78
EMERSYN
I came out of the infirmary only to freeze when I saw my father at the end of the hall. He’d stopped too, and we stared at each other. We both decided to close the distance at the same time and when we reached each other, the look of longing and relief on his face was palpable.
He reached out a hand and touched my shoulder. “Sometimes I still think I’m dreaming.”
I gave him a small smile and nodded. “Me too. Can we–can we talk?”
His eyes brightened and he nodded. “Yeah, we can go into my office.”
We entered his office and I was immediately assaulted by the scent of him as I remembered it.
It brought back memories of him reading to me and Cole, of tucking us into bed—cozy nights curled by the fire, or when I got scared and crawled into bed with Mom and him despite them proclaiming we weren’t allowed to do that. Tears pricked my eyes.
“Aw, Em, come here,” he said.
He pulled me in by the back of my neck, and I sank into his chest. I willed the tears to go away, I wasn’t ready to confront our past, or all of the space that still yawned between us, but for now, this was enough.
After a moment, I pulled away to see him blinking rapidly to clear his own emotions. He turned and sat down on a couch that faced a large open window framing the backyard. I sat down and faced him as I took a deep breath.
“Albatron talked to me before he brought us home,” I said without preamble.
I watched my father’s eyes sharpen, but he nodded and didn’t comment.
“He said he shot me as a mercy,” I said, and he scoffed quietly. “Knowing what would happen to me—”
“What does that mean?”
I pressed my lips together. I had to tell him in order for him to understand.
“I was abused by Octavius.” My father looked like I’d just stabbed him.
“Albatron stopped him—”
“He fucking what?”
So I told him about what happened after the lake house, and the three years that lead up to the clearing with Vetticus. Or, I told him most of it. The important parts. When I was done, my father was speechless. He looked gutted, devastated, and guilty beyond what was his to hold.
“Albatron hoped by saving me this time, you’d hold off on going after him—possibly indefinitely,” I said. I felt exhausted, like I’d just spilled things that had taken up a great capacity in me and now that they were shared, some of the weight was gone.
“Yeah right,” he muttered dryly.
I couldn’t help but grin. “That’s basically what I told him you’d say.”
We shared a small look of amusement.
“He also told me that he wasn’t our enemy—his brothers were the ones who decided trafficking was too lucrative to pass up.
He claims he wants to do away with all of that, including not agreeing with what’s being done to children.
Again, there was a lot he wasn’t saying.
I think he’s tied into much of the business with his brothers against his will—maybe old family legal obligations? ”
“That doesn’t forgive him of his sins,” my father said.
I agreed.
“What do you think of his character?”
I frowned and looked away as I gathered my thoughts. I watched Fang sniff my father’s boots before he found a warm spot in front of the fireplace and curled up, with one ear turned toward me.
“He’s definitely shady. But, evil?” I shook my head. “No.” I looked back at my father, wary of what I was about to say next. “He never touched me. Didn’t even look at me. Neither did his second, Angel. He looked out for me on the island too.”
My father sighed. “I just don’t know if I can get over the fact that he shot you. He was also involved with Atrox—when I was imprisoned under Vetticus.”
“I think Vetticus is the real evil here,” I muttered.
“Well, we don’t have to worry about him anymore,” my father said dryly. “He’s currently rotting downstairs.”
My eyes widened. “You got him?”
“Oh, we got him.”
My father studied me for a moment, then stood up and held out his hand. “Come with me.”
He led me through the house and down a flight of stairs which opened up into a modern and well kept dungeon, for lack of a better word. There were a few holding cells, but my father continued through another door until he reached a more ominous area, obviously meant for torture.
The smell of decay and rot hit my senses. A body hung from chains suspended from the ceiling. He didn’t move. Didn’t even look like he was breathing. Whatever that thing was, it was far from even resembling a human much less the one that had tormented my dreams for years.
“I thought about all the ways I’d kill him for so long,” I admitted.
My father pulled a knife from his belt and flipped it so the hilt was toward me.
“Do you want to?”
A ghost of a smile tugged at my lips as I took the knife from him. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me murder is bad, and killing people doesn’t solve my problems? You know—Dad shit?”
He chuckled, but his eyes caught on my scar. He brushed his finger along it, an intense look of regret and pain in his eyes.
“I won’t pretend to be a good man, baby.
I don’t even know how to be a father anymore,” he met my eyes sadly.
“But, what I do know is I see a very capable and strong woman standing in front of me. I didn’t get to watch you grow up, I didn’t get to teach you the things I wanted to—” His voice broke and he pushed the emotions aside.
“But, we have a second chance now, and I’ll do anything to not lose that. ”
There was so much I wanted to say, but I couldn’t will the words to form. I wanted to rage at him, to yell and be angry, but I also just wanted to move on, to see what our relationship could be without all of the fucking trauma of the past getting in the way.
“Why is he still alive?” I asked.
He looked over at Vetticus with a smoldering rage over a decade old. “He took everything from me—I wanted him to suffer for as long as possible.”
I nodded. “I think this is your kill then.” I handed the knife back. “But, I want to watch.”
He took the knife and walked up to the man who had taken everything from us.
The man who had killed two people who we loved more than anything in the world.
The man who had destined for me to grow up without my father.
The person who had made my father suffer in ways I’m sure I would never know.
I watched my father position the knife, and I took a breath as he slid it into Vetticus’ neck.
With little more than a whisper of air, the evil that had haunted us both was gone.
My father stared at the body with a steely gaze, the pain swirled at the surface, but when he turned his attention to me, I saw the man who would do anything for his family. Regardless of what he decided to do about Albatron, there was still one clear path ahead of us.
“Mahoney’s next,” I said.
“Yes, he has a lot to atone for,” he growled.
“Are we going to lure him out or go to the island?”
My father’s jaw tightened. “He won’t be lured out. We will have to go to him.” He fixed me with a look and my stomach sank. “But, you will stay here.”
Panic gripped me and the hard blow of betrayal nearly took my breath away.
I shook my head adamantly. “No.”
“I can’t risk anything happening to you,” he said fervently. “Not when I just got you back.”
“I deserve this just as much as you do,” I ground out through the emotions that threatened to choke me. This felt just like before. Keeping me safe under the guise of control.
“Then I’ll bring him back for you,” he said.
My eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? That’s no guarantee. Besides, I can help. I was trained—”
“Which I want to talk about at some point,” he muttered. “But, my answer is still no.”
The rage surfaced. Great waves of it that had sat and simmered and waited for this moment.
“Fuck you,” I said breathlessly. “You don’t get to tell me what to do after all these years.”
His jaw firmed stubbornly. “I’m still your father.”
“You just said you didn’t know how to be one anymore,” I said and hoped the words cut deep. “Here I thought coming home would mean I get to be included in what is obviously a family business here, but instead it’s just another cage. Yet again.”
“Em—”
No. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stand there and let him do this to me.
I turned and stormed toward the stairs, tears blurred my vision.
I heard my father call out, but I didn’t turn around.
I was furious beyond reason. I took the stairs two at a time and stalked through the house.
I didn’t really know where I was going—the house was enormous, and I hadn’t had a chance to walk all of it yet.
I found myself in the kitchen, where there were too many people gathered.
I wasn’t in the mood to talk and turned right back around and walked out.
I heard Kaelin call after me, but I sped up and yanked open a door to the back patio. Griffin was smoking against a pillar. I glanced at him briefly as I stormed past, and he immediately put out his cigarette and fell into step beside me.
“Who pissed you off?” He growled.
“Who do you think?” I muttered. I was so close to telling him to leave me alone.
He sighed. “Damn, I don’t think I can kill North,” Griffin said.
I looked over at him and saw the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
My lips thinned, because I was still pissed off, but I decided I didn’t mind his company.
I headed down a well-kept dirt path toward a stand of pine trees in the distance.
We walked along in silence for a bit. Once I'd cooled down to below boiling, I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.
“Don’t you want to know what he said?”
“Probably told you to stay home while we go off to fight Mahoney,” Griffin said dryly.
When I caught his eye again, he chuckled. “You had to know this was going to happen. He just got you back after losing you twice. You think he wants it to happen a third time?”
“Great. So, you’re on his side then?” I exclaimed.
“Easy there, tiger,” Griffin said lightly. “I didn’t say that.”
The trees loomed up ahead, and it wasn’t long before we disappeared between the trunks into the cool shade. I immediately let the smell of the pine and the sounds of the small forest surround me. My shoulders came down an inch.
“It just–it reminds me of before,” I muttered. “Riggs. Like I told you, he was physically and emotionally abusive—controlling—”
Griffin stepped closer, the intensity in his eyes sharpened. “Can you tell me again how you killed him? That was very satisfying.”
I gave him a ghost of a smile and shook my head. “Everytime someone tries to tell me what to do, I get taken right back to that time in my life where he’d reduced me to something small. I don’t want that to happen again.”
Griffin gently brushed a strand of hair from my face and settled his hand on my cheek.
“There is nothing small about you,” he said. “There is nothing incompetent about you either. Your father just needs to see what Seven and I have seen, and then he’ll understand why you need to be included.”
“How do I show him that?”
“Give it time,” Griffin said. “You two just reunited. It’s understandable he doesn’t want to jump straight into a situation where he could lose you again.”
“Again, I feel like you’re taking his side,” I grumbled.
Griffin smiled, but it was a soft smile, so unlike his usual hard edges.
“You’re beautiful when you’re all fired up like this.”
“Stop trying to deflect.”
“I’m just stating a fact.”
His thumb brushed the edge of my lips, and it was harder to hold onto my anger when all I wanted to do was lean into the sensation of his touch.
He leaned closer and I was sure, this was it, this was when he was going to kiss me.
I was shocked to find I’d been waiting for it to happen.
I was even more shocked to discover I wanted it desperately.
He leaned another inch, then stopped with a sigh.
I heard what he heard, and my hopes fell. We were no longer alone.