FAE
His voice sends a shiver down my spine as it echoes through the church.
I watch as Longstaff steps fully into the light and swallow the gasp that tries to break free.
Gone is Roman’s dad, the man who was always composed and controlled, and in his place stands something unhinged.
His eyes are all wrong. They look sharp and unsettled, and his silver hair sits messy and out of place like he hasn’t slept in weeks.
“You look like shit, Brad,” Fiona says.
I shoot her a look out of the corner of my eye. Fiona can say whatever she wants, she’s earned that, but we need to make sure he stays calm if we are going to pull this off. I look back at Longstaff, and my spine straightens as I shift my weight.
“Well, that’s what happens when some bitch poisons my family,” he spits.
My nostrils flare as I grit my teeth, locking it down before any retort can slip through.
Every part of my training has led me here, drilled into me until it’s muscle memory.
I won’t let him drag me into anger even though it claws at me like a mouse in a trap.
Just looking at him makes my stomach turn.
How many women ended up like me? Pregnant with a rapist’s baby?
Or worse yet, how many ended up like Robyn, breathing but empty inside?
I will never understand how he sleeps at night.
“Do you think this is a game?” Fiona snaps. “After everything you’ve done?”
His attention shifts and his jaw flexes as he stares at her. For the first time, I see his professional mask slip.
“Everything I’ve done?” he repeats, almost incredulous. “You mean everything I built.”
A bitter laugh escapes her. “Built?” she echoes. “Is that what you’re calling it now?”
I keep my breathing steady and my focus locked, but I feel the shift in the air. It’s like poison seeping into everything the eye can see.
“Fiona, darling, let’s not get dramatic.”
Fiona scoffs and his glare hardens. My eyes glance around the room as my hand drifts slowly into my bag.
I feel the cool metal settle into my palm and take in a steadying breath.
The front door sits behind him, and I silently curse myself for letting us get into this position.
To the side of me are the tunnels, but I already know there’s no exit.
My grip tightens slightly around the gun before I gently click the safety off.
“Let’s go,” he barks, giving me a death stare.
Fiona glances at me as I whip out my gun, but I’m cut off from firing. The sound of multiple safeties clicking off echoes across the cavernous space and my head whips to the side. Six men step forward, all their guns aimed at me, and the sound of Longstaff’s laugh rings out across the church.
Fuck.
“You stupid girl, you really thought I would come alone?”
I don’t answer.
I just look at him as I lift the gun, lining it with his head. My hand trembles and I bring my other one up to steady it, locking my grip firmly into place. Longstaff’s brow lifts mockingly.
“Bradley…” Fiona starts.
“Shut up!” he snaps. “Was this your plan? Bring Fae here to kill me? Are you and Roman really that much of a coward?” His gaze cuts back to me. “Put the gun down, Fae, or you’ll be dead in thirty seconds.”
“Bradley, wait!” Fiona steps in front of me. I shift to move around her, but she blocks me again.
“For fuck’s sake, Fi, move,” I mutter under my breath as I realise this is my worst nightmare coming to fruition.
“Put the guns down,” Fiona says in a loud and commanding voice. “All of you. If you put them down,” she continues, “so will Fae.”
“I’m not stupid, Fiona,” he sneers. “Fool me once…”
My eyes flick to the men again. Even if I take him out right now, I’d be dead in the blink of an eye.
Sixteen weeks ago, I wouldn’t have cared very much if I lived or died, but now…
now it’s not just me. Just like Fiona is doing this for her child, I need to think for mine too.
My shoulders loosen a fraction and the gun dips.
There’s no way out.
I drop the gun and it clatters against the marble floor. Longstaff’s face twists with victory as I step out from behind Fiona with my hands up.
“Why?” I whisper, then clear my throat. “Why me? Why Robyn? Why this whole fucking organisation?”
“Because I loved my wife,” Longstaff responds automatically, like he was waiting for that question. I screw up my face like I sucked on a lemon and glance at Fiona, who looks furious.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Fiona hisses.
“It means…” Longstaff grits his teeth. “It means I couldn’t see you go through one more fucking stillbirth, Fi!”
Fiona stumbles back a step like the ground has shifted beneath her. The colour drains from her face, leaving her pale and hollow as she stares at him unblinking, like she’s seen a ghost. I glance between them as something deeper than anger cracks open in the space between Roman’s parents.
“What?” she whispers.
Longstaff exhales slowly. He drags a hand down his face like the weight of it is something he’s been carrying alone for far too long.
“Three sons I had to put in the ground whilst you stood there and broke a little more each time,” Longstaff hisses and Fiona’s face tightens.
“I couldn’t watch it again,” he continues, shaking his head slightly. “I couldn’t stand there and lose another one. I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t keep losing my children. So I went to someone who could actually do something about it.”
“Fisher,” I say quietly.
“You went to him and not the other way around?” Fiona’s lip curls back as she sneers at him.
“I went to a friend,” Longstaff snaps. “I went to someone who understood what this family is built on. What it’s supposed to be.
” Fiona scoffs. “I might have buried my sons, Fi, but it was losing you that hurt the most. Do you have any idea what that does to a man? To watch the woman you love fall apart time and time again yet still not be able to do a damn thing about it? I had all the money in the bank and all the power in the world, but I couldn’t stop—”
“So you hurt other women?” I cut in, and his face drips in contempt as he looks at me.
“I didn’t hurt other women.”
“Maybe not physically, no, but you let other people hurt them in your name, Longstaff,” I spit as heat flushes through my body. “You let your men rape me, rape Robyn, rape countless other people and that…” I let out a humourless laugh as my lip curls, “…that is you hurting us.”
Something flashes across his face. It almost looks like guilt, but I shake it off. The silence that follows is deafening and my mind whirls with too many questions to ask. Fiona is crying silently and I grit my teeth again against the wave of emotion trying to break through me.
“Why?” I whisper again, keeping my glare firmly locked on him.
Longstaff’s eyes flash to the men around the church before looking back at me.
“Kick the gun over and I will tell you everything.” His gaze locks onto mine as his voice sharpens and carries across the church. He must see my disbelief because he barks, “Guns down.”
In an instant I hear safeties click off and metal shift. Around me, Longstaff’s lackeys lower their guns, and I gulp. My handgun lies on the floor just in front of me and hope flares in my chest. Two steps, that’s all it would take. Two steps and it will be over.
“Kick it over, Fae. I’ll give you your answers.”
My nostrils flare as I look back at him and our eyes lock.
I step forward carefully, closing the distance to the gun.
My tongue runs over my dry lips as my pulse thuds harder with each step.
It would be so easy. One quick bend, one clean movement, and I’d have the advantage again.
I could shoot him dead and hide behind the nearest pillar but then my eyes flick to Fiona.
She’s standing front and centre with nowhere to go.
God damn it.
With my mind made up I take another quick step and kick the gun toward Longstaff, the metal scrapes loudly across the floor as it slides to his feet.
I spare another glance at Fiona, and I swear she almost looks disappointed in me.
The gun settles just in front of Longstaff, and he bends to pick it up.
“Everybody, leave,” Longstaff demands.
My head snaps to him as we wait in silence and his guards file out of the church.
Their footsteps echo against the stone until the doors close and the sound dies with them.
The space feels colder without them as the chill settles deep into my bones; I wrap my arms around myself, holding still whilst I wait for him to speak.
I feel Fiona moving closer to me again until we are almost shoulder to shoulder.
“Fisher said he could fix it,” Longstaff finally says as the church door slams closed. “What we go through isn’t normal, it’s not natural, it’s a genetic mutation that was forced upon us. I wanted to change that. I wanted to do good.”
“At what cost?” Fiona bites out and Longstaff sighs.
“At the start, Swallows were offering themselves up. They were just as eager as we were. I guess they thought if more men were born to The Company, the less they’d need to be in the compound. They believed in us and saw the vision.”
“But it didn’t work…” I guess as my stomach turns over.
“It didn’t work.” Longstaff’s expression tightens. “We started trying to change the variables with men that weren’t just councillors or founders, but the Swallows weren’t happy. They didn’t want just anyone’s babies. They wanted children from the elite.”
“What happened to these kids?” Fiona asks with wide eyes.
“They died or went into care,” he shrugs and Fiona finds my hand, gently squeezing it as Longstaff takes a step toward us.
“At the start they were matched with higher bloodlines. When that went wrong, we went with Swallows and lower bloodlines. After that we tried to find women outside of The Company to see if it was just our genetic mark-ups together and that still didn’t work.
We did have one more experiment though. One we hadn’t been able to do in decades. ”