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“Father?!” Monk shouts.
“For the last time, Monk, shut the fuck up!” the King snaps.
The guards drop their guns and with one look from Malakai, my boys have grabbed them.
“On your fucking knees!” Malakai shouts.
The guards drop to their knees with guns aimed at them now.
“Give her to me!” the King demands.
Malakai shakes his head, looking directly at Connie. “Come here,” he says softly.
“Let the girl go, Malakai,” Connie says, her voice cracking.
“Come here.Now!” he repeats.
Connie gets up, walking towards him. As soon as she reaches his side, Ronnie holds her hands out to her, recognising that she’s a safer bet, but Malakai refuses to let her go knowing as well as I do that if he did, the King would make his move.
“Asia, Ma, Grayson, you too,” he orders.
Ma Silva gets up and stands beside Connie. Mr Carmichael remains where he is, his gaze trained on the King. “I’m not here to be saved, Malakai,” he says.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ma Silva asks.
Mr Carmichael doesn’t answer, but we all know what he isn’t saying. He’s here to kill the King, even if that means forfeiting his own life to do it.
“What about Kate?” I ask, snapping my head around, but Camden has already passed Pink to Eastern and is pointing a gun at Monk’s head.
“Let her fucking go, prick!” Camden snarls, the congealed blood on his face weeping with fresh blood as he speaks.
The second Monk drops his arm, Camden snatches the gun from his hand and pulls Kate behind him. Only when she’s out of harm’s way does Camden crash the handle of his gun against Monk’s face twice in quick succession. I can hear his nose break from the other side of the room. He drops to his knees, cursing loudly, but Camden doesn’t give him a moment’s reprieve, instead he hits him again. The third punch knocking him out cold. He steps over Monk’s limp frame and strides towards the King, his gun raised, ready to fire.
“Now you’re going to pay for killing my mother,” he snarls, reaching the King and pressing the gun into the back of his head. The King doesn’t even flinch, but Veronika, she screams. The sound pierces the air and shatters my heart.
“I hate you!” she yells at Camden.
Tears pour down her face as she struggles in Malakai’s hold, trying desperately to reach her father and I realise something then. No matter how evil, every monster has someone who loves them. Innocence doesn’t see the ugliness inside someone’s heart until it’s too late and by that time the ugliness has either broken their spirit or moulded them into their image. Monk is a carbon copy of his father, but I refuse to allow the King to break Veronika’s spirit like he tried to break mine.
“Veronika, is that your name?” I say gently, traversing the table and stepping beside Malakai and my little sister. I hunch lower so that my eyes meet hers. “Sweetheart. Your brother hurt my friend. He did that,” I say, pointing at Pink. Her gaze follows my finger and her eyes widen.
“No, he wouldn’t,” she whispers, her little hands trembling even though she grits her jaw, showing me that despite her age, she’s a fighter.
“He’s a bad person just like our father,” I say, taking her hand and squeezing it gently.
She snatches her hand from mine, anger blazing in her eyes. “NO!” she shouts, that one word hurting me more than I ever believed possible. Her innocence, her blind faith in the King, in Monk, shatters my heart. Today, one or both are going to die, and I know that this little girl will never forgive us, no matter what we do or say.
“Don’t listen to her, Ronnie. Don’t believe her. She’s only trying to make you hate me. You don’t hate me, do you, little one?” The King says, his eyes softening. Though when he glances at me I see the calculated look within them. He’s manipulating her. He knows exactly what he’s doing here. There’s no love there. None. Whatever I saw earlier is gone. The man is as cold as we all know him to be.
Veronika shakes her head. “I don’t hate you. I love you, Daddy,” she says passionately, her little hands reaching for him. Connie covers a sob, folding herself into Ma Silva’s hold.
The King grits his jaw. “Until the day you die, right, baby girl?”
“Until the day I die,” she whispers back.
The King nods, turning towards Ma Silva despite the fact Camden has a gun pressed against his head. “Make sure Ronnie’s taken care of.”
Ma Silva nods. “I’ll make sure she forgets every single thing about you. That’s the only promise I can afford you now.”
“I won’t forget you, Daddy! I won’t!”
“It isn’t me I want you to remember, Ronnie. Look around this room. Remember them. Imprint their faces in your memory and when the time is right, you’ll have your revenge.”
“Enough, you sick bastard,” Camden snaps, pulling back the hammer of his gun. “Take the kid out of here, she doesn’t need to see this.”
Malakai nods, handing Veronika to me. Despite her anger, her fear, she somehow senses that I’m her flesh and blood and holds on tight. Her screams are muffled as I run with her from the room, the sound of a single gunshot following us out.
