Well that explained why Judith had left. Just then, Camden felt Aspen wake through their bond. Relief felled him. She didn’t move. Didn’t even open her eyes. She played the unconscious damsel. Good girl.
Hoping to give her time to gather her thoughts and ready herself to move, Camden went on, “The letters might not even be real.”
“It was Esme’s handwriting.”
“Gustavo could have faked it.”
Julius’s nostrils flared. “They were her words. I know they were.”
Maybe. Maybe not. “Words that made you feel motivated to kill me?”
“She was miserable, boy. Miserable. All she wanted was to go home. Home to me. But your daddy wouldn’t allow it. He made her stay. With you. She meant to kill you and then leave, but your grandparents stuck their noses in. You were the chain that kept her with that pride. She just wanted it gone. Wanted to be free. They thought they could use her as a surrogate and then dump the kid on her when it suited them. A kid who hated her as much as she did him.”
This wasn’t really about Esme at all, Camden realized. Julius might tell himself he was doing this to honor her in some way. No, this was about how her absence had affected Julius. The shared trauma the siblings had suffered seemed to have bonded them in some way. Esme was the only real anchor Julius had. Being as messed up as him, she hadn’t exactly been a positive anchor, but she was all he had.
Then he lost her to Dirk.
In Julius’s view, Esme was his, and she’d been taken from him. Kept from him. Expected to put others before him. Then she’d died, leaving Julius all alone. Gustavo had clearly played on all of that—whether it was by writing letters or showing him letters he’d truly discovered.
“Where was the fairness in what was done to her?” growled Julius.
Not liking how close his uncle was to losing his shit while also pointing a gun at Aspen’s head, Camden redirected the conversation by asking, “Where was the fairness in running Grant off the road? Or was that something you did for your own amusement?” It was a stab in the dark.
Julius smirked again—so mercurial, so easily distracted when an opportunity came to boast. “I’d hoped the pride would blame and banish you.”
“You knew Aspen would have left with me. You wanted us to be easier to grab and to have no one to avenge our deaths.” Clever.
“That sadly didn’t happen. But everything worked out in the end.”
Camden blinked. “Really? Because you’re surrounded by a lot of people right now. I’m guessing you didn’t expect your little tale about Grant to lead to the building being so heavily guarded.”
“A miscalculation on my part. Doesn’t matter. I have your girl. You don’t. Now tell these cats here to back off and let me pass.”
“You keep talking like you have a chance of getting away from here. It isn’t going to happen. These people aren’t going to allow it, no matter what I say to them.” Camden felt a sense of battle readiness hum through his mate and he knew she’d spring to life any moment. “They know you’ll kill her. They’d sooner she died here so they can tear apart her killer afterwards.”
“They’ll listen to you. You’re her mate.”
“I am. And I’m not going to tell them to let you leave with her. I know what you’re capable of. I know what you’d do to her. I won’t let you put her through that.”
“Then I guess me and her are going out with a bang.” Smiling, he pressed his mouth to the back of her head in a mocking kiss. “Say goodbye to—”
Wicked fast, she threw her head back, butting him hard … and moving away from the gun. Her hand shot up, snapped around his wrist, and twisted it hard. The weapon fell to the ground as Julius cried out through his teeth.
People descended on Julius in a rush. Aspen was pulled out of his hold and set aside. The gun was grabbed from the ground by Vinnie.
“No,” said Camden when the pallas cats went to drag his uncle away. “He’s mine.”
Camden shifted as he ran. His pride mates scooted backwards. Julius gave his beast supremacy, shifting fast.
Then the battle was on.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Aspen flinched as the two tigers collided with bone-rattling roars. Good Lord, they were vicious and brutal as they bit and clawed. Anyone would think they were rabid. It wasn’t rabies that made them seem so crazed, though. It was rage.
A pure, ice-cold, venomous rage.
The turbulent emotion scented the air and raced down the mating bond, chilling her blood and goading her bearcat.
Vinnie sidled up to her. “You look a mess.”
She felt it. She hurt in too many places to count. Wayland had done some damage, including breaking a rib or two. And Julius had dealt her one hell of a blow to the head, which now throbbed like a motherfucker. But she shoved all the pain aside. All that mattered right now was Camden.