Above the Law

Chapter Twenty-Two

"We would get rid of a woman beater if we could, right? We're not just targeting rapists, we're targeting bad people in general?"

He nodded hesitantly. "Who are we talking about?" Parker asked softly.

"My teacher's husband. All year she's had bruises littering her skin, but do you think anyone cares? Do you think anyone cared that with each breath she took today she winced and held her stomach? No one is going to do anything, Parker. No one except us. She won't leave him. You know that."

The way Parker was looking at her, concerned and slightly frightened, she knew she needed to pull herself together, sound less eager. "I know. But Eden, don't you think it's a little too soon to be..."

"Don't you think she's been a punching bag long enough?" Eden retorted. She bit her lip to quiet herself.

"Eden, you just killed someone," he said it slowly, like that one sentence was supposed to say a lot more than the obvious. "You just took the life of a person and I know that hasn't hit you yet, but it will, and when it does it's going to hit hard."

Eden straighten her back. "You think Drew's lifeless eyes haunt my dreams more than all the other men we've killed? I may have killed him by myself, but the things he's done didn't die with him. The things he did to Lily didn't disappear." She swallowed hard. "He took her innocence. He didn't deserve to live after that."

Parker grabbed her face, his head shaking back and forth. "He didn't deserve to live, Eden. But you don't deserve to live with what you've done. It is going to haunt you for the rest of your life, whether or not it was justified."

Eden knew he was right. She was going to remember taking Drew's life for the rest of hers. She wouldn't forget the feel of his slick blood on her skin, or the sounds of him fighting for his last breaths. She wouldn't forget the feeling of plunging the knife into his chest over and over and over again. And she certainly wouldn't forget the power that radiated off of her.

Parker watched the darkness dance across her sharp features. His eyebrows pulled in and a frown formed on his lips. "Eden. If I take care of your teacher's husband you're not going."

Her eyes refocused on his. "Why?"

"Because that look on our face tells me this isn't just about justice for you anymore." Parker felt his chest caving in. He created that darkness inside her. He'd fed it. He loved her, but he didn't love what she was becoming. He didn't love what he had created. He reached out and brushed her hair away from her face. She frowned. "Eden, don't let my darkness consume you."

"It's not your darkness," she said firm but quite. "It's the worlds."

Of all the monsters he'd stopped, he couldn't stop her from becoming one.

"We're partners. We watch each other's backs. I'm going with you, whether you like it or not. Mrs. Whitney's not going to wake up one day and she doesn't deserve that, Parker. She's kindhearted and loyal. And weak. She won't leave him. She'll let his feet keep kicking and his fists keep swinging until she thinks she deserves it. God, Parker, she doesn't deserve it."

He stared at her for a long moment, a war raging in his head. He sighed and shook his head one, then started for the basement. He couldn't say no to her. He brought her into this, he told her she didn't have an out. He saw the rage and determination in her eyes when he first asked her to assist in his game of revenge, he knew he had her. Right for the start he saw the darkness waiting to surface. He should have left her alone.

But he didn't.

And he couldn't blame her, he couldn't stop loving her, because he needed revenge just as much as she did. He wasn't going to take that from her. Maybe he should, but he wouldn't.