Chapter 66
ROME
Bryson knelt on the rough stone floor. Kaydon and Seth were bound and gagged on either side of him.
His father stood next to Alessandro and Sean Cahill.
The icy waters lay just in front of them.
Never once had Bryson considered he might die in the water.
The trial of ascension always threatened death, but Bryson’s self-imposed arrogance never considered failure. Now looking at the dark pool, death wasn’t just a possibility, it was an inevitability.
But for his final act, he would make sure Adria, Kaydon, and Seth were protected.
“Welcome, everyone. I’m deeply sorry for the circumstances that have brought us here,” Alessandro addressed the group.
Forced to kneel at the pool’s edge, Bryson couldn’t see the table.
Moving his gaze from the water, he brought his eyes to look at the symbols on the cavern walls and take in all the families that had come before them.
So many symbols. Bryson had never considered the numbers before.
Now that he had, the brokenness of the organization was written in plain sight.
Only Alessandro’s Leprechaun sigil had stood the test of time.
His symbol stood alone, as the single family that still sat at the table today. An original.
The only way to leave the table was to die. That meant every family, every name that lined this wall, save Alessandro Grasso, sat at the table, until another family came.
Creeping in the darkness, watching, waiting. Until the family let their guard down. Perhaps they felt comfortable even. And then.
Death.
These weren’t just former names and symbols.
These were massacres. Betrayals.
Murders.
How many people had died so his father’s line could sit here?
He looked until he saw Sophia’s symbol. Bryson was certain it was on the cavern wall somewhere. He knew when he first saw it on that dresser that he had seen it before.
The Serras.
Sophia’s family had been here. What sort of horrors had they endured when their name was erased. What type of scars did that leave on a person? A legacy? A family?
It was enough that Sophia was putting her own daughter in danger to get it back.
Bryson’s father always taught him that attachments made him weak. That attachments would get him killed.
And maybe he would die, but Bryson knew that he wasn’t weak.
Weak was sacrificing another for your own gain. It was getting ahead on the backs of others.
And before Adria, that was all he knew. But Adria was strong, and she taught him that you didn’t need leverage. You didn’t have to force.
That you could help people, hold them, make space for them, and still have power.
Adria showed him that giving, not taking, made one powerful.
That type of power couldn’t be taken away. It was a certainty you held inside. You couldn’t lose something you grew yourself, but you could lose something you stole.
“Bryson Winters, you are accused of treason. I understand that you have something you would like to say on your behalf,” Alessandro said.
Strong hands gripped his arms, and Bryson was pulled along with them. He braced as he was thrown at the feet of his father and the rest of the Triune.
Gaining his bearings and ignoring the pain in his body, Bryson forced himself to be upright. He was kneeling, but that was only because they had bound his hands and legs.
He looked his father straight in the eye, and said, “I killed Jonathan.”
His voice was firm, despite the way his body shook. “Kaydon and Seth were not even there. Adria had no knowledge of the act and has been running for the sole purpose of finding a way to clear her name.”
Soft murmurs rippled around the table.
“Are we supposed to believe that you acted alone?” Alessandro said from above him.
“Trust me, Jonathan was an easy target. He was a pedophile and a piece of shit. It wasn’t hard to kill him.”
A hand struck Bryson across the face, sending him falling to the ground.
“That’s a lie. How dare you disgrace a dead man’s legacy,” Callen said.
Bryson spit blood onto the stone tile. “I admitted to killing him. Why would I lie?” Bryson said.
The murmurs were louder now.
People were wondering.
“You might lie to give yourself leverage in this proceeding,” Cahill said.
Bryson laughed. “What proceeding? You have already decided the narrative, now you just need me to fit into it.”
“Kill them,” Alessandro said, and a gun was pressed against Bryson’s forehead.
“Wait,” Helen’s voice came from the table.
Alessandro put a hand into the air.
“I’d like to question him more,” she said.
“I second that motion,” Finley said.
“I don’t see a reason to continue any sort of conversation with a traitor,” Bryson heard his father say.
“You were friends with Jonathan, weren’t you Callen?” Helen said. “If I recall, you two were close and became closer after Ivan’s death.”
Bryson held his breath. They were getting closer to the truth.
“We were friends, which is why I know that what my son is saying is ridiculous. It brings me no pleasure to see him killed, but I will gladly take the pain, to ensure he doesn’t make a mockery of this order.”
“How altruistic of you,” Bryson said.
“Shut up,” Callen said.
The group argued around him until finally it seemed that Helen would be allowed a few more questions.
“How did you know where Jonathan lived?” she asked.
“My father,” Bryson said, feeling Callen growing purple behind him.
“And why did you kill him?”
“I found photos of him at Adria’s. They showed him assaulting a child. After we were sold, I sought him out and killed him,” Bryson said with complete sincerity.
“And Seth and Kaydon didn’t attend with you?”
“No.”
Bryson could hear the two of them struggling, muffled sounds coming from behind each of their gags. Seth and Kaydon didn’t know about this part of his plan. Didn’t know that he would distance himself from them in order to save them.
Helen looked behind him. “It seems they do not agree. I wonder if I asked them what they would say.”
Bryson was quick with that one too. “They have Federov marks, they are her property and can’t be questioned without her.”
Helen gave the pair a once over, seeing what Bryson already knew she would see.
Next to each of their snowflakes was a horned sheep.
Helen’s hand shot out, grabbing Bryson’s chin.
“It seems all three of you bare her marks.”
Bryson smiled, knowing he would die Adria’s.
Helen straightened. “If he’s renounced his heir status, should we even be talking to him without Adria.”
“He doesn’t have the ability to renounce. His boy toys can add all the color they want, but Bryson is a Winters. No tattoos will change that,” his father spat.
Helen nodded and sat down saying, “I’m satisfied that he committed the crime on his own and without help.”
Bryson breathed. That was easy.
Finley said, “I second the motion.”
Lin Sun said, “Third.”
Alessandro gave a solemn nod. “Are there any objections to sentencing Bryson to this crime?”
No one moved.
All Bryson could hear was the sounds of his brothers’ muffled screams behind him.
He closed his eyes. Kaydon and Seth were safe.
The gun pressed to his head.
He wouldn’t even feel the cold water. He would be dead long before his body was dumped there.
He hoped Adria was able to take Seth and Kaydon far away from here.
Far away from the world they were born into. Show them something bigger than the smallness of these walls.
He hoped Kaydon would show Adria that the world wasn’t all bad, and that Seth would be her shield. Protecting her from all the hurts that tried to find her.
He hoped Adria would wrap Kaydon in her warm arms and keep him upright whenever the weight of the world became too much.
Seth’s blue eyes flashed in his mind, and Bryson hated all the violence that Seth had been forced to see. From a child into adulthood, his entire life had been spent seeing people who love each other hurt one another. Hopefully, Adria and Kaydon could show him that it wasn’t always like that.
Tears filled his eyes, and it wasn’t the dying that scared Bryson. It was the hurt he would leave behind. He could only hope that the love they all shared was enough.
Bryson shook off the thought.
Bryson knew the love was enough. It had melted hate, and moved immovable objects. They would all be okay, without him.
They had each other.
And they were going to live.