“Right,” he says, as if he completely understands Kingston’s response right now. "Because if anyone found out, he’d beat you harder,” he breathes out.
Kingston’s eyes meet his in despair, and the expression on Cade’s face tells me Cade has seen this kind of abuse before.
“Is that why you kept quiet about the little children he was raping?” he asks point-blank.
Kingston’s mouth drops. “I, no–” he chokes out, more panic setting in his face at the question.
“Were you a part of it?” Cade follows up, the two of them locked in a gaze, one steady and sure, the other terrified.
“No, never. I could never–” he starts to stutter out.
Cade’s eyes harden as they observe him. “But you didn’t protect them either,” he says plainly, more of an accusation than a question.
“I couldn’t–” Kingston struggles to say before shaking his head and swallowing hard. “I don’t know, I–” he tries again, and even I can see the anguish that’s buried deep in his eyes.
Marcus squats down until he’s at eye level with Kingston, drawing Kingston’s attention from Cade to him.
“What if he could never hurt you again? Would you talk then?”
The anguish in his eyes gets swallowed whole by derision. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he hisses angrily. “If he even finds out this much…” he trails off before shaking his head.
Tristan sighs while looking over at Cade. “How much longer?”
Cade grabs a tablet off a rickety table that’s set up in a corner of the room. “Less than a minute. We timed this perfectly.”
“How much longer until what? You need to either make your point or let me the fuck go. You don’t understand–he’swaitingfor me, and hereallydoesn’t like to be kept–,” Kingston starts protesting again.
“Be quiet and watch, or I’ll slap the tape back over your mouth until it’s over,” Cade says, holding the tablet up so everyone can see it.
Kingston glares at Cade while everyone leans in to focus on the live stream that pops up. Marcus reaches out and turns Kingston’s head towards the tablet, and there’s a silent battle between them before Kingston huffs and looks at what Cade’s showing us.
The live-stream is set in a hotel room, showing Sterling standing at the door and shouting at someone on the other side. Kingston’s brow furrows in confusion before his eyes widen as the room is flooded by a SWAT team.
There’s a lot of chaos while Sterling fights to get away. He wrenches out a gun and fires at one of the officers before another shot is fired, hitting him in the leg and taking him down. Between the charges and the shot fired, it looks as if Sterling just sealed his doom.
I hear Qi’s sharp intake of breath and the flicker of movementwhen he leans into Tristan. I’m still not convinced that Qi ever needed to know about the conversation that passed between Sterling and me so many years ago.
As much as he swears he’s fine, that it all came to nothing, and it’s just a massively wrong layer of gross, I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t a bit heavier with the way he curls into Tristan for support, like he needs that now. Not that he didn’t use Tristan for support before, so maybe I’m reading more into it.
A shaky breath rattles deep in my chest at the knowledge that Sterling has been captured. However, as much as I wish this were real, the knowledge of what men like Sterling are capable of has my back bristling with unease. If he has any inkling as to how he got arrested tonight, Marcus and Tristan are gonna be in so much trouble when he gets out.
“This is bad, this is so very bad. Do you have any idea how bad you guys just fucked up?” Kingston chokes out, his eyes wide as saucers.
“Trust me, the only one who fucked up was Sterling. And now that he’s going to pay for it,youare left with a choice,” Marcus says, ignoring Kingston’s panicked mutterings. “You can walk away from here tonight a free man. You can start anew, away from his path and his place, and walk your own. You can take the illegal dealings your father has dealt with and turn them around into legitimate ones.”
Kingston snorts in derision. “You obviously have no idea what you’re doing. He’ll be out in less than a night,” he sneers, repeating the thoughts that play in my head every time Marcus talks about going after Sterling.
Tristan turns to face Kingston. “If you truly think that, then you don’t get how money talks,” he says simply.
Kingston rolls his eyes and looks away, not even entertaining the notion that his father is done for good.
“I get it,” Marcus says, still talking to Kingston. “I can’t even imagine how unreal it must be to go from being tormented for every breath you breathe, to having that tormentor rendered completely harmless in a matter of seconds.”
Kingston practically snarls at Marcus in response, and I can seehe’s so confused and reeling that there isn’t much room for reasoning at the moment. So it’s no surprise he’s fighting against the hope I can see slowly building in his eyes.
“Your dad has been left untouched for too long; he got comfortable, confident, lazy, and forgot that there are always bigger fish in the sea. Your dad has people ready to set him free, but we have people in place to ensure it doesn’t happen. This is a battle of money, and with the Donovan and Bauer name floating around against Sterling’s, no one is going to be stupid enough to let him walk. He’s done. And not only politically, but publicly too,” Tristan explains while Cade holds up the tablet to show the news blaring Sterling’s face all across every major news circuit and social media.
“He willneverbe able to show his face again without everyone knowing him for the sick pedophile that he is,” Marcus adds.
