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16
“What does he mean ‘he wants his Kingdom?’” Eastern asks me for what seems like the tenth time since I returned. I’ve been pacing up and down in Cal’s office for the last hour unable to do anything but flip between worry and incendiary rage; I feel it rippling beneath my skin, scorching me from the inside out.
“I don’t fucking know, and I don’t care!” I shout, wringing my hands in front of me. “He threatened my brothers, Eastern. He’ll fucking kill them.”
“No, he won’t get the chance. Your brothers are already being moved to a safe house as we speak.”
“Where? How? I want to speak with them. Now!”
“As soon as they’re settled, I’ll make sure that happens.”
“Theyweresettled, Cal. As much as it killed me that they were moved so far away from me, they were happy, and now they have to be moved again because of the King and his fucking threats.”
“I know it’s not ideal, Asia, but they will adapt…”
I raise my hand, cutting him off. “They shouldn’t have to adapt. Isn’t it enough that they lost their mum, that our family was torn apart?”
“It is, and I’m so sorry this had to happen.”
“I should’ve killed him when I had the chance!”
“And get sent to prison for murder? No, Asia, where would your brothers be then?”
“Safe, they’d be safe!”
Cal sighs heavily. I know he’s doing his best but that doesn’t make any of this bullshit easier to swallow. “Tomorrow, we’ll call your brothers, okay? You can speak to them and put your mind at rest a little.”
I nod sharply. “Tomorrow then.”
“Okay, good.”
“So what now?” Ford asks, like Camden he’s been quiet up until now.
“I’ve just sent the recording of Asia’s conversation with the King to Hud and Grim. Now that we have his family name it might open some more avenues we hadn’t been able to access before. That’s agoodthing.”
“And what about Pink, my mum?” Camden asks. He barely looks at me and I can’t tell what he’s thinking, feeling. He’s shut down completely, not giving anything away.
Cal puffs out his cheeks. “We’ve removed another target and made sure Sebastian and George are safe, so the King still needs to keep them both alive in order for Asia to do what he wants. That’ssomethingat least.”
“And what does he expect Asia to do exactly? Because as far as I’m aware, he’s already King of his fucking kingdom.” Sonny says with agitation.
“Perhaps not. We’re missing something vital,” Cal insists, “And that’s what we need to find out.”
“Could it be to do with Santiago? Maybe the King is referring to him?” Eastern suggests.
“The King specifically said he wanted ‘one life in exchange for another’… I’m not sure killing his business partner is part of the plan. Then again, this is the King we’re talking about. I wouldn’t put it past him,” Camden speculates.
“So he wants me to kill Santiago, is that what you’re suggesting? How the fuck am I supposed to do that?”I couldn’t even kill the King when I had the opportunity,I think to myself.
“Killing Santiago is an impossibility. Hudson has been trying for years to find a way to get close enough to do that, but he’s heavily guarded, not to mention fucking elusive. There’s no way you could, Asia. Not that we’d let you, even if there was the tiniest of chances,” Cal says.
“What then?” I insist.
“Maybe he meant me?” Camden looks at me with a haunted expression. “I’m no longer useful to him, after all.”
“No way. No fucking way,” I reply, not willing to even consider that as a possibility.
“No, that’s not it either, because if he didn’t have any use for you anymore, both you and your mum would be dead by now,” Ford says with brutal honesty.
