Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

20. Milo

TWENTY

MILO

NINE YEARS AGO

Milo tremored where he sat against the wall in the murky shadows of the dingy hall. The shouts and cheers of the depraved echoed from the bowels of the basement.

He thought their greed had grown claws and sank into the concrete, chains that clanked and clanged, shackled to his bitter soul.

Holding him hostage.

He struggled for a breath and brought his blood-stained fists to his eyes.

The violence spent.

Another man beaten close to death.

The stench of the possibility hung fast to the sordid atmosphere.

It was what fed the morbidity. The barbarity and inhumanity that brought men here in droves.

And he prowled through it night after night, like a rabid beast in a cage.

He slammed his head back against the rough blocks like it could knock him out of the vengeful cycle that would never end.

The weight of it lessened a fraction when he felt the shift in the air.

The cool breeze of her presence.

“There you are,” Autumn murmured as she neared.

He rolled his head to look at her, his heavy heart lightening at the sight. “Were you looking for me?”

A flirty smile edged the side of her mouth. “I’m always looking for you.”

“Is that so?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Come here,” he muttered, stretching out a hand as he straightened his legs out in front of him. Autumn didn’t hesitate to straddle his lap.

Relief wafted around him like a summer breeze, and he exhaled as he curled his arms around her. “You shouldn’t come here anymore.”

She pulled back, studying his face in the wisping shadows that haunted this place. “Why not? This is where I found you, isn’t it?”

She touched his face, her fingertips running over his lips. He took her hand and pressed it closer, the gentle kiss to her knuckles filled with devotion.

He wanted to take her away from this place.

Protect her from it.

Protect her from him .

“Still don’t understand that,” he muttered as he kept sweeping his lips along her knuckles.

She pulled back, care written in the curve of her brow, her brown eyes sincere. “How I could love you?”

His nod was hard.

She shook her head. “I loved you from the second I saw you.”

“I think you just loved the idea of slummin’ it with me to get back at your parents.” He forced a grin, sick with the idea that it might be true.

Autumn frowned. “You know that’s not true. Yeah, I came here that first night because I wanted to piss them off. Among a thousand other places I went that they would never have approved of. But it was here that I found you . And you are the reason I returned. The reason I stayed.”

His chest stretched tight. “You’d do a hell of a lot better without me.”

The lines on her pretty face deepened, and she sat up higher on her knees to hover over him. He tipped his head back so he could meet her stare, and she slipped her hand up his jaw until she was cupping his cheek.

So soft against all his hard.

“You don’t have to listen to that voice inside your head anymore. He doesn’t matter. You aren’t worthless, and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

She inhaled a desperate breath. “Your father can’t hurt you, anymore. Can’t hurt your mother. And he can’t hurt me , either—not unless you let him. Not unless you give him that power and you push me away. We deserve each other, Milo. You are what matters. We are what matters.”

“Autumn.” It was a plea.

A plea for freedom.

A plea to be someone else.

Someone better.

“Let’s leave this place, Milo. Let’s leave and never come back.”

“Need to have a way to support you.”

God knew he didn’t have anything else going for him.

At his response, her gaze dimmed.

She knew his reasons went so much darker than that.

That he fought for release.

To prove he was something. Someone to be feared. Something to be revered.

And now, he fought for Stefan. Other than his mom, he had been the one person who had believed in him. Picked him up and made him someone when he’d been little more than a kid.

Shown him he had value. Gave him a direction to channel the wrath.

He was indebted to him, but that debt had twisted itself into something morbid.

In the end, he’d only fostered what his father had bred in him.

A sickness there was no healing from.

Gore.

Both her hands came to frame his face. “You don’t have to fight anymore, Milo. I don’t need anything but you.”

Thickness clotted his throat, and he reached out and ran his fingertips along the angle of her jaw, forcing out the confession, “I’ve only loved two people in my entire life…my mother…now you.”

Tears blurred her brown eyes as she stared down at him. “Well, now you’re going to have to love one more.”

Fear curdled in the middle of him, all while hope came sprouting up through the rubble.

He touched her flat belly. “You sure?”

She nodded frantically before she flew forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him hard as she begged, “Let’s leave and start something brand new. No more blood, Milo.”

His arms curled around her, and he stood without letting her go. “Okay, baby. Let’s go.”

He knocked on the door outside Stefan’s office in downtown San Francisco.

He kept his legitimate businesses here, the rest he’d brought to Milo’s door.

“Come in.”

Milo’s chest tightened as he stepped inside.

Stefan studied him, his brow pinching at the look on Milo’s face.

“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like the reason for this visit?”

Dread raced his throat, and he forced out the words. “Because I can’t fight any longer.”

Stefan scowled. “What do you mean, you can’t fight?”

“It’s time I moved on and did something honest with my life.”

A scoff rolled from Stefan, and he eased forward in his executive chair. “Men like us don’t do honest, Milo. Why do you think I picked you up and took you under my wing? Molded and shaped you into the man you are today? Because you are just like me, and you always will be.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be him anymore.”

Eyeing Milo, Stefan rocked back in his chair. “I gave you everything. Laid every opportunity at your feet. You would be nothing without me.”

A flare of hatred burst in Milo’s spirit.

It’d started out that way. Stefan filling his head with promises, feeding into his wounds and into his pride.

But in the end, Stefan had just wanted to use him.

Use him for power.

For his greed.

For his twisted hungers that Milo hadn’t recognized before it’d been too late.

He’d allowed himself to be led astray.

He knew it then.

“Autumn gave me more.”

In an instant, Milo knew he shouldn’t have admitted it.

Dark amusement played through Stefan’s features. “So, this is about the girl.”

“I’m leaving this life behind and starting a family.”

Stefan grunted. “I am your family.”

“Not anymore.” Milo started for the door.

Stefan pushed to his feet.

“You owe me, Milo. Everything you have is because of me. Wherever you go, don’t forget that. I created you. Made you. Own you. But I’ll let you go. Because you need to see for yourself who you are. Because I love you like a son. You’ll return when the time is right.”

Milo held his scoff.

Stefan was delusional.

He was never coming back.

Milo clung to Autumn’s hand where they stood outside her parents’ mansion hidden in the woods.

Its pitched roof was so tall it became a fixture in the heavens, the grounds pristine and manicured.

Autumn’s mother stood on the front porch since she refused to invite Milo inside. Disgust poured from her as she glowered at him. “What are you thinking, bringing this trash to my doorstep?”

Trash.

Milo fought the voices that stirred in his mind, and Autumn clung tighter to his hand like she could protect him from the ugliness that wanted to climb from the pit where he’d locked it away.

“Please, don’t be like that, Mom. I love him.”

Paula scoffed. “That’s not love, Autumn. This is juvenile infatuation. I promise you’ll come to your senses and get over it soon enough. Now, come inside where you belong.”

“It’s not infatuation. I love him. So much. We’re getting married and having a baby.”

Her mother blanched.

Her face stark white.

Horror bowed her back, and her hand darted out to grip onto the railing. “I won’t stand for it.”

“You don’t have a say.” Milo couldn’t keep the words locked on his tongue, the sound of them close to savagery.

“The hell I don’t. She’s my daughter. Mine. And I won’t let some lowlife swoop in and destroy her future.”

“Mom,” Autumn wheezed. “Please don’t be this way.”

“I’m only protecting you, Autumn. Don’t you see your life has spiraled since you met him? You’re going to amount to nothing if you stay with him.”

Knives pierced his flesh, but he held the fury back.

“If that’s what it means to be with him? Then so be it.”

Autumn turned and started to drag him down the stairs.

Thank fuck, because Milo didn’t think he could stay there for a second longer.

“You’re going to regret this, Autumn,” her mother shouted. She rushed down the steps behind them. “Don’t do this. Please. If you walk away now, you’re walking away from everything. You’ll have nothing. Your bank account is gone. I’m warning you.”

Didn’t she know her daughter at all?

What she wanted from life?

Milo turned, his voice haggard and hard. “You don’t have to like me, but I love your daughter, and I will protect her, fight for her, and take care of her forever.”

Her nose curled and pained disbelief huffed from her mouth. “I doubt you know what that means.”

A tiny giggle rippled from her lips, her smile pure adoration. “I know you better than you think I do, Milo Hendricks.”

He could only smile back, propped on an elbow as he gazed down at her where she lay on their bed in the trailer on his land.

“Is that so?” he teased.

“Yup. I see it written all over you. I feel it in these hands.” She ran her fingers over the calluses he’d gotten from building their cabin.

Their home.

Where they were going to raise their family.

He’d given his mother the other half of the money he’d saved during his years fighting, and she was having a house built on the property next to them.

Once the cabin was finished, he planned to start his own construction company.

Build their lives up with the strength of his hands.

Because Paula was wrong.

Stefan was wrong.

He would take care of his family, and he didn’t need anyone else to do it.

“And I see it every time you look at me.” Autumn ran her fingertip down the side of his face. “It’s so very plain to see how much you love me.”

He ran his hand over her swollen belly. His heart soared, and he touched her face. “More than you’ll ever know. I promise you always, baby.”

“Always,” she whispered back.