A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 91: Deflecting

Blade POV

I headed out into the night, leaning against the railing of my balcony. It was late and the moon was a sliver of light, but the stars coated the sky, bright and abundant like accidental paint splatters.

For the first time in months, I felt centered. Genuinely okay. Kiana was back in my life and didn't hate me, my dad had already given me a few names of trusted therapists, I had a promising listing I was considering and soon this would no longer be the place where I lived, the place I'd never truly made a home out of, a life in. I could finally leave my past behind and start over. Let everything go.

"Hey," a voice said, soft as the wind.

It didn't startle me though. I'd expected him. The last thing on my list of things to make up for and fix.

"Hey," I replied as Ace climbed over the railing to join me, perching on the flat railing and leaning back against the stone wall of the house. Apparently, he wasn't in the mood for company to be climbing up the house instead of using the front door...either that or he really had been spending too much time with Lexi lately. "Everything taken care of?"

He scoffed. "I'll be dealing with this mess for like a month, minimum."

That wasn't at all what I was asking about, but I supposed seeing those two idiots brought to justice was also a concern.

"Sorry."

"I'm sorry I didn't notice what was going on. I was a crappy friend and apparently even crappier at my job."

No one in their right mind could have predicted this scenario. Hell, I was a goddamn basket case and even I hadn't seen this coming. Yet he still couldn't seem to let it go.

"Don't worry about it. If you had any suspicions, they would have tricked you into believing everything was fine too. Don't forget that."

He sighed, exhausted. "Never a dull moment, huh?"

"Definitely not."

"I am sorry though," he said, swallowing hard. "About more than this whole disaster. Since Kiana asked me to pick her up that day...I wasn't a good friend to you. I thought you guys just needed some space and time to cool off and things would be okay, but then everything just sort of got out of hand."

"You were just trying to help and I was being a dick about it, like usual. You kept her alive and you took care of her; I should be thanking you."

"You were a dick," he agreed, amusement tinging his voice. "But so was I."

"I started it," I pointed out.

"I think Eliza and Aros started it actually."

Our own special catalysts, tied together through the worst kind of mixing of fates. Would things have been different if Aros hadn't spared me? If Ace and I hadn't become friends? Maybe Eliza wouldn't have had a target on her back and she could have been happy with her husband now, could have let me go an eternity ago.

Aros would probably still alive, still ruining lives whenever he could. Ace would probably still be micromanaged and a prisoner in his own life and home, but at least he wouldn't have this job crushing him at every turn. The illusion of freedom might have been better. Both options were pretty shitty though.

But Kiana...I hated to think where she would be if I hadn't been there that night we met. If she would even still be here at all.

"Besides, Kiana explained a little of what happened. Why you disappeared," I said, focusing on this moment instead and not all the possible outcomes of what could have been driving me crazy. I finally turned to him, sitting on my railing, elbow resting on his folded knee, knuckles pressed to his jaw as he stared out across the trees. He had changed out of those pristine suits that made him look like every one of those stuffy old bastards we used to make fun of and it felt like this was a regular night for us just to hang out and do whatever the fuck we wanted before our worlds came tumbling down. "I was a dick to you then too."