Hers To Keep (Servite Academy #2)

Chapter 39

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

ACE

I knew as soon as the foolish words came out of her mouth that something horrible had occurred. It was the only explanation for her unusual behavior. Scarlett was acting crazy, not making any sense, not sounding at all like herself. I could feel the tension radiating off her like heat waves threatening to incinerate anything in her path.

However, I expected it, and the more she tried to convince me, the more I realized she was only trying to convince herself. So I made things easy on her. I gave in and acted like I fell for her ridiculous excuses. I have to give her some credit though, mostly she kept a straight face. If I didn’t know her better, I may have believed it.

But I didn’t. I couldn’t. I refused to believe everything that has transpired between us was all a ruse. It may have started that way, at least that was my intention, but it’s become so much more than that. It’s become an overpowering sensation, an overwhelming need to be close to her all times of the day. To love her so passionately and despite everything that’s stood in our path.

Though I also didn’t fight her futile act of deception. Because I knew that if I fought against her, if I tried to convince her she was only fooling herself, it would only make things harder for her.

So I walked away, and I came to him, to the only person I knew I could trust. Because if anyone can help me get my girl back, it’s her father.

Letting her walk away from me is all a part of our plan. One she does not yet know about, and one that cannot fail.

So yeah, Scarlett and I hit a snag in our scheme to take down my Uncle Wesley. A slight bump in the road, with unforeseen circumstances. I guess that’s what happens when two foolish kids try to take down the all-powerful, ultimate kingpin.

We thought we had it all figured out. That everything would fall into place once we set our plan into motion, but it was foolish of us to believe we could beat him at his own game. It's time to face the reality that the world we live in is a cruel, chaotic, and unpredictable hell.

A new force has shown up to threaten everything we’ve so tirelessly worked for, and it caused a ripple in what we had originally planned. This new powerful devil came to threaten how far the two of us have come, to test the strength of our love. It took everything in us to work together, everything in her to learn to trust me. I know he told her something to make her once again doubt my love, my loyalty, but unlike her, this is something I was expecting.

I knew he was back, that he was the one who was blackmailing my uncle, because he’s the one person I never told her about. The man who found me snooping around Eli Hargrove’s office, looking for answers where he knew I wouldn’t find any, because that’s what he wanted, what he planned. He's the one who barged in on Elena and me that day in her office, but I couldn’t figure out why, his motives were still unclear .

Until now.

Maxwell Smoak told me everything, how he found out first I’ll never know. Maxwell said he was lurking around the woods, he’d been aimlessly following Wesley around since the day they had him tied up, the day Scarlett’s world fell apart.

Wesley’s been on the move, acting desperate and paranoid as the threat of the demise of his world closes in around him. He said he’d noticed he was acting suspicious, and he saw him load up on barrels of gasoline from an oil refinery nearby, so he knew he was up to something. Though he never imagined the extent of his plan.

Maxwell followed Wesley out to the cabin, not knowing Scarlett and I were there or that we’d sent him the fake blackmail message telling him we’d be there. What he saw was Wesley pouring gasoline all around the cabin when I left to get us dinner. He watched him sneak inside and then take off running minutes later after throwing a match out in the yard.

Maxwell had a bad feeling about what was happening and knowing how far Wesley will go, he walked over to the window and saw Scarlett standing in the kitchen unaware of what was occurring. Right when he was about to warn her, he heard my boys coming from the front. I’d asked them to keep an eye on her, but they told me when they approached her, she thought they were the ones who set the fire and were trying to hurt her.

“I followed her after the explosion when your boys started chasing after her. I thought she was in danger,” Maxwell says, from the driver's seat of the rental car he’s been using, a worried look crossing his face. “I saw her run into an old cabin by the edge of the lake, but what shocked me the most, is who I saw sneaking in after her. I had my suspicions, but they were confirmed at that moment.”

After all, he’s the only one who remembered Macallan, or should I say a young Franco Marchesi, from before. He said his ex-girlfriend Gianna used to talk about her brother very often, minor details about him Maxwell found the deeper he dug. Maybe that’s why he knew exactly where to look. Maxwell Smoak has been back in Hillcrest for over nine months—from the moment he returned and found Wesley and his brother talking about Lilith and bringing his daughter here. We were unsure how much Malcolm knew about Scarlett being Maxwell’s daughter, but I guess the mayor faked it all along.

“Franco also started blackmailing me,” he says, keeping his eyes focused on the dark road before us. Maxwell agreed to let me stay with him, and together we’ve come up with a plan to end both Wesley Servite and Franco Marchesi. Scarlett thinks that by working for Wesley at The Gallows she’s protecting me, from what I’m not yet sure. There is something I’m missing, as always. The puzzle piece that convinced her to go along with Marchesi’s idiotic plan. Maxwell said he had to leave before he was found out, so he couldn’t hear what exactly Marchesi threatened her with, but that someone else was there, her stepbrother Roman.

Scarlett wouldn’t tell me the real reason she ran off with Wesley, but for once I didn’t push. I’ve learned to trust her, and I hope she’s learned to trust me.

So I agreed to play along. Scarlett’s going to work for my uncle Wesley at The Gallows, while I’m to make myself scarce. She thinks I’ve accepted the way she ended things, but she’s so fucking wrong.

I may be temporarily gone from her life, but what she doesn’t know is her father and I are beginning part one of our foolproof plan.

“It’s how you knew he was the one blackmailing my uncle, because you received the same letter?” I ask, still not understanding the extent of the blackmail toward my uncle.

“At first, I was confused. Honestly, I thought Wesley and Lilith might’ve been behind it, but they both have so much more to lose if the information he has gets out. Franco also blames me for what happened to his little sister, rightfully so. I am partly at fault. For trusting Wesley and Lilith, and foolishly believing they were my friends.” He runs his hands through his hair, looking solemnly at me, his blue eyes filled with worry, and for the first time I see it. I see Scarlett’s eyes when I look at him, the resemblance to her mother is clear, but the softness in her eyes comes from her father.

“They all deserve what’s coming for them. I just hate that I was so blind and didn’t realize this sooner before she was so deeply involved.” Now it’s my turn to run my hands aimlessly through my hair. God, I hate feeling this way, not only vulnerable, but helpless. I’d give up anything to turn back time and make it as though she never came here. To ensure he never put his hands on her, even if it meant I’d lose her.

“You love her, don’t you?” he asks, turning to me, a genuine interest in his gaze.

I nod turning to him, tears staining my cheeks as I blink rapidly to push them away. “More than I ever thought humanly possible. She makes me want to be a better person, makes me believe I can still be worthy of someone like her, given the shit I’ve been a part of.” Crying has always been a sign of weakness, and we were never to show any emotion. But here and now with no one around to judge or scold me, my tears threaten to flood out and drown me.

He places a hand on my shoulder, like a father would his son. Well, what I assume a father would do since my no good, cowardly father never once has shown any kind of affection toward me. “You can’t blame yourself for growing up in a world that gave you no other choice. You chose survival, and that meant following along and obeying everything that was asked of you. You might have believed his lies, followed in his footsteps, believed at one point that what you were doing was needed, but now that you know the truth, you’ve chosen a better path. That is redemption, son. To accept responsibility for your past sins and repent.” I nod quietly, not responding to him. Can I really erase all my past offenses, and continue like nothing ever happened? “She seems like a wonderful girl; I hate that I didn't find out about her sooner. I would have taken her far away from this toxic place.”

“We still have time. We have to see this through, enact our vengeance and destroy them once and for all. It’s the only way to ensure she can ever be happy,” I assure him, but it’s myself who I think I’m trying to convince.

“You realize who we’re trying to go up against?” Maxwell asks me as we pull into the driveway of the safe house he’s renting in Pleasant Hills, near the foster house where Scarlett lived. We must keep our distance but remain close by if she were to need us. I also must stay near Hillcrest to be close to my boys. Since I’m gone, they’ll be the ones who will keep an eye on her for me.

“My uncle’s biggest flaws lie in the sins he damns others for committing, but the ones he tirelessly does himself. Pride, greed, wrath, but most of all gluttony. He wants it all, and that will be his downfall. He won’t be content with just having her work at The Gallows, he’ll want her as his own now that he plans to get rid of Lilith, and me.” Maxwell’s face contorts angrily, he may not have known about Scarlett until recently, but the idea of what my uncle might want from his daughter is repulsive even to him.

“He’s not the one I was referring to. Franco Marchesi. The Marchesis are the mob. When they were part of the five, they dealt with the organized crime sector. Who do you think did the clean ups for your grandfather and those before him? Those who they couldn’t control, the business partners who wanted out, who do you think got rid of them? The Marchesis might as well have their own graveyard in Hillcrest with the amount of people they’ve killed over the years. And Franco Marchesi is a psychopath. Even his own father, a ruthless mob boss, couldn't handle him.” We step out of the car heading toward the front rusty door of the cabin.

“We have to figure something out. We have no choice. I have to get her out of this mess I caused.” All of this is my fault. It’s my world she was dragged into, it’s my uncle who wishes to harm her. It’s this entire town that will be her ruin .

He opens the door leading me inside, as he sets his keys upon a small table by the door. “We will son, I can’t lose my daughter. I’ve only just found her.”

We ordered some takeout from a nearby Thai restaurant, now sitting across from each other at the small table in the dining room, eating silently. I swear an entire hour goes by, just the two of us sitting here, not knowing what to say. I don’t know where to start. So many questions are going through my head, but there is still one minor detail that makes little sense to me.

“How does Elena Masters fit into all of this?” I ask abruptly. He halts as he brings the forkful of Pad Thai up to his mouth.

“It’s been a while since I heard that name,” he says, setting down his fork and wiping his mouth with a napkin, as he brings his glass of scotch to his lips.

“When I went to Eli Hargrove’s office to look for information on the blackmailer, I found Elena there. Then Macallan, well Marchesi showed up, and told me he was the one who was blackmailing Wesley, but he never told me why, or what Elena had to do with it. I figured since Elena and my uncle dated before she wanted payback for him cheating on her or something.” He laughs out loud, clearly insinuating that isn’t the reason for Elena’s involvement in all of this.

He smiles and shakes his head in response, “Elena and your Uncle Wesley dated throughout high school, but Elena was Gianna’s best friend. When she found out what had happened, she came to me. She gave me hell for cheating on Gianna, but I had absolutely no idea what had happened,” he laughs to himself once again, drinking the rest of his scotch in one swig. “But when Gianna killed herself, she soon discovered what Wesley and Lilith had done.”

“So she knew, and this is her revenge for the death of her best friend?” I ask for the first time, finding out what truly happened to Gianna, and why Marchesi’s vengeance is so strong. His sister killed herself because of my Uncle Wesley’s scheme .

“Revenge, retribution, it’s all motivation. Wesley was secretly in love with Gianna, although he was with Elena. But I don’t think Wesley and Lilith know Elena found out what they did. If they knew, I’m sure they would have ensured her silence. She swore to me then she’d get payback for everything he did, which must be why she’s helping him.”