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“He said I’m a fucking dead man, that’s what,” Hartley growls. “You promised me if I stood by you, you’d have my back. You’d protect me and my wife.”
“That I did,” she responds. “But how can I protect you when you’re so foolish as to bring the Thorne girl into the mix? She’s a liability, and you should have put a bullet through her head when I told you to. What else did Zade say? Does he know who you work for?”
“No,” Hartley says. “I don’t believe so.”
“Right. Of course,” she responds. “Had he known, he would have killed you right there in your home.”
Damn fucking straight. It sounds like this woman is the only one who thinks clearly around here.
Moving through the manor, I reach the opening of the formal dining room, and as I peer in, I see Hartley across the room. His back is to me as he converses with the woman, both admiring her and cowering from her. She stands at the window, peering out into the night, and judging by the way her hands grip the window frame, she’s not particularly having a great night.
She turns around and my world crumbles, that familiar face that’s haunted my dreams since I was a boy staring straight back at me.
“Well. Hello, son,” she says, fondness in her eyes. “I was wondering when you might be joining us.” With that, she lifts a gun, aiming right between my eyes, and pulls the trigger.
Chapter 24
ZADE
My father always said my mother was a cold-hearted bitch, but fuck, I could never have imagined that. Hell, I hadn’t imagined anything because since I was a boy, I knew she was dead. Nikolai even confirmed it for me the night I spoke my vows and gave my intent to rise to power. He told me that my father had sacrificed her, that he had plunged his hand inside her ribcage, and that he stole that cold, black heart right out of her chest. But seeing as though she’s right here staring down the barrel of a gun, I’m inclined to believe there was another woman on the chopping board that night.
The bullet hurtles toward me, and I fly out of there like a fucking bat out of hell, a million questions storming through my head. She wasn’t taken from me, she fucking abandoned me, and now she wants my throne for herself.
I hear her enraged scream as the bullet plunges into the wall behind my head, but I’m too fucking fast. Now that she’s missed, she’ll never catch me, and something tells me she already knows. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s watched over me my whole fucking life, learning my weaknesses, figuring out what makes me tick. I bet she saw this coming a mile away. She’s fucking cold and calculating, just like me.
I always knew I was nothing like my father, but this right here. This is exactly what I would have done. Hell, I did. I slit my father’s throat the first chance I had and took his crown for myself. Now my mother wants a piece of the pie, a piece I’m sure she truly believes that she deserves.
Fuck, it only makes me miss her more. But my mother died a long time ago, and that’s exactly how she’s going to stay.
My hand hovers over my gun, but I can’t bring myself to actually grab it, knowing there are so many questions I need answered before I put her in the ground. If I were to end her now, I might never know how this came to be, and that’s going to eat at me until my dying days.
Flying straight back out the way I came, I race toward my Bugatti as bullets rain down around me. I’ve never run from gunfire in my life, and to do so now feels so fucking wrong. Reaching my car, I dive through the door and shoot back down the street in seconds. In the rearview mirror, I see the moment she gives up the fight, knowing damn well she won’t catch me.
I sit with my thoughts, unable to wrap my head around everything that just went down. Everything I knew to be true was nothing but complete bullshit. The woman I loved, who birthed me, just tried to kill me, and I don’t doubt that this has everything to do with my father.
Everybody within Empire has their dark secrets, and this right here was my dad’s. He never deserved to stand at the head of Empire. Hell, he didn’t even complete his ritual.
I’m just outside the city limits when my hand dives for my phone. I’ve been contemplating going straight back to the penthouse and trying to forget that any of this happened, but I need answers, and I need them now. I’ll never be able to relax without them.
