Her Forgotten Betrayal(78)

She didn’t want perfect, she’d realized when her heart had sung at the sight of him striding into her bedroom like the hero he was. Sure, he’d made her want to clock him for not telling her the truth sooner. But that didn’t change how, in just two short days, he’d filled up her empty life like no one else ever would. Having him with her again had shown her that she didn’t want to keep chasing after safety, not if it meant being alone. She wanted Cole, reckless and stubborn and exasperating Cole, however she could have him.

And now his love was gone forever.

Tears blurring her vision, she raced down the stairs, her nightmare stalker limping after her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Sebastian raged.

Halfway down, she turned to see him at the top landing, a remote device in his hand. He pressed a button on its face. An explosion shook the house around them.

“That would be your beloved kitchen, my pet,” he said. “No more midnight hot chocolate for you.”

He cackled as he hobbled down the steps toward her, toward the fire she could already feel rolling at them from the back of the house.

Esme! She’d run into the closet before Sebastian arrived. Shaw couldn’t go back for her now. Oh, Esme.

“You had no intention of any of us getting out of this alive, did you?” She backed away from him, hating him, tripping on the broken step and losing her balance.

She fell the rest of the way to the bottom. She rolled until she could stagger to her feet. He was descending as slowly as before, pressing another button. A blast sounded from the direction of the parlor, and he laughed again.

God, he’d rigged the entire house to blow. Everything, her ties to her childhood, her grandmother’s things, and her memories of the last twenty-four hours with Cole, even her precious Esmeralda—it was all crumbling around them.

“Surviving is no longer my top priority, no,” Sebastian ranted. “Putting you both in your place, into the ground where you should have been when I was doomed instead to living the life of a sideshow freak—that’s became a far more worthy pursuit. If I have to die to achieve such an admirable goal, it is worth the price. But since your hero’s preceded you to your final destination, it seems I’ll be on my way after all, before his task force arrives. There’s just one loose end I need to tie up first.” He grinned maniacally. “You.”

She stumbled away from the scarred reflection of herself, toward their father’s office. Her brother and flames and billowing smoke followed close behind. She could feel her panic threatening to undo her resolve. It was the same hysteria that had fueled her amnesia—the horror of being trapped with no way out.

In the conference room closet.

In the burning barn.

In her empty life.

But Cole had died to give her this chance to be free, and she wasn’t going to waste it. She could do anything, he’d told her. And because of him, she would find her way back to believing that herself. She wasn’t going to stop fighting this time until she’d beaten her brother. And then, somehow, she’d pick up the pieces and make her life mean something more than merely surviving, hiding in her labs, and chasing empty success. She’d live with courage from now on. She’d build the new beginning, the future, she wished she still had a chance to make with Cole.

He’d loved her.

Even if he’d never said it, the rage and determination on his face as he’d grappled with Sebastian over his gun, while he’d yelled for Shaw to get away, had made his feelings for her clear. He’d acted out of instinct, not duty to his assignment, with a depth of devotion he hadn’t trusted himself to express. Or her to return.

She’d been so blind. All along, from the very beginning, Cole had loved her from the bottom of his heart.

“There’s no use running, Shaw,” Sebastian said. “There are no exits down this hall. Not unless you plan to walk through me, and then through a wall of fire. And we all know what a cowardly mess you are when the flames come for you.”

She tripped over the office threshold, into the room she’d hated until she’d taken Cole there, and together they’d made the memories that welcomed her now. She scrambled behind the big desk, opening the center drawer and feeling inside for the key. All while her mind replayed how Cole had held her in the leather chair, how he had consoled and encouraged her. He’d been her safe place, then her cherished memory, then her beloved champion. And he was still there with her, in spirit, as she whirled and faced Sebastian as he limped into the room. Her tormentor, her brother, the monster who’d succeeded in killing her love. Then and now.