burden to bear, and while I wouldn’t have ever told Atlas myself, Alaric is probably the only person that Atlas would have believed when it came to this, and I think that made it easier for Atlas to hear.

I don’t expect Atlas to talk to me about it any time soon, or ever if I’m being completely honest, and that’s okay.

Hunt was the last link to the most horrendous part of my life. Having to treat Atlas like I did to ensure that Blake didn’t kill him, making sure that when he locked Atlas away, one of the maids who was still loyal to me made sure that he was still fed and gave me updates in case he needed medical attention. Blake held far too much power, and my only goal was keeping Atlas alive. Blake knew that I was of value to him, which unfortunately meant that while he would torture and beat me, he couldn’t actually kill me.

The hatred he had for Atlas though, that was incredible.

I have never known someone to hate someone or something as much as Blake hated Atlas. It was purely unhinged and, for some reason, linked to the way that I treated Atlas, if I showed even an ounce of care, then Atlas would be in more danger.

I was selfish, and I did occasionally spend time with Atlas when I knew that it was safe, but even that got increasingly more dangerous, and I just couldn’t risk it. He needed to go to Alaric, he was safest with Alaric, and I trusted Alaric with Atlas’s life, so I had to very carefully orchestrate it.

Although it got Atlas away from Blake, it also served to piss him off even more and make him come after Atlas even harder. Fortunately, Atlas had backup by the time Blake really ramped it up, and that was the beginning of Blake's end.

It’s not that simple, and there were a lot of complications, but the main thing is that Blake is dead, Hunt is dead, and Amelia was a threat to Ever and wasn’t the woman I thought she was. So while a part of me mourns the woman who I thought she was, the logical part of me realizes that person never even existed and instead was used to trap me.

She used the fact that I didn’t want to see Ever dead as a way to control me. She said, if I didn’t stay with her and give her the life that she felt she deserved, then she would kill Ever, and she would go to Blake and get him to help her.

She was a fucking piece of work.

I am so done with women.

All of them.

I have made the executive decision that I am avoiding women for the rest of my life, point blank, no thank you. I have terrible fucking taste.

Atlas has made a wonderful family for himself, and I am so glad. There are still things that they don’t know, but they will find them out when the time is right. Mr. R will make sure of it, and I have a feeling that if he takes much longer to figure out how to tell them, then someone else is going to fill them in.

I would like to say that I had every intention of doing the right thing and letting Alaric take me in. I know that there are things that he wants to clarify about Blake and the business, amongst other things. However, I was never going to let that happen.

Once I was sure that they were safe and everything was handled, I took that as my cue to leave.

Of course all of that means that I’m going to need to lay low for a while. Fortunately, I have help this time.

Speaking of, my phone vibrates. I wince as I fish it out of my pocket, and pain shoots through my side from the movement. It is just a graze, I wasn’t lying when I told everyone that, but it fucking hurts.

Chapter Thirty

Liam

My ride's here.

Looking around, I make sure that the coast is clear, and then, holding my suit jacket over my side so I don’t alarm any civilians, not that there are any out this late anyway, I head to the meeting spot.

As I round the corner and head down the street between the warehouses that are all shut down for the night, I can’t help but roll my eyes and shake my head when I spot the car.

Of all the cars that he could bring, he chose the Porsche, because that’s not conspicuous in this area in the middle of the night at all, is it?

Pulling the door open, I grunt as I get inside.

“For fuck sake, Liam, don’t bleed on the leather,” he says with concern in his voice, despite his choice of words.

“Aw, you’re so kind and thoughtful that’s what I’ve always loved about you, D,” I reply with a teasing smirk as he starts the car and heads down the street.

“Don’t get soppy,” D retorts. “Are the kids okay? I’m assuming that one of them was in trouble if you allowed yourself to get shot.”