Chapter 367

Nicholas’s anger began to vibrate through him. He growled, probably without realizing it, with each exhale of breath.

“It’s past time I speak with Bridget myself,” he said, low and dangerous. Yet, even so, he did not move –not until I pulled back enough to look up at him. He met my gaze with stern eyes. “I should have set her straight a long time ago.”

“What will you say?” I asked him.

“I don’t know yet. But she has lost every right to any benefit of the doubt I might have otherwise given her. I want the truth. I also intend to make my own truth known.”

“What’s that?”

His eyes became fiercer. Looking at him, he seemed more hardened warrior than young prince.

“Bridget will never be queen,” Nicholas said.

It was a bold claim, especially when his parents favored her so heavily. But I appreciated the remark all the same. Nicholas, despite having been childhood friends with Bridget, was finally seeing her for the person she was now.

I wondered when the change in her began. I didn’t doubt so much that Nicholas, Julian, and Bridget truly had been friends in the beginning.

Was it her parents who pushed her into her obsession to be queen? Or was it her lifestyle? Or did she simply have an inherent greed for power that manifested itself as she grew older?

It didn’t matter, I supposed. Facts were facts, now, regardless of how they became so.

And the fact was Bridget wanted me dead. I needed to rely on Nicholas now.

“Okay,” I said.

Nicholas nodded and started to lead me from the room.

“I can’t,” I said right away. I motioned toward the mess on the floor.

“The servants will clean it in the morning,” he said. Most of them had already gone to bed.

“No.” I couldn’t possibly leave my mess like this for someone else to clean. By morning, the smell alone would be overpowering. “I’m perfectly capable of cleaning this up.”

“Piper…” He wanted to argue with me.

“Go,” I said, and nudged him toward the door. “I’ll clean up quickly and then join Veronica and Elva.”

“They are still in the living room. I’ll make certain they stay there,” Nicholas said. “I’ll likely take Julian with me to confront Bridget.”

I nodded. Honestly, having something to do while this confrontation occurred might have been a godsend. I didn’t want to just have to sit there wondering what was being said. Cleaning up, I could distract myself.

Nicholas leaned in once more and kissed me on the temple. He lingered, his lips to my skin, like he didn’t want to leave me. I didn’t want him to leave either. But the sooner this whole thing with Bridget was cleared up, the safer I would ultimately feel.

So I stepped back, away from the warmth and safety of Nicholas’s body.

He gave me one last long look. His face was a steel mask by now. I couldn’t discern his feelings, not beyond his affection for me and his anger at everyone else. He seemed to be trying to tell me something, but I just couldn’t read his non-verbal cues.

Then, he turned and left me.

Alone now, I grabbed some a rag from the sink and wet it with water from the facet. Armed with the wet rag and a dry towel, I turned to the mess and began to clean up as best as I was able.

After picking up the empty pint containers and tossing them in the trash bin, I lowered myself to my knees and wiped up some of the melted ice cream.

It reminded me of working at the restaurant after closing. The quiet was almost peaceful, in a way, and it felt good to be able to clear my mind, focusing only on the task of cleaning up this mess.

I was entirely drawn into cleaning. So much so that the rest of the world seemed to fall into the background.

Maybe this was why I didn’t notice right away the sound of footsteps and the slight drip of water down onto the ground from a very wet body.

Odd, I thought. Didn’t I turn the facet off? Did it have a drip?

I turned my head toward the sink, when Ronan grabbed me by the back of the head, clutching a bunch of my hair, and yanked me backwards, off-balance and onto my ass.

I opened my mouth to scream, but he was prepared for that. He stuffed a soaking wet handkerchief into my mouth.

He started to drag me toward the door. I struggled, kicking my feet, while clawing at his wrist with my fingernails. But his hold was firm, and I couldn’t seem to catch any friction on the floor.

“Why can’t you just fucking die already?” Ronan snapped.

He dragged me out into the hallway. I tried to grab at the door, at anything I could reach really, knowing Veronica was just over in the living room. If she listened, she could hear my struggle.

Yet before I could see if my plan worked or not, Ronan threw me out the back door. I landed with a thud on the deck.

Immediately I spit the handkerchief from my mouth.

“Why are you doing this?” I shouted. I hoped someone could hear me. “Why throw your life away? For me? You don’t even know me!”

“Not for you, you dumb bitch!” Ronan snapped. He loomed over me, staring down with open disgust and hatred in his eyes. “I pity you. You don’t know what it’s like to be in love. I would do anything for the love of my life. If she wants you gone, it’s my honor to see that happen.”

“True love would never require someone to murder for it!”

For a moment, he hesitated. A small shimmer of hope spread through me. Maybe I’d gotten to him. Maybe he understood now.

The next moment, that hope smashed down like waves on a rocky cliff.

“You don’t know how special she is,” Ronan said, entranced like a man possessed. “She asks so little of me, and accepts all of me. I will never betray her. Never desert her like so many others have before. Even if we cannot be together, I will see her dreams come true.”

“You’re insane!” I yelled, but the words didn’t faze him. He didn’t seem to be listening to me at all. He was too far gone. Whatever delusion that had been spun for him or that he had spun for himself, it had overwhelmed whatever remained of his sense.

He was lost to his delusion. And I was surely about to become a victim to it.

I tried to crawl away, scrambling like a crab. I made it a good foot or two, before he dove and caught my ankle.

“Where are you going, like minnow?” Ronan said. An eerie sort of glee entered his voice. He was enjoying the chase almost as much as the thought of pleasing his lover.

“Let me go!”

He pulled me back toward him. He was stronger than me, even with my newly returned wolf strength.

I tried to kick at him. My foot landed once, in his chest, but other than a grunt, he made no other hint of displeasure. He continued to pull.

I looked back at him, ready to scream at the top of my lungs.

But I realized I didn’t need to.

Veronica stood behind Ronan, without his knowledge. She held an expensive-looking vase up over his head.

Then she brought the vase straight down, crashing it over Ronan, and he dropped, lifeless, down to the ground.