Chapter 20 Emery #3
“We have one month to prepare. I want all the product on the ship and have it sailing by the end of this week. The address above is where we’ll store everything until the trade is set to take place on R?m?.
It’s important that we have twenty-four-hour security.
I may be forced to hire a contractor team as well, given that we now have an interesting group of highly trained soldiers that have stolen from us.
” My father’s tone is grave, and I don’t miss the pause he takes to turn his head slightly in my direction.
Denmark? Most of his trades are usually in Italy or Germany. Why the sudden switch? Because it’s a vast beach and sea? Low suspicion? I swallow nervously and try to keep a calm demeanor. I haven’t been gone that long, but it already seems like so much has changed.
He’s hurting Cameron to get information on why we were in the Great Basin to steal the flash drive. Lieutenant Erik hardly shared most of the details regarding the mission so he wouldn’t know anything anyway…unless they met in private.
The wild thoughts are enough to drive a person mad. I’m growing restless just knowing that Cameron is waiting for me to return with the key.
I should’ve asked him which guard would have it. I drown out the rest of Greg’s words as he continues the briefing, letting my eyes shift from waist to waist in search of a set of keys.
My heart sinks when I don’t find any sign of them on the head guards, Reed’s hip or Greg’s. Shit. I don’t remember what the man posted outside Cameron’s door looked like.
The briefing wraps up. I try to slip away as quickly as I can, but I’m caught by Reed.
His grip is tight around my wrist. I glare at him but the look on his face makes me still.
His brows are pulled together and his eyes are reluctant.
We’ve known each other for half of my life, so I know without a doubt that he’s trying to relay something to me.
“You really got yourself in a hole this time.” His tone is low and it makes ants crawl through my chest.
There’s no way he knows that I went into Cameron’s room. It must be written all over my face because Reed glances over my head and around us before dipping closer.
“I’m afraid your time away from the family has made you clumsy. I’ll do my best to keep the punishment as minimal as I can, but Greg is angrier than I’ve ever seen him,” Reed murmurs before straightening his jacket cuff links.
My heart beats faster as he lifts his phone and shows me footage of the hallway and me breaking down the door. Reed swipes his finger to the next video; it’s from inside Cameron’s room.
Nausea and dizziness drain the blood from my face.
Reed tilts his head and offers a look of sympathy. I’ve only ever seen him give that look to me, and I know it’s because he’s seen firsthand how cruel my father can be. Even by Reed’s standards.
“He saw this?” I mutter, staring into the crowd as Greg shakes hands with the members that came out tonight.
Reed nods slowly. “Yes, and you know he’s going to make me do the punishment. I’m sorry in advance, but no matter what happens, just know I won’t let it be for long.” I tilt my head back to look at him and he flashes me a rare smile.
“I trust you,” I mutter, leaning against his arm. “I always have. No matter the consequences of it, you keep your promises.” Even if it’s for his own benefit. At least I fit in there somewhere.
He squeezes my shoulder reassuringly. “No matter how dark and long-winded they are,” he adds absently.
I wasn’t sure how to make the executions less terrible, at first.
Reed was always in his office—a spare room my father had cleared away for him after his parents passed away—studying and trying to learn as much as he could about things I wasn’t interested in finding out about. He always leaned into the dark much heavier than I did.
I told him how I struggled with accepting being born as the next Mavestelli executioner, and he suggested that I create something with them, something like art. The way I always wanted to create, just not with the same medium. Not even close.
“You don’t realize the empire you’ve been handed, Emery.
I would’ve already taken over the family if I were you.
” He tipped his pen back and forth with his fingertip, the ballpoint against the desk.
“But you’re not much for envisioning cruel things.
You’re an artist. You need to escape.” Reed’s eyes softened and he handed me a stack of pages.
There were sketches of flesh and bone, intricately posed in ways that made them look like those old renaissance paintings. My heart skipped a beat and my eyes widened.
Reed smiled. “See?”
I glanced up at him. “You did these?”
He nodded. “To show you what you could do. Here.” Reed tossed a pink gel pen at me. I caught it awkwardly but smiled down at it. “Remember when my family’s estate caught fire?” His tongue was smooth saying the words.
I think that was the first time I realized how manipulative and terrifying Reed truly was.
I nodded and watched his grin grow wide as I debated asking him if he did that just so he could live with us. He knew my father would take him in, our mansion had many rooms, and Greg was fond of Reed.
What a devious mind. Calculating. Not sane in the slightest.
But he was right. He promised I’d feel better. He promised that the world would see the wicked things hands like mine could make.
So I did.
And it worked.
I posed them melancholically at first. Lonely positions. Hands covering their faces as if they were sobbing. On their knees as if they were praying. Always with pink X’s on their eyelids. Then I went darker. The longer I remained the executioner, the more grotesque my creations became.
It’s almost sad that a part of me still trusts him so dearly, knowing that he’d go to great lengths to throw away people’s lives if it serves his desires. Reed has been more of a role model to me than my father ever was.
“Yes…but I told you to leave Cameron alone,” I snap at Reed. His fingers flinch on my shoulder. My father overhears and dismisses the guard he was speaking with. I try to explain before he gets too angry. “I will tell you anything Cameron can. He doesn’t know—”
My father strikes me across the face with an open hand. Hard enough that I lose my footing and stumble. If not for Reed still having me in a vise grip, I’d have been sent straight to the floor.
“Shut up, you insolent girl!” Father shouts.
Fear jolts through my bones and I have to clench my fists to keep myself from falling apart.
“Look at me,” he says slowly. I hesitate before firming my lips and glaring up at him.
“You never acted like this before. I don’t know what they taught you in the Under, but no Mavestelli heir is going to be insubordinate to their bloodline. Do you understand me?” He grips my chin and forces me to nod. “Good. Now take her to the cell and wait for further instruction, Reed.”
“Yes, sir.” Reed’s face is expressionless.
My hopes die out as I watch my father grab his gilded black cane and leave without so much as a glance back at me.
He truly was only after the death pills.
I gave them exactly what they wanted. It stings to be rejected by him, even now after I expected nothing.
It will always hurt.
“If you expect me to continue being the executioner after this, you’re fucking insane,” I grumble, tugging against Reed’s hold, but he’s already cuffing my hands behind my back.
Reed says mundanely, “You’d be horrified what people do for certain things, Emery. Especially men like me.”