Page 20 of Dangerous Promises

Seven

Sage

Anton's limo rocks over the gravel when we come through the front gates of our estate and travel up the driveway. The night is still black, but lit up by little fires that are being doused throughout the property.

My heart sinks as I realize this attack was serious. Serious enough that it happened inside the gates. It all feels too familiar. Like Chet definitely is back, as much as I want to deny it. It looks just as bad as the nights the gates were breached before. Almost as bad as the night Dad was hurt.

This feels very much like the war I was trying to avoid.

My eyes shudder at the thought. I look over to my uncle, happy to find that he's not paying me much attention and will miss the guilty worry in my eyes. Freddie doesn't, though. And I jump when I find him watching me with a raised brow.

I shake him off, turning back to the window as our people extinguish lingering embers and sweep up glass. "This looks bad," I whisper.

"It is," Anton says, jaw tense and still unwilling to look at me. "And through it all I had to worry about whereyouwere. Again."

I deserve that one. But I don't know how to apologize, because I'm not sorry. I'm never sorry for chasing after Alexei. If it's an apology Anton is looking for he won't find it. If it's sense he's trying to talk into me, well… that can't be done.

"Is Dad okay?" I ask, biting my lip. Perhaps we were stupid to move him back here. Do we even have the defenses to protect him? One day back and we're already fighting off attackers.

"Yes," Anton replies, his tone short. "They didn't find him."

"So it is Chet. No denying it."

Anton says nothing as the limo comes to a stop. I sigh as I get out, following Anton's hasty steps up to the front of the house. He and Freddie charge ahead, obviously intending to rush away and leave me out of this now that they know I'm home.

I jog ahead and stand in front of them, stopping them in their tracks and hardening my jaw. They're not going through this without me and they'renotfucking keeping secrets from me again.

Anton looks at Freddie with an exasperated shake of his head. It's definitely a wordless beg for him to deal with me instead.

"We kept one of them for torture,bella," Freddie explains. "They're looking for Dimitri." He pauses. "And probably you."

"Okay," I say, pretending that doesn't bother me at all. Pretending that I don't feel the need to hold a hand over my heart to stop it from escaping my chest. Chet has been after Dad for a while, and of course me, but I put him in a highly vulnerable position where he can't fight back. He's a sitting duck now, because I made him one.

"Isla said-"

"We know," Anton replies, brushing me aside and continuing into the house. "I had also hoped that the lack of activity thelast few months meant that Chet was giving up. Not that he was regrouping to become stronger."

The front door swings open.

The inside of the house looks far better than the outside, but not by much. There's just as much destruction, requiring just as much of a clean up, but it looks more defensive than anything. Like the fighting didn't make its way into the house. That's probably the smallest of victories that I can take some comfort in.

My feet stumble and I look down to find that I've nearly tripped over a leg. The leg of a very dead man. A temple tattooed dead man.

"Oh," Freddie says. "Sorry about that." He hauls the dead man up by his feet and throws him out the front door, slamming it behind him. The man sails away and down the front steps. Body weightless just like those men that Alexei disposed of tonight.

My eyes flash back to stormy eyes staring into mine before we were dragged away. What would it be like to see the life drain away from those eyes? I've thought of nothing else for nearly a year. Looking around here now, there's clearly a lot going on that I've been willing to ignore.

I turn back to my uncle. "What are we going to do about Chet?"

Anton sighs, running his hands through his hair in stress. "I don't know yet,anima mia."

"How was he allowed to amass so much power?" Freddie asks, stroking his chin.

"I'd ask Dimitri," Anton says. "If I could. He always kept tabs on Chet, trying to find him for his own death promise." Anton takes a seat on the first stair and I join his exhaustion, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor next to the door.

"There were so many people at Chet's old house today. We even killed three that tried to attack us," I say.

My uncle looks up. "You killed three?"