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I just glare at him without saying anything. At this point, there aren’t any words left.
He smoothly rises from the chair and moves to haul me up, obviously assuming that the paralytic is still doing its job.
So he isn’t expecting it when I lunge for the gun.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Olivia quickly crosses the room. She pauses next to where Vaughn still kneels next to his grandfather’s prone form and holds out her hand. “Give me the knife.”
He hesitates for the barest second before handing it over. “Where are my brothers?”
“On a wild goose chase for whoever defaced those portraits in the atrium,” she answers.
“Did they see you?”
“Of course not. And in about five minutes, they’ll have a grease fire in the kitchen to deal with.”
Olivia strides toward me. I instinctively flinch away, which brings a wry smile to her face. I’m not convinced she isn’t actually going to cut me until the ropes fall away.
“Fire?” I ask stupidly.
“It’s become something of a specialty of mine. Along with pipe bombs, which have been placed in strategic locations around the building,” she explains patiently. “This place is about to come down around our ears.”
The fire and pipe bombs should be the focus of my attention as I rise shakily to my feet. But all I can think about as Olivia smiles at me is that I’ve officially lost any grip I had on reality. Vaughn killed me and now I’m in heaven, hallucinating what it might have looked like if the sister who hates me actually showed up to save my life.
Her lip quirks as she studies me. “You look confused.”
“What the fuck is happening?” I shriek.
“Just another day in Havoc House.” Ignoring the hand Vaughn holds out, Olivia slides the knife into the waist tie of her dress. She looks my shaking form over with a sigh. “We really don’t have time for lengthy explanations right now.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what all this is.” I gesture wildly around the room. My gaze lands on Richard Ashbridge’s unmoving form. His eyes are closed, but I can’t tell from this far away if his chest is moving. “Vaughn might have just killed his grandfather.”
“He’s still breathing,” Vaughn murmurs, not sounding happy about it. “I didn’t come here to kill anyone. At least not with my own hands.”
“Then why…” My voice cracks. I’m bordering on the fine edge of hysteria and about to fall completely. “What is going on?”
“Tell her,” Olivia urges when he hesitates.
Vaughn pulls a voice recorder out of his pocket. “I came for this.”
He presses a button and Richard’s voice oozes out of the speaker.
We only kill when there are no other options…
“It’s not the type of confession that would stand up in court, but good enough for Vaughn to get control of his family’s fortune. He cared so much about collateral, it’s only fair that old man Ashbridge offers some himself.” Olivia glares down at the man in question, pure hatred in her eyes. The look softens as she turns back to me. “We really don’t have time for lengthy explanations, sis.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not leaving until you tell me everything.”
“Can we compromise with the abridged version, at least?”
“Fine.”
“You heard Richard’s villain monologue. When I found out I was pregnant, I freaked out. I couldn’t tell Dad and Vaughn,” her gaze moves to him for a flashing second before she looks away, “I should have trusted him to do the right thing, but I didn’t. When I went to his grandfather, it was because I was stupid enough to believe this nice old man would help me.”
“So he had Vaughn’s brothers attack you to get rid of the problem,” I guess.
“That was after he had me drugged and raped at a Havoc Initiation because he thought it would ensure Vaughn wouldn’t want me anymore,” she confirms. “I guess I should consider myself lucky they didn’t just kill me right then.”
