CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Ella
M y father is a global cyber-terrorist.
As I shiver in the blanket, my arms and legs bandaged, Balor makes Dad stand before me to confess his many crimes and sins.
My head is spinning.
Perhaps he didn’t intend to hurt anyone, but according to Balor, his cyber-attacks during Christmas week resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people across the globe. His ransomware virus may have hurt them indirectly, their deaths circumstantial, but he’s still responsible.
Dad made millions in ransom but blew it all on gambling and settling past debts. Those ‘jobs’ he was doing were not developer side gigs. Those were trips to Vegas, Monaco, Macau China, and even Lisbon, Portugal. Desperate to feed his addiction, he often left me in the apartment in the middle of the night to sit at Blackjack tables in Atlantic City or Mohegan Sun.
I learn that he even sold my mother’s family home in Connecticut over a year ago and didn’t tell me. Mom’s old clothes, her cookware, and her recipes were in that house. Her wedding dress!
All gone!
The loss of my legacy tears at my soul.
But nothing is worse than finding out he orchestrated this whole abduction scheme with Wes to get me away from Balor because the O’Rourkes discovered his secret identity.
A terrorist named Iceman.
When Dad sees all my injuries, he pulls away sharply and tries to kick Wesley. Lachlan takes the chain from Connor and yanks him back like a dog, so hard that he falls.
Balor brings a knife to Dad’s throat.
“Now tell your daughter who ghosted my texts to Petra. And who gave the instructions of what to do with her,” Balor snarls.
Dad’s jaw trembles. “It was me. But I had no idea it would result in this . Ella, you have to believe me. I’m so sorry, honey.”
“Still think Wes is better for her than me?” Balor shouts.
“Mr. O’Rourke...”
“Cut the fucking mister act.”
“Despite the outcome, I did not intend for my ransomware virus to hurt you or your family. It... It spread farther than I intended.”
“Like the atom bomb,” I mumble.
“What, my love?” Balor turns around.
“The tests at Los Alamos. They expected a detention of seven megatons. But the bomb replicated itself over and over, reaching over fifteen. It couldn’t stop.” I take a breath, spewing what I learned in my physics classes at Yale. “Like a virus.”
“Da, Ella.” Dad gives me a small smile. “You understand.”
“Then why did you agree to work for Balor if you knew he would be looking for you?”
“To cover my tracks. And... To hide. I meant what I said when I told you, they would protect us.” His sad eyes take in all the guns aimed at his head.
Protection one day, a death sentence the next.
“Then why did you team up with Wes to take me away from Balor?”
“Wesley promised me he would never lay a hand on you again.” Dad chokes up. “He’s one man I thought I could control. I am no match for the mafia.”
“Your father also figured out we reverse-engineered everything he did.” Balor’s lips twist into a hateful sneer. “And he planned to disappear. Leaving you with a monster.”
Dad just lowers his head.
“All clear, Balor,” Camryn says to Balor. “No tripwire on Brennan.”
“Thank you, Camryn.” Balor whispers to me, “Your father’s fate is up to you, Ella.”
“What?”
“He’s your father and despite his despicable lack of judgment, I believe he loves you.”
“You’d let him live?”
“For you? Aye.”
After a moment, I take a breath and speak, “A dead man can’t atone. A dead man can’t make up to me the hole I’d have in my life if he breathes his last breath and takes all his sins with him. I’ll hate him forever, and I don’t want that hate in my heart, Balor.”
He lays sympathetic eyes on me. “I know, my love.”
“I love you, too,” Wes mumbles, his voice choked with blood.
“You’re dying in five minutes.” Lachlan kicks him in the head, drawing more sickening moans. “Shut the fuck up.”
What are they waiting for?
“Dad...” I call him in a shaky voice. “This is an impossible choice for me. Tell me, tell me you love me.”
“Of course, I love you, Estella. Everything I did, I did for you.”
“He’s broke,” Eoghan chimes in. “But there is a small account for you, Ella.”
“Please. Let my father live,” I say with a shaky breath.
Balor kisses my forehead. “Then he lives.”
“Thank you.” I know the massive sacrifice I’m asking, and it speaks volumes to how much this man loves me .
Straightening, Balor turns to my father. “You were told the rules in your car on the way here, but I’m going to repeat them, Snow, for your daughter’s sake. You’re going away for six months to deal with your gambling addiction. When you get out, someone will shadow everything you do for the rest of your life. You will be injected with a tracker. You will be stripped of your identity and given a new one by me, for your protection. I will control everything you do. You are not to leave the city without permission. You will have access to your grandchildren, my children , but visits will be supervised. You never have to work another day of your life. I will pay for your apartment, and you will get an allowance. I will have eyes on you 24/7, Snow. That’s the price you pay for your life. It buys you time to make up your sins to the woman who will be my wife.”
Dad goes ashen at Balor’s demands. A man who lived like a millionaire is being reduced to a groveling peasant.
“There is one more price I’ll exact for next one million breaths,” Balor scoffs a wry laugh. “After this, we’re going straight to the command center, and you are handing over the keycode.”
Dad visibly swallows harshly. “I...”
“Keycode?” I ask.
“His viruses, like the one he infected the world with three damn days before Christmas are locked in his private server. A vault with all his sins.” Balor looks at my father. “You’re handing it over to me, Corvin.”
Making Balor aka Maverick the most powerful hacker in the world. I trust Balor would never in a million years hurt innocent people.
Dad’s composure crumples a little more with every passing second. But he brought this on himself.
“Give us the passcode and your six months will be in a cushy rehab center in sunny Malibu,” Balor continues. “ Or a torture camp in Ireland. Your choice.”
“I’m headed to Ireland soon,” Lachlan says. “I’d love to continue our...chat.”
Dad just heaves.
“And in case you think you can get around my restrictions.” Balor takes a gun from Lachlan that looks plastic and moves to my father’s side. “There’s one piece of insurance I need from you.”
Lachlan smiles, unlocking the chains on Dad’s wrists. He smooths them like a prima donna, but when his gaze fixes on the ravaged state I’m in, he drops his hands.
I’m draped only in a blanket over my bra and panty, gauze and tape crisscrossing the wounds all over my body. Darragh says they will hold until he brings me to his hospital for proper treatment and skin grafts.
“What? What is my final payment, Mr. O’Rourke?” Dad’s tone ticks up with anger now.
To my shock and horror, Balor shoves the gun at my dad.
Clicks go off around the basement, echoing against the musty cement walls. Everyone points their gun at Dad. Except Darragh, who keeps tending to my wounds like nothing else is happening. And not Lachlan, who has his phone out.
“Call me Spielberg,” the enforcer says, smiling widely, recording my father.
Eoghan glances at the view screen. “Put a filter on it, and you’re Scorsese.”
“Shut the fuck up, you two.” Balor shakes his head.
“What... What am I to do with this gun?” Dad asks.
“Kill the man who hurt your daughter.” Balor points to Wes on the floor, still writhing.
Dad fumbles with the piece, making me wonder if he ever held a gun.
“No, Mr. O’Rourke.” He tries to hand it back. “I will not deny you the pleasure of proving to my daughter—”
“ I have nothing to prove to her. She knows I love her. You will kill Wesley and we will have it on video, so if you ever, ever betray me, her, or my family again, that video goes to the FBI.” Balor balls his hands into fists, wincing through the pain of beating Wes’ face. “This is my insurance if you think you can outsmart me. Kill that man. And keep in line. I’ll spare your life and keep your dirty secrets. All of them.”
My heart shatters for my dad, but he’s made so many mistakes. He’s lucky to live. He’s lucky he’ll see my children born and get to hold them.
“Dad, please. Do what they say. Nothing should be more important to you than me!”
His lips tremble. “But my sweet Ella? You want a murderer for a father?”
I swallow and look around. “I’m marrying into a family of murderers. Proudly.”
Balor blinks at me, and a smile ghosts his lips.
This is what it took, brat?
“For the record, I’ve not murdered anyone,” Balor says to me instead. “Trust me, how I ache to finish off this scumbag. I brought him to the brink. Your father needs to know we own him.” He turns to Dad. “Now kill this motherfucker so I can get the mother of my children the proper fucking medical care she needs! ”
“Dad, please. Do it for me. Do what you should have done six months ago. You had the power when I told you. Don’t let Wesley ever hurt another woman like he hurt me.” I hate putting this shame on him, but I’m breaking the chains of feeling guilty over the abuse and holding others accountable. For once!
Nodding, my father lifts the gun. More skilled now. He was faking it. With eerie precision, his fingers stretch in the trigger well .
“Get close enough so his blood soaks into your clothes,” Eoghan, the lawyer, says. “DNA evidence.”
I assume they would figure out a way around the obvious duress my father is under. Sadly, he would never make it to trial.
“Dad?” I call out to him.
To my surprise, he turns to me, to all of us, holding the gun.
“Hey,” Lachlan yells and tosses his other gun to Balor.
The men in the room advance on Dad. Riordan, Eoghan, Darragh, and the Quinlans, who look more bloodthirsty than anyone.
“I got it,” Balor says, pointing a gun right back at my father. “What are you doing, Snow?”
“Estella. I am so sorry.”
“Dad... For what?”
I rise from the chair, the blanket falling to my feet. “Dad?”
I worry he’ll shoot Balor just to make his brothers kill him.
Death by O’Rourke.
“Goodbye, my Estella,” he whispers.
Then...
He puts the gun into his mouth.
And without any further words, my father pulls the trigger.