Dexter The more I think about all the shit that’s happening, the worse I feel. There are times when I have to stop driving just to fucking think. I can’t believe this. The more I think about it, the more unbelievable everything becomes. Vanessa is Lara Taylor. I’ve never felt like I had to think back to that moment. I never saw a reason to. My goal was to bring that man to his knees in any way I could and I succeeded. I figured why not use her? I was a different man back then. Riddled with hatred and uncaring of anyone who wasn’t me. I’m still that man, but not where Red is concerned. I feel a deep sense of shame whenever I recall those moments. I’m forced to park the car again, which I do, because I get so lost in my damn head that it’s easy for me to forget I’m even in the road. She was blonde. Younger. Her face was rounder. But hell, I hadn’t been thinking about her face. And when I recognized her as my mate, I felt so damn angry still that it didn’t matter to me
LaraA Few Minutes Earlier…What was that sound?Ambrose and I pull away from each other and concern courses through me. I’m pretty sure I heard a loud sound. “Get back!” Ambrose says suddenly while simultaneously reaching down his waistband and closing his hand around a gun before pulling it free. I stagger backward, my eyes on the cold-looking metal in his hand. A few moments later, the doors burst open and a scream leaves my lips. It’s instinctive. I rush behind the desk just before bullets start to fly. My whole body is tingling in a way that it never has before, and I find myself feeling random pains on certain parts of my body. Why does it feel like I’ve been shot?Ambrose. My thoughts are on him as I hear the grunts of the men fighting. I want to peer over the desk to look at him but I’m too scared of getting shot. Bullets keep hitting the wall behind me. My ears are ringing. For a moment, it feels like I’ve been hiding under this desk for years and not mere seconds. It’s b
LaraI reach Finch's place in what feels like a few minutes. I'm sure it's been longer than a few minutes but I've been so lost inside my head that I'm having a hard time focusing on the moment. Finch is waiting outside. It seems he's been renting this house in the outskirts of the city and has been there for a while. It's pretty comfortable, with plenty of space in the front and back, but it's not comparable to the house we grew up in with its marble fountains, museum-like rooms, and two storeys. I can't say that the sight of him doesn't offer me some comfort. It does. His eyes are laced with concern and although I want to hate him, I can't bring myself to do it. His concern saved me. If he hadn't sent this man to get me out of there, I would have died alongside Ambrose. "Lara," he says when I near him. I pause, my body not allowing me to go any further. I feel these tremors now and they wreck me entirely. I've been feeling them ever since I left the strip club. I start to sob
Dexter I had watched Lara from a distance and concluded that she was safe in this house. I’d sped after the car that took her away, my heart racing in my throat. I’d never felt this kind of anxiety before. I thought she was hurt but at the same time, I couldn’t alarm Ander, who’d been by my side the whole time. He was already scared by what happened, so why should I make things worse? “You’ll be with her soon,” I told him to reassure him. I was torn between rescuing her and keeping Ander safe. I couldn’t endanger him, not after the trouble it had taken to find him safe. So, I called for backup. I asked Damson to come to the location. He told me he’d be here in a few. I parked on the other side of the road and watched. The car she was in went into the building. I gripped the steering wheel with one hand, cursing at myself for being a useless cripple. If I had both hands, I would’ve left Ander in the car and stormed in there without any fear of being caught. But I couldn’t leave hi
Lara "So, then we had an agreement," Finch recounts. “He handed me the boy, deciding to trust me, and I let him leave. It was the least I could do for what he did for you.”I look back at Ander, who’s asleep on the couch. I’d take him upstairs but I don’t want to let him out of my sight. I can’t stop looking at him every five minutes to make sure he’s there. Dexter was the one who brought him back to me. He was the one who found him. I would’ve said that he was the one responsible for the whole thing but Dexter then told me about the woman who took him away. Dexter told Finch that woman was his ex-wife. She must’ve been following me, which was why she knew about Ander, and then at the first opportunity, she snatched my son. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was the same woman who slapped me the other day. I mean, Jensen had suggested that she was someone’s angry wife. And sure enough, Ander told me it was a blonde woman. So, it was the same bitch. It would be too much of a coinc
Dexter I haven’t slept a wink last night and the effects of my insomnia are starting to take a toll on me. I walk into a café and order two espressos. I down them both one after the other, but even that isn’t enough to wake me the fuck up. Everything is a damn mess and when things start to come together, I realize many more things. Like how Lara had tried to set me up in the beginning, especially with that shipment story. The things that went wrong for me. Walter surviving the attack. So many other little things that was obviously her. I’d told her about the plan to kill my father-in-law. And somehow, she found a way to let him know. I’m bitterly disappointed but at the same time, I can’t find it in me to hate her for what she’s done. I treated her…there aren’t any words. I’ve exhausted all of them. What I’ve done is irredeemable and now I see why she could never find it in herself to care about me the way I cared about her. How could she love me when the oldest memory she had
Lara When I receive word from Finch, it’s very late in the night, and two days have passed since he left here. “It’s done,” he claims. I glance at Ander before deciding to get up and head outside where we can have this conversation in peace. I don’t want him to overhear a thing. “What’s done exactly?” I ask him. “Vaughan and I are married,” he answers. “Tonight, I’ll kill him.”The way he says the words makes me shiver. He sounds very cold, and honestly, it’s the first time I’ve realized that he’s changed. The years have hardened him. Finch wasn’t like this. The Finch I knew would never have been capable of killing someone. He was too nice. Too sensitive. “When will you come back?” I ask him. “If everything goes well, I’ll send a car for you,” he reveals. “You’ll come here. And then from here, we’ll start with our plan.”I feel anxiety when he tells me this. I can’t say that it’s something easy for me to accept. I haven’t prepared myself to this huge task ahead even though I’v
Lara We arrive at the location. My heart is galloping behind my ribcage and to be honest, I've started to regret my decision to come here just a little bit. Trusting Dexter isn't necessary a great idea. Although I have an armed Alex on my side, it could well be that this is a trap I'm walking into, one that will cost me my life. But every time I think about his voice and how he'd asked me to show up, I can't help but feel like I'm just making a wrong assumption of him. I push all of these thoughts to the back of my mind as I make my way into the warehouse. Just being here should be a bad sign because why would he ask me to come all the way here? This place is a great distance from the city center, and is too isolated for it to be considered safe for me. I feel Alex's eyes on me. I can sense his uncertainty even from where I'm standing. He doesn’t give me his opinion, though. He doesn’t tell me what he thinks. There are two other cars in this parking space in front of the warehou