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Sean takes a cigarette out and slowly lights the end while his man cocks the gun at my father’s head.
He puffs on the end. “Sign or die Titan. Makes no difference to me.”
Spital falls from the mouth of the aging man. “No!” he roars. My father fights against the men holding him to the chair.
“I’m sorry, I meant sign. Period. You have no other option.” He takes another drag on the cigarette, leans back, and blows rings toward the ceiling like he has no care.
Like something out of the exorcist, the man’s head turns to me, and hand to God, I see black in his eyes. “Don’t worry. I don’t need you out of the way yet if that is what has you hyperventilating. You’ll breed me heirs. If you don’t, well, I think you have enough of an imagination to fill in where I might bury your body and find someone who wants to share the crown with me.”
What a joke. This man will never share power.
Sean’s goon wraps his hand around my father’s and forces his signature across multiple pages. From behind Sean, a weasel-looking man in round glasses clutching a briefcase to his chest rushes forward. He takes out a stamp and gets to work slapping it down on about five pages. To seal the new Titan Will and Testament, I presume.
My heart sinks. There’s no hope of ever escaping. He’ll see me in a grave before he lets me free.
Crack.
The pain in my head triples and the stench of blood and gunpowder fills my nostrils.
I can’t decide where to look first. The body, the blood, or Sean’s moving mouth.
“Now you don’t have to worry about dear daddy wanting to watch me fuck you. You can thank me by laying down on the bed and spreading those legs like a good bitch. Or fight me. Which I won’t mind either.”
An otherwise handsome face distorts with a level of depravity I’ve never witnessed in another human being.
“Now, bitch!” he roars.
Those are the last words I hear.
The seconds between the flash of a muzzle and my father crumpling to the floor is the time it takes for the switch in my brain to flick off.
I can’t breathe. All the white of my wedding bed and the massive bouquet at my side blur until the colors become a blob. And my heart, oh my God! My heart beats so wildly that I can’t hear anything but the rush of blood in my ears. Fear and panic glue me in place. Flashbacks of blood and a wounded Hark on the floor tighten around my throat, their nasty grip squeezing the air from my body.
Flashes of heat take over my body. Every time I try to inhale my throat closes off.
Blood covers the front of my dress and what doesn’t absorb into the silk drips from the fringes. The man who raised me, loved me, and then turned on me so brutally lies at my feet, a large hole in his head. It takes a minute for me to realize the woman screaming is me.
Around me, the men go about whatever the fuck it is they are doing. Something toward to front of the room has them all focused there. The lawyer. He’s asking Sean for his signature. But it’s all muffled tones instead of words, so I am not sure.
I wipe at something running down my cheek and nearly go into a second panic attack at the sight of blood dripping from the tip of my trembling finger when I pull it back.
“Father,” I whisper.Daddy, my heart cries.
The blue-eyed girl grabs my shoulders and shakes violently.
Her mouth is moving but I can’t tell what she’s saying at first.
She shakes me again and this time I feel my senses coming back online. I break free from my momentary paralysis.
“Move, Asena. Run while they are busy!” The bite of her nails into the bare flesh of my shoulders wakes me up. She urges me toward the patio door. My feet move before I remember giving them the command.
Feet pounding silently over the plush carpet I hit the double French doors and slam through them. On the other side, a familiar face comes into view. The one man I think won’t put a bullet in me turns eyes on me, gun raised.
I throw up my hands. “Easy. It’s just me.” I’m not about to tell him I’m making a break for it.
“Asena. Here. I saw everything.” The aging enforcer shoves a set of keys into my hand and a bundle of cash.
Color me surprised. Given he lost his ear because of me, I thought for sure he’d hold a grudge. But I’m not about to question his unexpected kindness.
