Locked Hearts (Chained Hearts Duet 2)

“Piper is at the hospital,” my mother announces as I walk over to Sailor and pull her hands free from her face. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“I’m not meant for this life. Let me go. Please, let me go,” she whispers on broken sobs as they spill from her lips.

“Go,” I say, stepping back. Her eyes go wide at my quick agreement, but she doesn’t move from where she is. “Go, before I change my mind. Please.”

Silent tears stream down her flushed cheeks as she nods, then runs out of the room. I watch her leave and know, just know, she is taking a part of me with her. Not just my child, but a piece of me as well.

“Do you know what you just did?” my mother asks, her hand coming to my shoulder. “You just showed her that no matter what, you choose her.”

“Then why do I want to run out that door, tie her to whatever I can, and not let her go?”

My mother sighs and walks over to my father, bending down. She leans down and kisses his cheek, then lingers there. “I loved this man, but he didn’t love me. He used me time and time again. I was nothing but someone who could carry his children. And that was it. A deal, a contract that he had to fulfill. I hated him at the beginning, but somewhere along the line I fell in love with him. Only to have him fall in love with someone else. That hurts, Keir. It hurts.” Her eyes rim with tears as she looks back at me.

“Don’t hurt her. I can tell you this… she loves you. I see the way she looks at you, the way you both look at each other. But right now, you are in the middle of a war, and she has no idea what that means… other than death. Let her go and give her time. Then go after her.” She taps my shoulder. “I’m going to help her pack and say goodbye to Wren.”

She leans up and kisses my cheek. “I love you, and I am proud of who you are,” she says before she follows Sailor.

Joey is now kneeling down next to our father. “You are a piece of shit.” Joey reaches into our father’s pocket and grabs his cell. The picture on the screen is of him and his whore. “As if I would betray my brother. Some of us have loyalty and morals.” Joey stands and hands the cell to me before he walks off, leaving me there with my dying father. I sit next to him—the color is draining from his face and his breathing is becoming more labored by the second.

“I’m going to tell you something.” I stare down at him. “I’m going to find where she lives, and I am going to kill her.” I flick through the messages on his cell phone. My eyes widen when I get to the one about me and I turn to look at him. “The families don’t have a problem with the contract, you do,” I say, pushing the screen of the phone into his face. “Joey informed them the day she walked out, and they told you. And you couldn’t have it, so you came here for what?” I ask.

“You will ruin everything if you follow love,” my father says, his voice now weak.

“I never shed a tear when you died. I thought that was odd. But now, I know why that was. You never loved us. You only loved what you built,” I say. “They told you not to come, to leave it alone. Yet you came anyway.” I continue reading the messages. “I guess it pains you that they consider me more of a god than you ever were.” I smirk as he closes his eyes, and I press call and his whore answers.

“Marky.” Her voice is thick, and she slurs his name like a woman with need. “Marky,” she says again.

“Priscilla,” I say her name, and she goes silent for a few seconds.

“Keir, I take it.”

“The one and only.” I smile into the phone.

“Where is your father?”

“You think a woman like you, a whore at best, can question me?”

“Your father will have your tongue.”

“Wrong. Oh, how wrong you are,” I say. “Actually, accept my FaceTime.” I press the camera and she does it straight away. “It’s nice to meet the woman who fucked my father while he was married to my mother.”

“We’ve met, several times, actually,” she says. There’s a cocky attitude about her which is not endearing. “He would bring you around to sit in the car or in my house while we fucked.”

“I guess it’s the end of an era then, since you won’t be seeing him again. It’s only fitting my face is the last one you remember with him.”