I flinch.
“That’s how we end this, Violet. I pay for him to go to a work camp a world away from here, and we never see him again; he never darkens our door. You don’t like that idea?” he asks, gazing into my eyes, “It means he doesn’t die at my hands, but we can both rest easy. It’s the only answer I think will work for both of us.”
I empty my lungs. I don’t know how to respond.
Campo. Camp? Like it’s a fun place.
“Look at it this way. It’s not much different than jail. It’s just not a cushy jail. And he’s out of our hair. Yeah, it’ll be hard work, something he’s not used to, but it’ll be his choice to stay alive or not. Up to him if he turns it into a death sentence.”
“But it’s a life sentence.” Ray wouldn’t get a life sentence for scamming Mrs. Shear.
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“That’s classified,” he says. “I don’t even know. Don’t want to, either. I’ll have to pay a steep price, but it’s worth it to me if it means you can start to let this go.”
The less I know the better about this? I don’t know; they say ignorance is bliss and I’m suddenly wishing I was still ignorant about the Ray situation. But not really.
I want a marriage built on honesty, trust, mutual respect.
Killian takes another sip of beer. “The background of the camp? A good friend of the man who appointed himself a mentor of mine, one of his mentors was a religious man and also a powerful one. It was a conundrum because he had issues with murder but also needed a way to eliminate problems. He loved God but he loved power and money just about as much. The camp is a place where people of a certain association can send their problems, eliminate those problems in their lives without breaking a commandment. It’s a prison work-camp co-op run by some of the darkest and most powerful criminals. If the inmates do what they’re told, they get three squares and a place to lay their heads at night. If they don’t, they either get punished until they change their ways, or they don’t survive. We send him there, his future fate is in his own hands, but he won’t ever get out and won’t ever have a line of communication to the outside world.”
“And Ray’s mom? She’s already there and forever?”
“She’s in an arm of it, doesn’t have the same life of hard physical labor, but she doesn’t have an easy life there either. I’m not gonna sugar coat it.”
“Did she know where she was being sent?”
“She wasn’t sent directly there. She was given a couple options and she picked the one I wanted her to pick. Doesn’t even know I had a hand in it. She was put in a position of trust and when she broke that trust, which was what I suspected she’d do, she was given her choice of punishments and she chose that one. She chose it not knowing I was behind it, but I’m the one that paid for her to go. Really, she’d see it that she sent herself there. If she took any accountability, which like her son, she probably doesn’t.”
“But you knew she’d wind up failing just like you knew Ray would wind up failing. Entrapment.”
“Essentially.”
“What about me? What traps have you set for me, Killian?”
He looks deep into my eyes, moving closer and closer, until I’m leaning back.
“I set out to make you fall madly in love with me, have my babies and spend your life being treated like a queen.”
“And I’m failing.”
He gives a sharp shake of his head. “You’re not. Believe me, you’re not. And even if you do, you won’t. I didn’t set out to do anything but extract Iadanza from your life. Not at first. Yeah, I played dirty with him. But not with you. Never played dirty with you baby. I fell in love with you. And I’ve been punished deeply for it. But I’ll play dirty now if that’s what it takes to get to keep you.”
I frown.
He continues talking. “Because every minute of every day, all I want is to be with you. All I want is to see you smile. Feel your touch. Be inside you. My favorite fucking place. It’s both a blessing and a curse to feel this much for somebody. I’m afraid I’ve become a little obsessed.”
“That sounds ominous,” I mumble.
He searches my eyes like he’s trying to guess what I’m thinking.
I can’t help it, I crack a smile.
“My kingdom for these dimples,” he whispers and then our lips are touching for a beat before I turn my head away.
“I’m tired,” I say.
“Okay.”
He rises, lifting me with his hands on my hips. He gently sets me on my feet, then takes his plate and beer bottle to the kitchen counter on his way behind me, heading for the bedroom.