Children of Redemption (Children of Vice 3)

Slowly he slid out of me, but held my body to him. Slowly I turned back to face him. And then reaching up, I brushed the water from his face, and he kissed my palm.

“Wyatt, more,” I said through deep breaths.

Breathing just as deeply as me, he stared into my eyes, and I hoped he saw what I wanted more of…I wanted him to explore his darkest desires with me.

His eyes rolled back and his chest heaved. Taking a

deep breath, he stared down at me. I noticed the corners of his lips turn up as he took me in. He enjoyed seeing me with his mark, and it was only when he was ready that he grabbed a washcloth and wiped the evidence of his obsession off my face.

Rising from my knees, I watched as he turned off the water…even though we were both still dirty.

WYATT

I had always heard people say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes…but why hadn’t anyone ever told me that when you fell in love your future did the same thing?

The moment she opened her mouth and told me I was hers, that I would come first before anyone else, I saw it. All the obstacles that could come, all the fights we would have…the places I’d make love to her, what we would laugh about, who our kids would look more like. I saw what would happen if I lost her…I saw myself staring off into space like my father did. That image scared me more than anything else. It made me hold onto her tighter as she slept in my arms. I understood him now. For the first time in my life, I understood my father. I understood why he always looked like he was dying back then. My mother was a part of him. The most precious organ in his body was her, and when she died…he died. He loved us, her children, but he resented the fact that we wouldn’t just let him die.

For the first time since my I’d lost my mother, I felt warm, and I knew where that heat was coming from…it was Helen. She loved me. She chose me, even with all my faults, even with all my shortcomings. Despite the fact that I was often weak, and blind, and pig-headed. Despite my past, despite all the times I hurt her without even knowing it, she chose to stand beside me. I tried to think of secrets, things I couldn’t tell her, and I had none. I tried to think of anything she would not have shared with me. But I was confident she didn’t have any that could even upset me. She’d opened herself to me completely…we weren’t just naked with our bodies, but with our souls. We’d shared everything now…she was a part of me now. My warmth, and now that I had it, I never wanted to let go. Now, for the first time, I felt sorry for being one of the reasons my father had to live on without his.

Glancing over to the window, I watched as the sun began to rise over the city.

I could hear my father’s voice in my head, teaching me the rules I needed to live by.

Rule 48: Love your wife above all else…after all, she is the one who can either keep you warm at night or make sure you never wake up.

Rule 49: Never cheat. Affairs destroy the family. No face or body is worth that.

Rule 50: We are Callahans, if anyone ever disrespects us, don’t just end them, end everything they have ever cared about, both past and present. Make them the example of what happens when you fuck with the wrong family.

See, I was paying attention, Dad.

My eyelids got heavier, and reaching up, I grabbed the remote, closing the blinds before drifting back to sleep, hugging closer to Helen. And even asleep, she clung to my hand.

EIGHTEEN

“Strange, I thought, how you can be living your dreams and your nightmares at the very same time.”

~ Ransom Riggs

WYATT

“I think I should see Ethan today,” I said, looking up from my breakfast waffles…well it was half past one…so lunch waffles, I guess. “What do you think?”

Her eyes lit up as if I’d asked her run away with me. With a fat grin on her face, she nodded. “I think you should. Do you know where he is?”

“No, but I’m sure my girl could figure it out. She’s kind of a computer genius.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.” She laughed and set her tray aside, getting up off the bed, still dressed in only my shirt, and dashed out of the room. I heard a large thump before her cursing.

“Are you okay?” I called out to her, about to get up to see for myself, but she came back, tablet in hand and limping slightly.

“Never better.” She sat beside me, and I couldn’t help it, I laughed, moving my tray over to check her foot. “I’m good, seriously—”

“You do your job, I’ll do mine,” I said as I lifted her ankle to inspect it. She made a face, but I knew it was to the hide the fact that she wanted to smile like bloody mad.

“It’s been two weeks, and he hasn’t touched any of our accounts,” she stated softly, leaning back onto the pillows as I massaged her ankle.

“What about the trackers?”