Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Ten minutes earlier…
Zephyrine
When the lights go out, I know it’s my time to run. The guys had a plan to kill the local power grid. It would give us darkness to escape in, and it would make it easier for them to hack the vault. The clock’s ticking now for all of us to get out of here, and I have to make it to the basement.
I jump up and head for the door, pausing when I hear the sounds of my father’s security team in the hallway. They’re yelling to each other about the breakers and making sure to secure the doors. My hand hovers on the doorknob, and I feel my heart pounding in my chest as they walk by.
I close my eyes and count backward from ten. I can do this. All I have to do is make it to the basement. Out the door, around the corner, and quickly down the back steps. It’ll be over before I know it.
Gunfire rings out. It’s distant but distinct. Coming from the floors below me. I don’t have time to wait and see. I don’t want to have his army between me and my only way out of here. I have to hurry. I yank the door open, and my face pales when I look up to see my father staring back at me.
“Where are you going?” He’s livid already.
“I was coming to see what all the noise was. The lights went out.”
“Security is on it. You should stay in here. Wait until they tell you it’s clear.”
“I don’t want to be alone in here,” I argue. It’s the best I can come up with, but it’s the wrong thing to stay.
“Then I’ll stay with you.” He shoves his way inside my door, and I take several steps back.
“No, I—”
His brow raises.
“No, you what?” He echoes my words back to me.
“I don’t need you. I’m sure you have more important things to do. Won’t security be looking for you?”
“Is that what you were counting on?” He sneers.
“What?” My heart sinks like a rock in my chest.
“Did they ruin your hearing? I asked if that’s what you were counting on. You know, when you came here with them. I assume you’re the distraction.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you do. You think I believe you just ran away from the Stocktons? That they just let you slip right through their fingers? They don’t lose one little woman out in the woods. They’re not like your incompetent husband, Zephyrine.” My father tut-tuts at me, his brown eyes dark with fury.
“I told you. They didn’t see me. They probably don’t even know I’m gone yet.”
“So you’re in on it then? Cooperating with them?”
“I’m not doing anything but trying to get free. I just want to go back to the convent!” The tears start to form in frustration as I hear another round of gunfire. The panic wells inside my gut.
I’ll never make it to them in time.
“Of course you do. So fucking useless. Just like your husband. I told him to find you and bring you back before everything got worse. Couldn’t even manage that.” He shakes his head. “You always were a fucking brat. Always focused on yourself. Never focused on what was good for your family.”
“What did I ever do to you?” I snap at him. “All I ever did was try to make you happy.”
“This isn’t about you. This is about things far more important than you. But you never understood that.”
“Then maybe you should explain it to me.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Because you’re a murderer? A man with no conscience.” My hands shake even as I accuse him. Holding his furious gaze without flinching like I might have when I was younger is one of the simplest but most difficult things I’ve ever done.
“You believe their lies? Of course you would.” He shakes his head.
“You didn’t kill their parents?” I counter him.
He laughs, long and hard. But it’s insincere. An act on his part. One he’s gotten good at from always being in the public eye.
“Is that what they told you? You think I had time to go down there and shoot two random, meaningless people? That I’d risk going to jail for that? I have more important concerns, Zephyrine. You’re ridiculous.”
“So you didn’t try to blow up a wedding either?”
There’s more gunfire and shouting in the distance, and my stomach tumbles with the panic building its way up my spine.
I need a plan. Some way to get out of this situation.
But I can’t think straight. The sounds of the gunfire and shouting drowning out reason.
Even after all these years, I still fear him too. No matter how much I try to forget it.
I can’t forget it. But I can fight it. I have to try.
He’s as distracted by the sounds in the hall as I am, trying to listen to hear what the commotion is. I try to use it to my advantage, reaching for the doorknob, but he snatches my hair and drags me back down onto the bed next to him while I scream out in pain.
“Shut up! You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying right here with me. I don’t need you running off to give them more information.”
“I don’t have any information to give. You don’t care about me. Just let me go! You always kept me in the dark. I told them as much. You don’t need me.” I bargain with him.
“Because you would have never understood.”
“What? What was I supposed to understand? Stop talking in circles.”
“You sound like your mother now.” He looks at me in disgust. “I always hated that you had her eyes.”
There’s a gut-wrenching bellow from the hallway, and the sound of someone screaming for help. It tears his attention away. For all his bluster, I can see the fear in his eyes.
“We should get out of here.” I try to stand again, but he holds my arm tightly.
“We’ll wait. They’ll come up here eventually.”
“I don’t want to die.” I hate the way my voice breaks in frustration.
“Neither do I. But you brought them into my fucking house. You let them come here and disrespect me like this, didn’t you? For what?”
“I want to know what you did to my mom. I want to know why Grandad hated you. Why you’d kill their parents. All for what? A treasure hunt? Some relics?” I press him. I know it’s dangerous, but it’s the only way I can imagine I’ll get answers.
“Your mom was in an institution. You know this. Your grandad blamed me. He was always trying to blame someone else for his faults.”
“Was it your fault? Did you drive her there?”
“Your mother just couldn’t accept the terms I offered her. She thought she could tell me what to do. Just like you now. I should have given you up for adoption. It would have spared me so much trouble over the years.”
I won’t let him see me cry again. I refuse.
“What do these relics have to do with anything?” I change the subject. Maybe I can at least get some information out of him. An answer or two would be better than nothing at all.
I hear my father’s comms crackle with voices. They’re counting the bodies. Someone’s asking for more rounds of ammunition. Another is screaming that he’s bleeding out on the stairs.
My father’s face blanches. He’s doing the math, and it must be in Levi’s favor.
“Why are you collecting relics? Why did you have the Stocktons steal them? I want to understand.”
“They belonged to your grandfather, and I wanted them back. They should be in this family where they belong. I was just trying to hit two birds with one stone. But no one in this business is fucking reliable. If they’d just done what they were told, this would have been over a long fucking time ago. ”
“What do you mean?”
He doesn’t get to answer, though, because the door bursts open, and it’s a familiar face that’s aiming the gun in our direction.
Levi. He’s alive, and he’s here. My heart riots in celebration for all of half a second until I feel the gun against my temple.
“I’ll kill her.” My father warns him. “Do anything stupid, and I’ll kill her.”