Page 98 of Craving Sin

He wants me dead.

He thinks because Rian was there that day, that Rian knew it was going down.

This can’t be happening.

“Why?” falls past my lips. I knew he didn’t love me—I had to have. But how could he want me dead? What kind of father would do that? Am I really that bad? No. This isn’t me. Rian loves me.

“It’s your fault,” he says, not for the first time. “It was her fault too…and those women. They wanted it. They can pretend they didn’t, pretend I forced them, but they were quick to want to spread their legs for me. They wanted me, and when I didn’t want them, they made up all these fucking stories! If they hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have needed to do any of this!”

None of his words are computing. No, that’s not true. They are. I just don’t want them to. My father wants me dead, and it has something to do with the women…women who were going after him? Women he assaulted. I knew he cheated on my mom, knew he had a stable of young women, but the disgusted feeling curling in my gut right now is saying it’s even worse than I thought.

“Once you’re gone, I’ll figure the rest of it out. They’ll see I’m serious and…”

“And then you’ll have me to deal with,” Rian’s voice comes from behind me, startling my father so he swings the gun up to aim it at him. Rian has a gun in his gloved hand. He must have snuck in the back door.

I turn to see Conan is there too. He grabs the guard inside by the head, before he can turn around, snapping his neck in a quick, brutal twist. The body slumps to the ground. I hear noises coming from outside—men here with Rian and Conan, or others that are with my father?

He’s here.

He found me.

I don’t know how in the hell he found me, but he did, and he came for me.

Rian will always come for me, because in a world where I don’t matter to most, to him, I am the man he loves.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” my father shouts, gaze darting between Rian and me. “You told him! You led this criminal here. I knew it. You were working with him all along. You’re both trying to sabotage me.”

“You tried to have me killed!” rips from the back of my throat. I knew he didn’t love me, knew he didn’t care. I don’t think he’s capable of loving anyone other than himself, but I never would have thought he’d do this.

Ignoring me, my father says, “How did you know? They won’t stop until they get what they want from you. There’s nothing you can do to stop them.”

Who won’t stop until they get what they want? Nothing Rian can do to stop who?

“It’s going to be fun making you suffer,” Rian says to him, taking a step forward, then another. “Why did you want Abbott dead?”

“Who is going after Rian?” Conan asks at the same time.

“Because he’s just like his mother! He’s asking questions, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.” Another step forward for Rian. “Stop moving or I’ll shoot you!” The tremble in my father’s voice is impossible to miss.

“Rian,” Conan warns as he keeps moving.

Rian ignores him. “Do it,” he taunts. “You better fucking do it because if you don’t, then I’m going to make you suffer beyond comprehension. You hurt what’s mine, and I will never stop making you suffer for it.”

Fear clutches my heart. Yes, he has a gun pointed at my father, but my father has one pointed at him too. If Rian shoots, what if my father gets a shot off? What if he…

“Rian…baby. Don’t.” He can’t do this. He can’t sacrifice himself for me.

“Does he know what you did?” Rian asks him. “Everything you’ve done? Because I do.” He takes another step closer. “You don’t deserve him. You’ve never deserved him. He is…everything.”

Something changes in the air, an unexpected gleam in my father’s eyes. “If I have to die, then he goes with me.”

Everything happens quickly from there, so fast I can’t make sense of it all.

My father swings his arm from Rian toward me.

A gunshot goes off.

Rian lunges for me, covering my body with his own.