Past

Something I always hated was waiting at the door for someone to answer. That was the position I was in now, not that I minded much, considering who was supposed to open the door for me. It had been three months since she was last in London, since I met her closest friend and sorted out everything with him.

Since then I had actually become friends, somewhat, with Jake myself. Since then, I had texted with Sierra almost every day, we called each other a few times a week to make sure everything was going as planned. That she was safe. That she was getting information, and probably more importantly, to my ego, that she was still happy with choosing me as someone to trust.

I knocked on the door and shuffled my feet. Last time we tried this, she ended up storming out, so here I was hoping that she had plans for tonight since she asked me to stay with her tonight instead of coming to me.

"Esmond." She said my name as she opened the door, her eyes wandering up and down my frame as she leaned against the door.

"Sierra." I replied as she moved to the side to let me in. I looked around the apartment, which I hadn't been in since I stopped her overdose.

"I know last time I was in London, you had planned on having dinner with me. That you even cooked a lasagne..." She said with a smile as she closed the door behind me and followed me down the hallway to her open-plan living area.

"Yeah, I thought we could have a proper date or something." I said. She laughed.

"I'm sorry I missed it. From what Jake told me, it was pretty good." She said, tilting her head to the side as she walked into her kitchen. "Look, I'm just going to jump straight to the point here. I don't have time for an emotional relationship. Not with everything else going on." I let out a slow breath. If I was supposed to act like her words didn't feel like a knife in the chest...

"Right..."

"But that's not me saying I want to end this completely, or that there's no chance for it in the future. Just right now, I don't want emotion. I just want physical, and I am extremely addicted to your touch already. So if you're okay with purely physical as well..." I ran a hand over my hair while she spoke. Fuck. This wasn't what I wanted, not at all.

"Purely physical?" I asked, as if what she said wasn't clear enough.

"Yes, I don't need our situation getting anymore complicated than it already is. Juggling a proper relationship with trying to take down Queen and also keeping my family and Jake safe... it's too much." She told me, and it made my heart shatter. Not necessarily because of why she wanted things this way. I could live with it. I could deal with just having a physical relationship, because I can hide my feelings if I need to. No, what caused that pang of hurt wasn't this at all. It was because of what I needed to tell her.

"Sierra, your family..." I trailed off, not really knowing how to say what I needed to. How to put it calmly and concisely and empathetically.

"I know. I shouldn't have asked you to look for them. To check on them for me. It was stupid and has nothing to do with you-"

"No, I found them." I cut her off. She had a slight smile on her face.

"You did? Did you get to talk to them? Ask why they haven't been cashing my cheques? I mean, my sister would start university soon and I wanted to help her through, even if they don't want anything to do with me."

"Sierra..." I trailed off, and that was when her smile faltered.

"No." She said, as if the simple word of denial would change reality. "No, Queen has been using them against me since I started in the Court. She's been holding them over my head, that she could find them and I couldn't. She could find them and..."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"No, they can't be dead. Not all of them. There has to be a survivor, my brother, surely Abel is still-"

"Sierra. They're all gone. I checked, even looked into witness protection programs just in case one of them had slipped through. Your parents, I know you didn't care for them much, but I looked everywhere for your brother and sister. They were both home with your parents when there was a 'gas leak'. The explosion took out half the street." I said. She shook her head.

"Gas leak? Half the street? Were they living in a fucking dump?"

"No, they were actually in a pleasant neighbourhood, a set of townhouses."

"How the fuck..."

"You know how. Do you need me to say it to you, though? Would that help or make it worse?" I asked her, watching as she walked to sit on her lounge and pull a cushion onto her lap.

"Say it. Spare no detail. How do you know it wasn't an accident? What evidence was there?" She asked, and I moved to kneel in front of her, so she had to look into my eyes while I spoke.

"I saw the reports. Saw the photos. The coroner's report was manipulated, edited after the fact. I found the originals. It stated there was evidence of bullet wounds in each family member, one straight through the skull. Angle was consistent with execution style shooting." She locked her eyes on mine as I spoke, and I could see tears sitting on her waterline.

"When they force people to their knees and shoot them in the back of the head?"

"Yeah. The original fire department report also said there was evidence of arson, that the fire wasn't accidental. That was covered up, too."

"How did you get the originals?" She asked, a tear falling down her cheek. I lifted a hand to use my thumb to wipe the glistening drop of water away.

"Well, I went to the people who got paid off and forced the originals out of them." I answered, holding her neck in my hand and keeping her eyes on mine. She saw the anger in my eyes that these people did this for money.

"What did you do to them?"

"You don't need to worry about that." I told her. She shook her head.

"What did you do?"

"I did to them what was done to your family and covered it up like they did." I answered, not looking away from her for even a second. She nodded, the tears disappearing as a resolve replaced the sadness. From what I knew, she had already mourned the loss of her family when they disowned her, when they didn't even talk to her when she broke her back.

"Queen killed them and had it covered up." She said, her voice steady as her cool anger took over her body.

"Yes, she did."

"I will not let her get away with anymore of this shit."

"Neither of us will."

"But I can't let her know I know about this."

"No, just like you being clean."

Sierra nodded and let out a breath, her shoulders shaking slightly with her anger.

"I'm going to fucking destroy her."