Rise of the Notorious (43 page)

She watched the bitterness haunt his expression, could feel the resentment he carried. While part of her understood it, the other part considered it useless.

“Even if Wyatt has a checkered past, don’t you see that it was the mystery of him that I loved from the very start? You had no right taking that from me.”

Raoul shot her a dark look. “If I could do it over a thousand times, I would do the same.”

A distinct coldness fell over her face. “So what is it exactly that Wyatt’s done that’s so awful, Raoul? So awful that even the granddaughter of a killer couldn’t be with him?”

He reached for the bottle again, but this time just rolled it between his slender hands, lost in thought. When he spoke, his voice was as cold as her own.

“He was involved in drug deals in Columbia, with the cartels. Dangerous men, with a distaste for arrogant Americans. There is a bounty on his head that has yet to be collected. One day, it will catch up with him. If you are there, they will kill you, too.”

She sighed. “He told me some of that. In any event, I clearly have a more pronounced target on my back than he does. If anything, I am more of a danger to him than he is to me.”

Raoul scowled. “There are other things, whisperings of bad things that follow his path through Europe.” He reached over to take her hand in his, eyes meeting hers. “I know I cannot keep you from him, not now. But at the very least, take care,
cariño.
I only ever wanted to protect you.
Mi familia
.”

Her heart constricted in her chest, stifling her breath as she stared into his eyes. Tears threatened her as she tried to hold on to her anger.

“I can’t forgive you,” she whispered, pulling her hand from his grasp and rising to her feet. She glared down at him, filled with conviction. “I know you wrote those letters. Only someone who knew where to hit could have written something so eloquent.”

Pain contorted his features, and she bit back the urge to go to him. All these years, he had stayed by her side through thick and thin, always there no matter the storms she faced. Although he had caused arguably the worst storm of her life, she couldn’t discount the years that had followed. For that, and for defying Duke and releasing her sister, she now knew what she had to do.

“Did Duke see Kennedy scratch you?”

Raoul shook his head dully. “No. It happened too fast.”

“Good. I’m going to talk with Kennedy. We will make sure the kidnapping falls on Duke, and Duke alone.” Defiance glittered in her eyes as her lips curled. “I want that bastard to pay for what he’s done.”

She started to leave, but paused as he said something under his breath that sent a jolt of recognition, of love, straight through her.

“
Hasta siempre, cariño
.”

Her entire face softened. “Until forever, darling.”

Although her emotional
injuries were far worse than her physical ones, Kennedy was taken to the hospital. Madison went straight there, knowing her family, including her mother, would already be waiting.

Charlene had been released after the police failed to get anymore information out of Jorja, including the full name of the dealer who she supposedly had purchased the drugs from. Without the dealer, no conspiracy to commit murder could be established. With the powerful weight of the Vasser family lawyer bearing down on their backs, they had no choice but to let Charlene go on the promise that the instant more information came to light, she could be arrested again.

But until then, she was a free woman. Not a very well liked woman, but a free one.

Madison walked into Kennedy’s hospital room, her eyes landing first on her brothers. Linc was seated on the bed with his arm wrapped around Kennedy and a pleased smile on his face. Grant stood on the other side of the bed, hands tucked in the pockets of his slacks and his eyes filled with quiet relief.

Charlene stood near the window with Marshall, cell phone to her ear as she barked orders into it, most likely to the lawyer.

They all glanced over at Madison as she approached her little sister’s bed.

“Hey Mads,” Linc greeted, feeling Kennedy tense against him. He put on a cheerful grin to help ease the mood. “Get everything straightened out with you-know-who?”

Madison nodded, unable to speak. Instead, she just stared at her sister and tried to imagine the girl with a gun in her hand, aimed right for her heart.

Kennedy looked worse for the wear, her long chestnut hair tangled and messy, her face pale and her lovely blue eyes dulled and frightened. She looked like some fragile porcelain doll that had been tossed around the playground by a big bully, then left outside to weather a torrential storm.

Madison understood at that moment what her sister had been through because of her, and it sent a hot bullet of shame to burn straight through her heart.

Grant stepped to Madison and laid his hand on her shoulder comfortingly, a knowing look in his eyes. “We’ll give you two some time alone.”

He motioned with his head for Linc to follow him out, then looked to Marshall and his mother as well. The four of them left the room, Marshall pressing a kiss to Madison’s forehead as he walked past.

When the door shut behind them with a quiet click, she turned to face her sister. For a moment, neither of them spoke. The only sound was the ticking clock on the wall and the distant hospital sounds beyond the door.

Madison released a long breath, crossing her arms protectively. It was all she could do to keep from exploding with the anguish, the rage, the stunned relief…

By contrast, her face was cold and remote.

“Duke is the one who took you, did they tell you that?”

Kennedy nodded slowly, her lower lip quivering.

“I have yet to speak with him, but I imagine his reasons for doing so were because of me.” Madison frowned, annoyed that her words felt so hollow, so pointless. How could she really convey to Kennedy just how she felt? How the guilt and the misery were eating away at her?

Kennedy averted her eyes, her fingers toying with the soft, blue blanket that covered her legs. “He told me you had left me there to die, that you wouldn’t meet his demands,” she whimpered, tears falling freely from her eyes. “Considering no one ever came to find me, I guess he was right.”

“We did all we could to find you,” Madison snapped in irritation.

Kennedy looked up at her then, an odd sort of fury in her eyes. “Except back down, right? Wasn’t that what he wanted?”

Madison said nothing, her emotions carefully concealed as she weighed her sister’s statement in her mind. Though she didn’t want it to, it hurt to know that Kennedy did in fact blame her.

“Even if I had conceded, who’s to say that he would have released you?”

“But you didn’t even want to try!” Kennedy cried out miserably. “You care more about yourself and the stupid hotels than you do me! I sat there in that stupid storage unit and gave up hope that I’d ever get out because I knew my family couldn’t care less if I lived or died. And now you all
pretend
to be relieved, but you’re already moving on with your stupid lives. I never mattered to you; I
still
don’t matter to you!”

The urge to argue, to strike out in anger, to turn around and walk out, all raced through Madison’s mind in a mad rush. But all lost the battle as she realized it was true. She did care more about the business, and her own life, than she did Kennedy’s. Understanding that brought even more shame to her shadowed heart.

“You’re right, darling. I have been selfish,” Madison admitted, swallowing her pride as she took a seat on Kennedy’s bed and reached for her sister’s hand. If Kennedy hadn’t been so shocked, she may have batted Madison’s hand away. Instead, she accepted it numbly as Madison continued, “I could make the case to you that I’ve been under stress and pressure, and that seeing the toll our grandfather’s crimes has taken on our family has hurt me. I could tell you that I won’t forgive you for trying to kill me; that the bullet you had aimed at my heart ended up in the one person I love above all else in this world, and I will always, always despise you for it. I could say that I don’t see one ounce of what makes the Vasser family extraordinary in you, that you have been disappointing to me in nearly every way. And I suppose I could also let you know that the hatred you have shown me nearly our entire lives has destroyed me, bit by horrible bit, until you gave me no choice but to give up on ever trying to love you.”

Tears spilled from Kennedy’s eyes as she winced at Madison’s words, mortified. Madison only attempted a sad smile as she continued.

“But I see now that you have many reasons to hate me, and the only thing I can do is to try and win over your trust, as difficult as that might be.” She squeezed her sister’s hand, letting her face soften with honesty. “It isn’t easy being me, darling. But I imagine I’ve forgotten that it isn’t easy being you, either.”

Kennedy shook her head slowly, a dark laugh escaping her throat. “Being a Vasser in general sucks.”

“A few months ago I would have disagreed with you,” Madison admitted, a shadow passing over her face. “Now, I’m not so sure that you aren’t dead right.”

Kennedy sniffled, squeezing Madison’s hand in a show of peace, of understanding. “When dad died, I felt like I was the only one who cared that he was gone. The three of you, you never even asked me how I was doing or cared about how I felt over it. I guess it’s kind of been that way my whole life. With the age difference, I’ve always just been the little kid, hanging out with mom in the shadows of her older siblings while they took on the world.”

Madison felt her throat tighten as she realized she had never even noticed. Never cared to notice. “Our father made many mistakes in his life. We sheltered you from them; I suppose because we felt you weren’t ready to hear the truth.”

“What? That he did drugs? That he was an alcoholic?” Kennedy asked, frustration heating her voice. “I’m not stupid, Madison. I have eyes.”

“I know,” Madison conceded, bowing her head slightly. “And the three of us failed to notice when you stopped being a child and became a young woman, capable of all the same things we were.”

Kennedy snorted. “Well, I don’t think I’m nearly as smart as you guys, but I’m not completely useless. I can learn.”

Madison eyed her curiously for a moment, seeing her sister in a much different light than she ever had before. Perhaps it was a result of finally having a conversation lasting longer than two minutes that made her see just how wrong she may have been all this time…

“Do you want to help out with the hotel?” Madison asked.

Kennedy nodded. “I always have. But mom says I’m not ready. I think she believes I’ll get in your way.”

At the mention of their mother, Madison grimaced. “Well, I think we can both agree that our mother needs some time to reflect on her actions for awhile before giving us a well deserved apology for what she’s done.”

“The drugs…dad.” Kennedy’s face fell, the old grief resurfacing. “I blamed you. I wanted so badly to blame you…”

Madison waved off the comment. “Water under the bridge, darling,” she said with a smile, putting as much warmth into it as she could. That wound was still fresh. “I want us to have a new beginning now, a fresh start. I know Grant and Linc feel the same. You should have seen how distraught they were when you went missing.”

Kennedy smiled, the thought somewhat comforting. “Really? You guys were upset about it?”

Madison’s heart shattered at the hopeful look on her sister’s face. “Of course we were. And now we will fight for vindication on your behalf. That bastard cousin of ours is lucky I don’t put his balls in a vice.”

Kennedy snorted out a laugh, shocked to hear her proper, older sister utter such a derogatory phrase. “Ouch.”

“Or, perhaps we can tie him to a chair for a week and let him starve, eye for an eye,” Madison ventured with a wicked grin.

“No. No, that wouldn’t be right.” Kennedy sighed, pity flashing over her face. “When I think back to what he said to me, he sounded so desperate, so insane…I don’t think he’s been in his right mind lately.”

Madison frowned, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Even still, he hurt you. He hurt all of us. He deserves to be punished.”