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“Then why didn’t you let me go? I could have had a life that was different and that was my own.”
“I couldn’t deal with the shame of people knowing your mother stepped out on me.”
This admission doesn’t surprise me, though it is upsetting.
“It’s not too late to stop this.”
“I’m afraid it is, Sariah. I made a deal with Jeremiah, and I’m not going to go back on it.”
I turn away, unable to look at him. He disgusts me. “At least tell me this: who is my real father?”
He doesn’t answer. I hate him for that. I excuse most of his other behaviour, overlook it even, but for him to deny me the chance to meet the man who created me and gave me life infuriates me.
“Fuck you,” I hiss under my breath. “Fuck you, Declan Easton.”
He starts to respond, but the car jerks suddenly and the brakes are slammed on. I throw my hands out as I’m catapulted into the back of the seat in front of me. My shoulder aches from the impact, but I’m not hurt. The car goes still, and I can hear raised voices outside the vehicle. My heart starts to pound as I glance around quickly, desperately trying to see what is going on. The security window between the driver and the back seat is up and blacked out so I can’t see the road in front of the car, and there is nothing to see through the side windows.
“What the fuck is going on?” Declan demands of the driver, but before anyone can respond, arat-tat-tatsound fills the air, and I hear the smashing of glass as the car rocks slightly.
Gunfire.
That sound is gunfire.
We are being shot at. Declan understands this faster than I do and already has a gun out. My eyes flare. He came armed to the church?
The door is suddenly torn open on Declan’s side, and a gun is shoved in his face before he can respond with his own. I don’t see what happens because my own door is dragged open. I turn my head, and as I do, I find myself looking down the barrel of a very nasty-looking gun. Terror claws up my spine, and the back of my neck suddenly feels clammy. I raise my eyes slowly to the figure holding the weapon. He is wearing a ski mask, and all I can see are hard eyes staring back at me.
“Do you have any idea who the fuck I am?” Declan snarls.
“Know who you are. Don’t give a fuck.” The voice that speaks is deep and gravelly. It’s also filled with cold detachment that makes my body feel like it’s been doused in ice.
The man on my side pushes the gun further into my field of vision. “Out.”
I’m frozen in fear. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.
On the other side of me, the gun goes off and Declan cries out. I twist around and see the blood pouring from between his fingers as he clutches his shoulder.
“Out of the car or he’ll shoot him again,” the man standing next to me says. I don’t really care what he does to Declan, but I’d rather not have my own brains splattered over the back of the car.
It takes me far too long to get out of the vehicle with all my skirts and train. The man holding the gun on me doesn’t help, but he does grab my arm as soon as I’m free of the car and all but drags me over to a black 4x4.
The masked man shoves my dress into the car after me and slams the door. My heart is hammering. I always knew as the daughter of a high-ranking crime boss I could be taken and used against my father. If this is their plan, they are deluded. Declan will never pay to have me back. He doesn’t care about me in any way other than ones that benefit him.
The door on the opposite side of the car opens, and a man in a ski mask climbs in. The man who is holding the gun on me gets into the front, and then the car tears out of there.
I try to keep myself calm and collected, but my mind is racing. Who are these men? And what are they going to do to me?
I turn to the man sitting next to me with his ski mask still in place, and I try not to let my fear seep into my voice when I ask, “Who are you?”
I can barely breathe beneath the veil and I’m not sure how much of my face he can see beneath the thick lace, but his eyes find mine, dark pits that are like staring into an abyss.
“Your worst nightmare.”
