Chapter 32
Dante
My blood ran cold as I hung up the phone. I needed to know whether Elijah had lied.
“What was that about?” He asked as I came back to the room.
“Oh, they were just checking in. I told them we have plenty of evidence against Harringday, and we have a plan to drop the news soon.” I lied, trying to buy time. Elijah looked at me curiously.
“You’re remarkably calm for someone who just found out the key to taking down Celeste. I figured you’d want to hunt her down yourself after getting the proof.” He said, throwing a stack of papers on the table.
“I mean, she’s at a spa, so I figure it will be all the worse once everything crashes down around her.
” I said, then pretended to look through several documents.
I’d been going over the files again, pacing the edge of the conference table like a caged wolf.
The numbers were wrong. The dates didn’t line up.
And then I saw it - the report Elijah claimed came from Arnault, the last time they supposedly met. The problem was, Arnault had been dead for at least a year before the date stamped on the damn thing.
My pulse went cold. I didn’t say anything right away. I just let it sit there, burning in my mind.
“Speaking of what started all this, were you able to get in touch with Arnault?” I asked casually, and Elijah shook his head.
“Not yet. He’s out of town at the moment, but rest assured, I will get him to meet with you.” He said, and I looked up.
“You have met him in person, right?” I asked, and Elijah nodded.
“Of course. I vetted him.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“Just before your contract with Celeste.” The words fell like a stone on cement. That couldn’t have been possible. Arnault had been gone long before then. I stared at Elijah, memories flying through my head.
“Are you ok?” he asked, cocking his head at me.
I studied him for a long moment before I spoke. “Yeah. A question.”
His brow lifted. “Shoot.”
“How’d Arnault get these papers to you if he was already dead?”
For a second - just a second - there was something in his eyes. A flicker of calculation. Then his smile returned, practiced and easy. “Dante, what are you on about? You’re talking paranoid. I just spoke to him.”
“No.” I stepped closer, cutting him off. “Don’t lie to me.”
Memories slammed into me without permission - Elijah’s infectious laugh over cards, his steady presence in the middle of chaos, his unshakable loyalty when everything in Arkala went to hell, and him picking me up after I spiraled. When he protected me, even when we were just kids.
“He’s not alive. Hasn’t been for some time now. And you know that.” I said. Elijah stared at me for a moment.
Then, his mask slipped. He sighed, leaning back against the table. “Fine. He didn’t give them to me. But does it matter? We’ve got them, and we can use them. That’s what counts.”
My fists clenched at my sides. “You lied to me.” The silence afterward might as well have been ear shattering. “You lied to me!” I roared, standing up and flipping the table, papers raining down upon us as Elijah backed up.
“Hey! Stop! Let’s talk about this! Yeah, I pulled some strings. You didn’t need to know the details. It would only have implicated you. What matters is that I got the proof you needed! Celeste’s reign is over!” He said, backing up and looking at me warily.
“No. You betrayed me.” I walked closer, pushing him into the wall and grabbing his shirt so tight he choked. “Tell me now, no lies. Are you working with Gideon?”
He hesitated for a moment, then sensing the futility of his position, he reached up, gripping my wrists. “It’s not like that, Dante, hear me out!” He said, struggling against my grip.
“How is it like, then!”
“Listen, listen, okay? It started as a collaboration, a way to get him to back off of the attacks on Manticore. I figured I could strike a deal with him to stop, and your pack would stop dragging Celeste in the press, and it would be a ceasefire!” He said, panting as I shoved him higher up against the wall.
How could this be? How could he go behind us like this?
“You trusted someone from Harringday?” I yelled, my face so close to Elijah’s that I could see the perspiration as it grew on his skin.
“Wait, wait!” Elijah begged, gripping my arms. “I knew you wouldn’t like me working with anyone from Harringday.
I knew you’d never allow it. But it was at least a shot at trying to work with them!
” He said, desperation in his voice. I glared at him, unable to form words at how furious I was.
This meant that everything Celeste had said was true. We’d been played this entire time.
“Face it, Dante, Manticore was floundering!” his voice changed as he stared back at me.
“Harringday was one step ahead all the time. But her uncle, Gideon, he wants her out as badly as we do!” Elijah said, trying to reason with me.
“He knows how bad she is! Knows how to get her removed! We’re almost there, you have everything you need to unseat her! ” I clenched my jaw at his words.
“Elijah, cut the bullshit. If he had all this on her, why didn’t he release it himself?” I growled, my body shaking with rage. “He wants us to be the ones to do it. Tell me, why do you think that is?”
I was nearly blind with rage. I could see the entire plan from Gideon’s point of view - blame his misdeeds in Celeste, blame her downfall on us.
He gets everything he wants without getting his hands dirty.
And there was something bigger in the picture, too.
He wanted us gone - Manticore Tech in its entirety.
No matter what he promised Elijah, the company posed a threat, and Gideon wanted Manticore out of the way.
“He can’t be placed on the board if he’s the one to take her down!” Elijah stammered, and I closed my eyes, breathing hard.
“You idiot.” I said through clenched teeth. “You screwed us.”
“No, I saved you!” He shouted. “He offered me something I knew was priceless - a chance to depose her. He was on our side!” Elijah explained, and I wanted to tear him apart. How could he trust someone from the Harringday family?
“Why didn’t you come to me before this stupid idea!” I slammed the wall with my fist, distraught. Elijah had messed everything up.
“I knew you wouldn't want me to, but look, Dante, it’s really for the best! Think about it. Gideon has everything on Celeste. She’ll be done for.” He said, a victorious smile on his face.
Celeste was innocent. She was being used, as we were, and as Elijah was being used. He just didn’t see it yet.
“Gideon is the one behind everything!” I growled, trying to get Elijah to see the truth. He gripped my wrists, pleading with me. Then suddenly, he went slack, looking at me with a sad resignation.
“Dante, listen. Try to understand. You were never going to win.” His statement stopped me in my tracks.
“You know it, deep down. With how Harringday plays, Manticore Tech would always be behind, sabotaged. Gideon is willing to work with us, so we can both win. Once Celeste is out!” His explanation was ridiculous.
“Why would he want us to win at all!” I yelled, trying to understand how my best friend of years had been going against me, and with such stupid promises.
“He knows we have the Western Province as a market. He said he’d work with us so that each of us would become the most powerful in our respective province. Think about it, Dante. Two monopolies, on different coasts!” His eyes darkened.
“The rest of the pack doesn’t have the nerve to do this.
Their whole ‘ethical’ thing has held you back.
You know it, I know it. Manticore won’t survive unless you play dirty.
You can do it, Liam and Vigo can’t. I can help you take Manticore Tech to new heights.
We can’t do it without Gideon on our side.
He rules so much more than we ever realized. ”
My mind was spinning. He really didn’t have faith in us - in Manticore Tech. He thought we couldn’t survive without playing the same dirty games that Celeste’s uncle had been playing.
“What I did got results,” he said, his voice serious. “Results your precious ethics couldn’t get. My way got you revenge, Dante. Or have you forgotten what she did to Arkala?”
Arkala. He was still talking like she was behind it. She couldn't have been. She wasn’t nearly as devious as Gideon.
“Make a choice, Dante. Gideon wanted to take your pack out of the equation. I’ve been holding him off.” Elijah said, and I balked.
“What do you mean?” I whispered, my heart gone cold. Was my pack in trouble?
“If the plan he has doesn't move forward, he’ll take drastic measures. I’ve been trying to protect you all.
The rest of the pack is a lost cause as far as Manticore.
They will never get the big picture. But I can help you.
Just tell me you’ll be on my side, we can work with Gideon and he’ll spare your pack.
I can work something out!” He said, his eyes telling me that this was the truth.
“And Celeste?” I asked, my voice low.
“She’ll be removed, one way or another.” He was talking so seriously that I felt my body break out in a sweat. Was he threatening to hurt her?
“Never threaten my ma-” I stopped myself, clearing my throat. “My pack.” Elijah’s eyes looked confused, surprised for a moment. Then, they narrowed.
Gideon is moving forward with his plans.
You need to make a choice, right now. You go against him, he’ll go after your pack, and you.
Everything you have will be destroyed. Or, you can come with me, we can work with him.
We can take Manticore Tech to new heights.
” I set him down slowly, my mind reeling.
“You want to win? Then stop pretending the game has rules. Look at Harringday. They will always win. They don’t play fair. Lockwood hides behind its ethics. That’s why you’ve been stuck in the same place for years.” He went on, and I realized I had a choice to make.
“You can’t win, Dante. The game was always stacked.
You have a chance. Join us, we can take over everything.
You can get back at her, take back all of what she took from you and more.
” I swallowed, realizing I had no idea what we’d been up against. Elijah looked at me, imploring me to come to his side.
“They don’t have what it takes. You cannot succeed being ethical in the Eastern Province.
But you and I, Dante, you and I could lead.
Liam and Vigo, they are too soft. With you and I leading Manticore Tech, we could run the Eastern Province before anyone realized what happened.
I need your decision, Gideon is waiting on a call from me. He knows something is up.”
He held out his hand.
Time was slipping away, and with it every safe path I could see. The choice he laid out was nothing less than a clean, brutal ultimatum: refuse him, refuse Gideon, and my pack would be hunted down - silenced, erased. Our company would be squashed, never able to catch up.
But if I worked with him, we could succeed beyond what we ever thought possible. We’d have Gideon on our side, taking us to new heights as we broke all the rules holding Manticore back. But Celeste would be destroyed.
My mind raced as I realized what he was asking of me.
My pack, or her.
My life’s work, or her.
Everything, or her.
My fingers hovered over his, the weight of the decision pressing into my bones. For a long breath, I felt the world narrow to that single moment. Then, steadying myself on the thing that mattered most, I reached out.
I took his hand. “You have yourself a deal.”