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“Don’t call what we had a relationship,” I seethed. “I’m not your daughter any more than you are my father. I hate you.Hateyou. I didn’t think that was possible. I didn’t think I was capable of hating anyone, but you? I hate you.Loatheyou. And I think a part of you hates me as well. I don’t know why. Do I remind you of your own shitty childhood?” I released a humorless laugh. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is that I hate you. And I’m done with you. No more hiding in your shadows...no more. I’m the fucking sun, and I’m not going to allow you to smother me any longer. I’m not a puppet you can use and discard. I was yourdaughter, but now? I’m nobody.” I took a wobbly step away from the bars, away from my past. It would no longer haunt me. I would no longerallow itto haunt me.
“Addie…” he warned darkly, and goosebumps skated down my spine just hearing my name on his lips. “I’m your father! I made you!”
“You destroyed me!” I took a deep, shuddering breath in an attempt to get my emotions under control. I needed to keep them under lock and key, at least until we made it out of here. Only then would I allow myself to fall apart. “You took an already broken girl and ripped her to shreds. You could never love me, not the way I needed you to. You saw me as something to use, something that was yours. But I’m not. I never have been, and I never will be. I belong to myself.”
“You belong to those men,” my father retorted with a sneer. “You’re their whore.”
Asher growled low in his throat, taking a step forward, but I reached out and placed a hand on his chest to stop him from charging towards my father. I loved it when they fought my battles, but this one? It wasmine.
“You’re wrong,” I said slowly, succinctly. “These men belong tome.”
I was about to add something about them being my whores but figured that would actually hurt my case. Points for me for keeping my mouth shut.
Turning away from the asshole, I gripped Ronan’s hand tightly. “Let’s go.”
“Addie!” Dad called after me just as Declan signed, “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life,” I whispered. Asher moved to grab my other hand, and together, we walked back up the stairs. I could hear my father’s screams behind me. His promises to be better.
Lies.
That was all he ever did. He wove his lies like a spider wove a web, each one intricate. I learned long ago I couldn’t believe a word he said.
When we reached the hallway, my breath was erratic, and my heart was pounding against my chest. God, I wouldn’t be surprised if I went into cardiac arrest. Too much had happened today, and I felt the weight of it on my shoulders like a cloak made of metal.
I pressed my forehead against the wall, attempting to get my breathing under control. Asher rubbed my back, reminding me to breathe and mimicking the motion. I watched the steady rise and fall of his chest, my own instinctively matching.
We left the door to the prison wide open, and not one of my men stopped the Ragers from racing down into the dank, suffocating basement. Not one of them made a move to lift their guns when my father’s screams reverberated up to us.
“My mother?” I asked no one in particular. It was Calax who answered, eyes bright with sympathy.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know how to feel about that. Sad? Happy? Numb?
“She freed me,” Calax added, his hand snaking up to rub my neck. His touch was soothing, calming, and I arched back against him. “She freed me and led me to you. I don’t know why, and now we’ll never know. Maybe she wanted me to save you. Maybe she wanted to redeem herself. Maybe she truly loved you.”
“Or maybe she wanted to use you to hurt me,” I added in a whisper. Calax squeezed my neck.
“Maybe,” he agreed softly.
“We need to leave.” Fallon’s voice interrupted my turbulent thoughts. I knew he was right, but a part of me couldn’t move from my spot against the wall. I didn’twantto move.
The man below was a monster, but he was still my father.
And I had killed him.
Maybe it hadn’t been my hand holding a gun, my knife hacking at his flesh, but it was my actions that led to his blood-curdling screams.
The Ragers wouldn’t be able to kill my father - not yet - with the bars blocking them, but I knew it was only a matter of time before their combined weight broke down the cell...or D.O.D. died of starvation. I didn’t know which death was more satisfying. Perhaps it was neither. Perhaps it was my dad’s terrified screams as he stared death in the eye and was forced to embrace it.
I gripped the hand nearest to me - Declan’s - and held it like the lifeline it was. The life preserver bobbing in the tumultuous ocean. The only thing keeping my head above water.
“Addie,” Fallon warned softly. He extended a hand towards me...a second lifeline. Still holding onto Declan’s, I interlocked my fingers with Fallon’s and allowed him to pull me down the hall.
We needed to get out of here. See Nik and Tommy. Kiss Ryder and Tamson. Well,Ineeded to kiss Ryder and Tamson. No one else. Unless my men were into that sort of thing...
“Yes. Out. Yes.” Apparently, I was a robot now, only capable of speaking one word at a time.
