Chapter 25
Inearly jump from my hiding place behind the dumpster when Aden appears in the alley—accompanied by someone who definitely is not my father.
The stranger beside him studies me with an unreadable expression.
Although I can’t tell what he’s thinking, he has an ominous aura that’s both seductive and intimidating at the same time.
“Gabi, this is my brother Damon. Damon, Gabriela.”
Surprised, I stand a little straighter. If he’s Aden’s brother, he must be a god as well. Guess that explains his larger-than-life presence.
Damon’s mouth moves like he spoke, but no sounds come out. When Aden reacts and makes a similar movement, I realize they’re speaking in their weird god language I can’t hear—except when we’re at the peak of intimacy it seems. Aden didn’t know what that meant. I certainly didn’t, but we decided that’s an experiment for another day.
After a few exchanges, Damon nods to me but doesn’t make any other move to engage. I study him in return, warming slightly beneath his intense stare.
Like Aden, Damon smolders with magnetic sex appeal but in the opposite way. Whereas Aden stuns with his refined beauty, Damon oozes a raw power that has my blood pounding on a visceral level.
There’s something about the strain in his thick, sculpted muscles that marks him on the brink of restraint. As if he could rip your head off or fuck your brains out with the flip of a coin, and you’d be on your knees begging for either. The glint in his eyes while he evaluates me tells me he knows the effect he has on others and wouldn’t think twice about taking advantage of it.
I look away, grateful for the safety of my own god’s reliable affection. I pity the human who gets stuck in the crosshairs of Damon’s unbridled passion.
“What’s going on? Did you find Factory X? My father?”
Aden exchanges a glance with Damon. “Funny story.” His tone is unamused. “It turns out my brother is a lieutenant in the Demon Militia.”
“Captain,” Damon corrects.
Aden shoots him a look. “Captain,” he says dryly.
The corner of Damon’s mouth lifts in a smirk.
“Okay, so that means…?” I pause for Damon to fill in the blank. I’m not surprised when he doesn’t.
“Did you ask him about helping with my father?” I direct at Aden.
A scowl spreads over Damon’s face.
“We’re working on that,” Aden says.
“There’s nothing to work on,” Damon cuts in. “I can’t help you with that. I’m sorry. You heard the boss.”
“Yes, but you just told me a second ago Jack Wells is a liability you’d be happy to eliminate.”
“I believe the term I used was ‘pain in the ass.’”
“Exactly. So let us solve your problem for you.”
“If I hand him over, I’m just creating another for myself.”
“No one has to know it was you.”
“How would they not? You just broke into our headquarters and announced to the entire damn world what you were going to do.”
“Damon, I’m asking you, as a brother and soldier of justice. This doesn’t end until we have Jack. He doesn’t deserve to be protected.”
Damon grunts. “No. He deserves to be at the bottom of Emerald Lake, but it’s not my call, brother. I’m sorry.”
“What was his reward?” I interject.
Both men glance at me in surprise.
“My father. What did he get in exchange for betraying The Shadow?”
Damon’s jaw clenches. “More than he deserves.”
“Which was what? It couldn’t just be money and power. He already had all of that.”
Damon’s gaze bores into me.
“Tell me,” I say, stepping forward. “What’s big enough to throw away everything, including your own family?”
The man casts Aden a concerned look.
“You can answer. She knows all about us,” Aden says.
After a long pause, Damon turns back to me with a cold expression.
“Immortality.”
I gasp. My mouth opens to respond then closes again.
“Silas promised him immortality?” Aden asks, confusion and anger on his face.
Damon shrugs. “Told you the whole thing is fucked up.”
“Is that even something we can offer?”
“Hell, if I know. Probably. How it works? No fucking clue.”
My gaze drifts to Aden. I’m surprised to see his features soften as he considers Damon’s words. Glimmers of hope puncture his angry mask. My chest aches when his eyes find mine and scream the question I haven’t let myself consider since this whole thing began:
What’s our ending? What happens when a mortal girl from Slate City falls in love with an immortal god from another dimension?
So far, the answer has been nothing I wanted to consider.
“That can’t happen, brother,” Aden says, his expression hardening again. “After everything he did to me, to Matteo, you know that can’t happen.”
Damon sighs. “What do you want me to do? It’s not my call.”
“So, turn him over to us. Let us serve justice and make things right. All you have to do is get him to a certain place at a certain time and we’ll handle the rest. No one ever has to know you were involved.”
My stomach twists with a mix of anxiety and anticipation as Damon glares at an invisible object in the distance. It’s not an easy thing plotting the destruction of your own father. But if what Aden said is true, if he’s responsible for atrocities even worse than what he’d done to Mom and me, he deserves to face the consequences. He deserves to know what it feels like to be betrayed.
“From what I just saw back there, I would think you’d jump at the chance to subvert Silas,” Aden says.
Damon fires a glare at his brother. “What does that mean?”
“What’s going on between you, Silas, and that human?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
Aden rolls his eyes. “Come on. You may be the expert on the battlefield, but I’m the expert on relationships. The three of you have some hot-as-fuck triangle tension going on even I couldn’t fully interpret.”
Damon shakes his head, a scowl on his face. I don’t miss the way his fists clench at his side.
“Okay,” he snaps. His gaze narrows on us with warning. “I’ll do it. But I want no part in this apart from setting it up, understood?”
Aden’s shoulders relax. Mine tense further.
“Of course. Thank you.” Aden reaches for my hand and entwines our fingers. He squeezes in reassurance, but it does little to ease the throb at my temples.
Damon studies some distant object again as he thinks. “There’s no way in hell I’ll be able to get him to the Watershed District. It’ll be hard enough getting him to leave the safety of Hell’s Gate. We’ll have to set up the exchange in Razor’s Edge.”
“We can work with that,” Aden says.
Damon blows out a breath. “If I do this, you have to succeed. I’m fucked if he returns to Silas and points the finger at me. I might be fucked anyway.”
Aden grips his brother’s shoulder. “That won’t happen. I swear to you we won’t let him escape. You get him there and we’ll take care of the rest.”
My leg bounces beneath the sticky diner table as I wait at the appointed time. Once again I find myself in a part of the city I have no business being in. Razor’s Edge isn’t quite as dangerous as Hell’s Gate and the Watershed District, but it’s not exactly Emerald Point either.
It’s been less than twenty-four hours since Damon said he’d help us with my father. I was beginning to think he changed his mind until he showed up at the lake house with instructions. We informed Mom, who contacted The Shadow.
What happens next is anyone’s guess, but my body is tense with fear. Not Aden, though. He’s been primed for a fight since we left Matteo’s mansion two days ago.
I know Aden is watching from The Translucence now, but it’s not bringing me much comfort.
A waitress comes over to see if I’m ready to order. I ask for coffee, if only to alleviate any suspicion while I wait.
Although Mom informed The Shadow we found my dad, they refused to provoke an all-out gang war by orchestrating a violent kidnapping outside of their territory. It will fall on Aden and me to get him to the Watershed District ourselves.
The closest we could get him for this meeting was a diner in Razor’s Edge.
The bell above the door draws my attention, but it’s just a group of teenagers who take a booth on the other side of the diner. I settle back against the cracked vinyl bench, and my knee resumes its rampant bounce.
Aden didn’t like my diner plan one bit. He insisted there were other options, and while that may have been true, Dad and I have unresolved issues we need to handle first. This is exactly how it needs to play out.
In the end, I pulled rank, and here we are.
But as the seconds tick by, doubt creeps in. What if my father doesn’t show? What if he does and I can’t bring myself to betray him? What if he turns out to be the monster I’m starting to fear he is? At this point, I’m more worried about the safety of my heart than my body.
The chiming of the bell snaps me back to the present, and my heart pounds violently at the familiar face in the doorway. Time stops when the man’s gaze locks on me. I try to stay calm as he approaches.
His hair is longer than I remember, his face unshaven with a short salt-and-pepper beard my mother would probably adore. He really is a handsome man who had the city at his fingertips before he threw it all away.
Memories of what my mother told me about The Shadow ambushing her, along with the hell his actions put us through help temper any lingering regrets. When I think about what he did to Aden, his brother Matteo, and who knows how many others, it’s more of a fight to keep from punching him than hugging him.
“Gabi,” he says in a soft tone as he arrives at the table.
He hovers for a moment, as if waiting for me to rise and greet him. When I don’t, he takes the booth across from me. We’re tucked in the back corner of the diner where no one is paying attention to us. I chose this table not only for privacy but also to give him a harder path to the exit if things don’t go the way we hope.
“I can’t imagine what you’re thinking right now,” he says. His eyes scan mine with the affection I remember. It burns a grisly hole in my chest. I have no way of knowing what’s the truth and what’s a lie with him.
“I’m sure you can’t,” I say. “Thanks for agreeing to see me.”
I place my phone on the table with the recording app open like I planned. “You don’t mind if I record this?”
His face falls. “I do, actually. So, this is just an interview?”
“What else would it be? You knew where I’ve been for the last six months if you wanted anything else. You could have reached out at any point. Instead, it took the threat of a front-page headline to make you give a shit about me.”
“Gabi…”
“What?”
Calm down.
I need to keep it cool and civil, but my previous fears are coming true. The confusing mix of emotions have become a hurricane inside me. It’s too much, and suddenly my knee isn’t just bouncing but full-on vibrating beneath the table. My hands too, and I tuck them under my thighs.
Thankfully, the server comes over at that moment to take our order. I can’t bring myself to think about food, so I stick with coffee. Dad orders a cup as well. I’m not surprised he passes on the food also. That’s a big commitment to this meeting and we have no idea how it will go.
“Let’s start with why you went into hiding and made everyone believe you ran off with a lover,” I say in an even tone. “My source tells me you have strong ties to The Shadow.”
He flinches. “Who told you that?”
I return a stern look. “I won’t reveal my sources. You know that.”
He shakes his head. “Then you should know I can’t answer that. I will not be giving you any information on record.” His gaze slides to my phone, and I close the app with a sigh. “Look, I understand your anger and I’m sorry for hurting you, sweetheart. Truly. But I’m begging you not to run this story. Not just for my safety but for?—”
“Don’t you dare say for mine,” I fire back. “It’s way too late for that. You proved you didn’t give a shit about my safety the day you left us at the mercy of The Shadow.”
“Gabi, I?—”
“No!” I smash my finger on the table and lean forward. “I don’t want any meaningless apologies or pleas for forgiveness. I’m here for business, nothing else. Now, you can give me your version of this story, or I’m printing the one I already have. It’s up to you.”
He leans back, his expression hardening in a way I’ve never seen. A shiver runs through me as I stare into the eyes of a man who’s no longer my father. This isn’t the patient dad who tried to teach me the piano. This is a man who might be capable of horrendous crimes and has called into question everything I thought I knew about my past and my family.
“You’re making a mistake,” he says in a cool tone.
“Maybe. But what do I have to lose? I already lost my father, my life as I knew it, and now I live each day in fear of The Shadow because of you. So, what is it, Dad? What am I submitting to my editor tomorrow? The great Jack Wells is actually alive and thriving in Slate City’s underworld? That his dealings with The Shadow left his wife and daughter in mortal danger?”
“Go ahead. Publicizing all of that changes nothing for me, but it will change everything for you. If you want a target on yourback, by all means, draw it in bright red paint.”
I stiffen with resentment at his dismissive wave.
“There’s already a target on my back thanks to you.”
He scoffs and shakes his head. “You are so na?ve. You always have been, but at least it wasn’t going to get you killed before. You’re in way over your head, Gabriela. You may not want to hear this, but I actually did come to talk you out of this asinine story for yoursake, not mine. If you?—”
“Is it true you’re under the protection of the Demon Militia? That’s where you’ve been hiding?”
He goes rigid. His eyes flash with fear and warning.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
I move to swipe my phone off the table and his hand clamps around my wrist. I squirm at the vise-like pressure and lethal look in his eyes.
“I’m not asking. I’m telling you. You will not print this story,” he growls.
“You can’t stop me.”
His grip tightens further, and I suppress a yelp of pain. I pull against his hold, but he doesn’t let go.
“Don’t make me hurt you more than I already have,” he says in a warning tone.
My blood goes cold. “What does that mean?”
His eyes narrow on me. “There are powers bigger than you and me, bigger than any aspect of our little feud. You know that. If you threaten them, I can’t help you. I will drag you kicking and screaming into the underground with me to keep you from writing this story. I’m not bluffing, Gabriela.”
Shit. This is not how the interview was supposed to go.
I glance around, wondering if Aden is watching. Hopefully, he’s working on a new plan since I’ve just butchered the original.
The plan was to convince my father to leave with me to go somewhere—anywhere. We’d call a car and once we got in, Dad would be our prisoner. Aden would restrain him and drive straight to the rendezvous point.
But there’s no way Dad is leaving with me now. All I had to do was play a role one last time, and I couldn’t. I let my emotions get the best of me.
I wish there was some way for me to know what was happening in The Translucence. Aden said he can sense when I’m in trouble, but I don’t seem to have the same ability to sense him.
“What do you keep looking at?” Dad asks, scanning the diner with suspicion.
“Nothing.” I try to pull my arm away, and he throws it back at me.
“You’re lying. You keep staring at the ceiling. Is this some kind of setup? Did you… Fuck, Gabi! What did you do?”
“Nothing! It’s an interview. I just?—”
“This is over. Never contact me again.”
He slides out of the booth, and my only chance at freedom from The Shadow stalks toward the exit.