Chapter 52 #2
“You will never set foot on Wander Isle again. That includes when you get off Old Stone Isle. If I hear about you threatening anyone from here—X, Duchess, Dee, anyone—” I point toward my friends and shake my head.
“I will come for you. So run. Disappear. But I won’t stop looking.
The moment you leave this island, there will be eyes on you at all times.
If you lose them, I’ll find you. If I hear someone got hurt because of your ‘leverage,’ the deal’s off.
And after one month, I never want to see you anywhere near the Troisgarde and Furys again.
If that happens, I won’t need to order anyone to do anything.
The men in my life will handle that all on their own. Do I make myself clear?”
His lips twitch, but I ignore it.
“You will be a formidable Queen of Hearts, Alice,” he nods once. “I accept your deal.”
I resist the shudder that tries to work through me, and jut my chin to X and Hatton.
“Let him walk.”
“Lucy—” Dad starts.
“I said let him walk,” I insist, stronger this time as I hold my dad’s gaze.
“If he knows something about Brylie, I’m not gambling that away for revenge.
There’s always time for revenge, but evidence disappears.
The Lucianos, Luna, Nox, me…” My eyes flick to Hatton.
“Dash… even Brylie now. We all deserve answers.”
Dad stares at me, jaw clenching and unclenching, fighting it.
Not my authority, exactly, more the decades of instinct that came from being the father who always decided my fate with such care.
And now I’m telling him to stand down while I gamble with something he’s spent my whole life trying to protect.
“Bunny, you sure?” Hatton’s voice cuts in low and even. His shoulders are loose, and his expression is steady, his eyes fixed only on me. Not pushing or doubting, just here with me.
“Yes.”
He nods once. “Then that’s what we’re doing.” His eyes lift to Dad. “Your daughter made the call, McKennon.”
A long, awful silence follows. My father breathes through his nose like a bull trying not to charge.
Then he closes his eyes, and when he opens them again, something has changed.
Not his anger—because whew that absolutely still exists.
But there’s a hint of something else. Respect, maybe?
Or grief? Or maybe it’s the realization that the girl he used to carry home can stand all on her own now.
Finally, he nods.
“My daughter made her choice,” he says, his voice rough. “One month, Castle. And if you don’t deliver—”
“One month,” Castle repeats as X and Hatton haul him roughly to his feet.
Zip-tied and covered in sand, he somehow still looks every bit the businessman in his black suit—the arrogant kind too.
The type who doesn’t realize he should take a break from counting numbers and start counting his freaking blessings.
He looks at me. “I must say, Miss McKennon, I only had it at twelve percent you’d let me go. I’m quite pleased at the turn of events.” Then his eyes move to Hatton. “And I certainly didn’t expect you to call the Queen of Diamonds. That wasn’t on DarkBoard at all.”
I turn so fast to Hatton I almost slip in the crimson speckled sand. “The Queen of—” I stop. “You called my mom? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Hatton throws up one hand. “Hey now, things were a little hectic up until now, don’t you think?
And your dad…” he air quotes with his free hand, “‘the next Fury I see is a dead one’ didn’t pick up.
I needed someone who could redirect a hit squad on short notice.
” He shrugs one blood-spattered shoulder.
“Your mom was very helpful. Very efficient. Terrifying, honestly. And very, very pissed at your dad.” He cuts a smirk at my father, then puts on a truly terrible Desi Arnaz impression.
“Lucy, your dad’s got some ’splainin’ to do! ”
“What!” A confused laugh huffs out of me. “What did you do?”
“Can we focus?” dad grumbles.
Castle clears his throat. “If we’re finished, I believe I was being released.”
I nod to X and Hatton, who step back and lower their weapons. Kind of.
Castle straightens his posture, a gesture that’s very awkward considering his hands are still zip-tied behind his back.
Then he walks toward the boat over half of my captors rode in on with the measured stride of a man who thinks winning and losing are equally interesting so long as he gets to keep playing.
Head held high, nose all the way up in the air, a smug smile on his lips…
and followed closely behind by a tatted and pierced six-foot-five unhinged antihero with a grudge and a gun.
He stops at the gunwale, then turns his back and presents his bound wrists to one of Dad’s men.
“If you don’t mind.”
The man reaches for his knife, but Hatton steps between them with a slow shake of his head and a grin that spreads across the blood freckling his cheeks.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He clicks his tongue. “What’re you doing?”
Castle’s composure flickers. Just barely. “You said you’d release me.”
“My daughter said to let you walk.” Dad smiles then, and for the first time tonight, he and Hatton are wearing the exact same expression. And wow is that unsettling. “You’re alive. You’re walking. That’s the deal my daughter made.”
Castle’s eyes cut to me, recalculating.
I step forward and tilt my head at him. “What was it you said? You make the rules? Set the parameters?” I hold his gaze. “Well, that’s what I did. I set the rules of your release, and the parameter is that you’re free to go.” I shrug. “But I’m under no obligation to help you get off this island.”
The silence that follows is the most satisfying sound I’ve ever heard.
Castle’s jaw tightens. His eyes flick to the boats—Dad’s, the houseboat, the center console, somewhere around here must be the one Hatton sailed in on as well. Aside from the houseboat, they’re all being filled with weapons, bodies, and crew. There will be room, just not for him.
Then his gaze slides to the ruins behind him. The crumbling church. The graveyard. The black water curving around the small island. The winding marsh stretching out into nothing.
Old Stone Church Isle. Population: one smug son of a bitch in a dirty suit with his hands tied behind his back.
“Miss McKennon,” he says, his voice perfectly even, “I may have underestimated you. Very formidable indeed.”
“Add it to your little spreadsheet.”
Hatton snorts, and Dad’s mouth twitches. X and Duchess chuckle somewhere up the shore.
So that’s how we leave him.
Castle stands on the dock and watches while Dad and some of his men take the center console boat, X helps Duchess onto Harry’s skiff after Hatton shows him where it was hidden, more of my Dad’s men pile into the speedboat, and Hatton offers me his hand onto the houseboat.
My houseboat. Fancy’s Haven.