Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lyam
I keep track of the days by looking outside the sliver of a window and watching the sun set and rise. And on the second day, I decide. I’m going to get away from Montague if it’s the last thing I do.
If I haven’t cooperated, where will he go next? Will he hurt my brothers? My mother?
Cosette and the baby?
I know now that my first thought that Cosette betrayed us couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Jesus, I’ve been a douchebag.
I will make it up to her, goddamn it, and when I do, I will crawl on my belly to beg forgiveness.
Cosette loves with the tenderest heart and yet she would still rather die than ever even serve this man coffee, never mind lie to us and betray us and work with him behind our backs.
I let my fear convince me she betrayed us.
Never again.
I have to get away.
He has me chained to the floor with electric shocks on my ankles, neck, and wrists.
Twice someone’s come in with food, but they’ve given me hardly any water. He’s trying to give me just enough to keep me alive. I know what he’s playing at.
Montague himself has only come to check on me once. He has other people coming in to make sure I’m still alive, but that’s about it.
I have a lot of time alone. During that time, I think about how I’ll get away. And I put the pieces of the puzzle together.
His bid for reelection means he needs to win the majority vote. It was his plan from the beginning to use our family as a scapegoat for his troubles. He’s been working against us now for months, and likely has aimed for rival mafia to be pitted against one another when it comes to a place of power.
And now he’s after us again. The entire time, he’s been working with dirty cops and rival mafia. From the very beginning, he wanted to dominate this city. Framing my family as the ones responsible for crime in the city. He’s wanted nothing but political gain. And now, he’s going to use me.
He’ll have to kill me before I’d agree to hurt either Cosette or my family, but he’s threatened to do it himself if I don’t.
Jesus.
Dusk has fallen outside the window. Last night and the night before, it was when the Capitol closed for the day that Montague decided to pay me a visit.
I’ve been here long enough. If something doesn’t shift, I’m going to have to pretend to cooperate with him so I can get out of here and make sure he doesn’t hurt Cosette.
I have to protect her.
I can’t believe I thought she was the one who worked with him.
I can’t believe I ever thought she’d have my baby and act like a friend, only to go behind our backs.
Once, one time, she betrayed us while under duress, but I know that isn’t who she is or the way she typically functions. I know better now. So much better.
The elevator bell dings. I hear Montague’s oily voice before I see him.
“Evening, Mr. Gerard.” I despise how he insists on talking to me as if we’re business partners, and he isn’t the lowest scumbag in Europe.
Why did it take me being abducted into this asshole’s custody to see the truth?
All this time, I’ve told myself Cosette is the one who runs when she gets close to people. Who was the one who booked a fucking apartment and exiled her? Me, that’s who fucking did.
“Have we come to a decision, Mr. Gerard?” Montague asks. “It’s safe to say at this point, no one is coming to save you. Your precious family, who haven’t even bothered to come looking for you—”
The blare of an intercom interrupts. “Mr. Montague. You need to evacuate the premises immediately. I repeat, you need to evacuate, sir.”
Montague stares at me with wide eyes, terror written on his face. The fucking coward.
I knew they’d come. My brothers are here, I know it.
“You were saying?” I ask him.
Montague’s face goes beet red. They’ve used a taser, a shock collar, and a fucking electric chair, but have tied my wrists so he can use his torture device of choice –
a goddamn electric prod. He grabs the electric prod off a table and hits the button.
I grit my teeth.
He will hurt for this.
Only the weak hurt the vulnerable.
I look out the window and there isn’t a single disturbance to be seen there. They’re being discreet. Pride swells in my chest. My brothers have come, and they will take him down right here, and no one will be the wiser.
We stare at each other as pain vibrates through my body, my nerves on fire. I grit my teeth and ride it.
When the spasms subside, I hold his gaze.
“Way to treat your future son-in-law,” I say in a low voice.
I watch with delight as his face goes from red to purple.
“You know she’s having my baby. That’s your grandchild.
It will be such a shame when the press realizes that your daughter married one of the very people you told everyone you were getting rid of, won’t it?
Go ahead, Montague. Hit the fucking remote.
Only a coward would hurt someone incapable of defending themselves.
You’re despicable, you know that? We know who you really serve.
Pretending to have the interest of the people of France in mind, are you?
I’m a goddamn criminal and yet even I am more loyal to my people than you are. ”
“Protect him!” someone shouts from the hallway. I hear the telltale sound of a body dropping. I’d bet every penny I own Thayer’s arrived with his silencer. I smile at Montague.
Another heavy thump. It’s the quietest of revolutions as one by one they’re taken down, alerting absolutely no one else of the attack.
As his men fall, Montague’s face pales. He looks around the room and signals to his guards.
“Do something!” One of them runs to the door just as it opens.
Thayer marches in with Princess around his neck.
Montague screams and cowers as Thayer strides over to me.
“There you are,” he says in a chiding tone. “No wonder you didn’t answer when I called you. Here, brother.” He bends, and Princess slides down and affectionately rubs her lengthy body against mine.
Snakes, like cats, aren’t usually tamable creatures. But some enjoy the challenge of commands. My girl is one of them.
“Easy, Princess,” I say in a low voice. “Don’t hurt him. Not yet.”
Montague whimpers.
Thayer doesn’t shoot or attack but pulls out a tablet and pushes a few buttons. Cosette comes on the screen.
“Where is she?” I growl to Thayer.
He doesn’t answer. If she gets hurt...
Her beautiful voice fills the room.
“My name is Cosette Fildeuroux. Francois Montague is my father. Twenty-four years ago, he had an affair with my mother.”
“What is this?” Montague fumes as Cosette goes on.
“He was married with children when he impregnated my mother. He refused to send child support or anything to help, and thus my mother raised me in poverty. He denied my very existence. I spent years of my life tracking down the man who was my father and was shocked when I found he was a man of wealth, prestige, and privilege. My mother died when I was a teenager, and I’ve long suspected that her death was no accident.
Francois Montague never wanted anyone to know who she was because it would ruin his career. ”
“What is this?” Montague repeats in fury.
“It hasn’t aired yet. You see,” Thayer says, clearly distracting him as Princess wraps herself around me.
A silver glint catches my attention. He’s attached a sheathed knife for me on Princess’s underbelly.
I slide my fingers over and carefully extract it as Thayer goes on.
“We wanted to handle this peaceably.” He holds up a hand.
“To be fair, Cosette wanted to. Be peaceful, that is. Me, well, that’s another story. But I allowed my team to defer to her.”
I slide the knife out of its sheath and carefully begin to cut the ropes at my wrists.
“Princess,” I say in a low voice. I jerk my chin at Montague. “Attack.”
I’ve just given her the signal to go to him, but she won’t hurt him.
He doesn’t need to know that.
He cowers and screams as Princess slithers over to him. “Stand back,” I pretend to command the snake. “Don’t strike yet.”
My wrists swing free as Cosette enters the room.
I’m going to kill Montague, then I’m going to kill my fucking brother.
She stares at me, and I hold her gaze. My heart swells at the sight of how beautiful and courageous she is, but goddamn, I don’t want her here.
“You!” Montague holds up a fist, but when Princess gets closer, he whimpers and stands back. “Do something!” he yells at his useless bodyguards. They flounder helplessly, unwilling to get any closer to a ball python.
“I’d say it’s nice to meet you,” Cosette says calmly. “But I don’t like to lie.”
“You,” Montague rages. “You’re as despicable as your mother.”
“Me?” Cosette says, her eyes the picture of innocence. “I’ve done nothing to hurt you. I’m not quite sure why you hate me so.”
He pulls himself to his full height and points an irate finger at her. “You should never have happened. I have no daughter!”
“Oh,” she says with a nod, “but you do. Just because I don’t fit in with your plan doesn’t mean I don’t exist. But I don’t need your acceptance.
I don’t need your money. I have become who I am without your aid, and I’m proud of that.
” She shakes her head sadly. “Parents should never reject their children. I spent many years mourning what could have been.” She smiles proudly and lifts her chin.
“But no more. You left me, and that was your loss, not mine.”
My own chest swells with pride. Montague, however, shakes with fury.
“Get them!” he spits out to one of his guards, but he’s shit out of luck, because his guard takes one look at Princess and whimpers.
I look at Princess and issue a loud command. “Kill.”
Montague’s bodyguard screams and runs from the snake who’s as harmless as a kitten.
Cosette looks across the room to me. “Lyam!”
In a flash, she whips her hand and throws me a gun. I catch it mid-air.
I point the gun. “My family deserves this retribution. Hell, I do.” I draw in a breath. Cosette is innocent. She deserves to know that she means more to me than anything.
After everything he’s put us through, I want him to suffer. I want him to feel the physical torture I have and the emotional torture she has, but sometimes, justice takes another form.
“Promise us you’ll never come after us again. You’ll make a public statement that my family has done no harm to the citizens of Paris, withdraw your candidacy, and tender your resignation from your current role. Then we will never, ever see you again.”
Thayer shakes his head. “Lyam, are you out of your mind? Think of what this man has done to you. You’re just going to let him go like that, scot-free? Jesus, brother…”
Acid stings the back of my throat, raw nerves and adrenaline fueling me. I shake my head. “He’s her father.” I swallow. “And I love her.”
Her eyes meet mine, and in that gaze is forgiveness and understanding. We’ll bury a world of hurt and build a new life together.
Montague fumes, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head and instead of responding to my offer, he pounces. He grabs Cosette by the arm.
Motherfucker.
I would have let him go. Against every fiber of my being, I was going to let the motherfucker go.
But he just put his fucking hands on her.
“Let her fucking go,” I say, my gun pointed at him.
He brandishes her like a shield. I can’t get a good shot in.
He won’t hurt her. I won’t let him.
“You’re scum! All of you are scum!” Montague fumes.
“Let her go, or I’ll shoot.”
His hands are on her neck. He’s going to hurt her. Her face is beet red and she’s gasping for air. She beats at his hands but it’s useless.
No.
Cosette twists to the side, giving me the sliver of a window.
It’s all I need.
I pull the trigger.
I never miss.