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I hold his stare a moment longer before seeing the agonizing truth within his eyes. “Okay, Nik. I believe you,” I tell him, “and I’ll be sure to note your willingness to help during your trial.”
He shakes his head. “No, don’t try to give me false hope. I will be executed. Just please . . . make sure my boy knows I love him. I never told him that enough.”
I give Nik a tight smile, knowing this may very well be the last time I see him before he’s executed. “He knows,” I tell him. “Cara too.”
Chapter 25
OAKLEY
Standing across from my father and not being able to save him or even throw my arms around him is the most excruciating thing I’ve ever lived through, but I can’t risk letting Zade know who he is. If he knew that my father still lived, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, and he might very well be my only way out.
Even after all these years, my father still considers himself the rightful leader of Empire, and even if I’m somehow able to save him, I don’t doubt that he would try to challenge Zade for it. But that can’t happen. Zade is a brutal monster. He’s callous and cold and would slaughter him with ease. On the other hand, if my father were able to rise in power, then Zade would forfeit his claim and my life . . . fuck, I’d be free.
Unable to resist, I inch toward my father, my innocent childhood heart still so desperate to have him hold me. Those horrid twelve hours in the cell across from him weren’t nearly enough, but goddamn, they helped to revive something deep within me. His face gave me hope, and now I want to help restore that same hope within him.
“What the hell were you thinking coming down here?” my father berates, his tone so low I can barely hear it. “With him of all people. I told you to run.”
“I’m not a child anymore, Father,” I hiss, keeping my eye on Zade, making sure he can’t overhear our conversation as he speaks privately with Nikolai. “I make my own decisions, and I am not running from this. I’m not going to let you suffer down here. I’m working on a plan. I just need some time. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“Don’t be a fool, Oakley. You can’t save me. Just get out of here and run. Empire will slaughter you, and if that were to happen . . .”
He searches for the words, but I see it right there in his eyes. I’m his whole world. His little girl. He’s spent years loving me from inside this filthy cell while I have lived a happy life, far away from this sinister world, and now my time has come to make it right. “I’m not going to abandon you,” I promise him just as Zade turns around and starts making his way back toward me, his eyes locked heavily on mine. “Shit, he’s coming.”
My father immediately falls back into his cell, hidden within the darkness as Zade strides toward me. “Did you say something?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head and trying to hide the thick emotion in my tone. “Did you get everything you needed?”
Zade’s lips kick up into a wicked grin as he reaches me. “I sure did,” he says, his gaze shifting to my father’s cell and peering in. He meets his broken stare, and the tension in the prison grows, sending waves of shivers sailing over my skin. Zade doesn’t look away, just lets his silence speak volumes as fear rocks through my veins.
What did Nikolai tell him? Does he know?
Panic tears at me when Zade looks back at me. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”
Without a second of hesitation, I turn on my heel, my gaze flashing to my father’s for just a moment before I hastily hurry back up toward the old, rickety steps. Zade walks behind me, his long strides pushing me faster as the tension quickly builds between us.
We hit the stairs, and I hurry up them before slipping through the gate at the top. Zade doesn’t bother to stop and lock up, just keeps pushing me along, not wanting to spend another moment down here than what’s necessary.
“This way,” he says when we reach a fork in the tunnel, guiding me toward the left, the old lanterns becoming more spaced out and making it nearly impossible to see. We pass by the place Dalton and Easton snapped those men’s necks, and a shiver sails down my spine, unease blasting through me.
The tunnels start inching up on an incline, and it gets a little easier to breathe when Zade’s arm brushes past mine, the electricity burning between us. The tension is like nothing I’ve ever known as I wait for him to tear me apart, to tell me he knows I lied, and when he grabs my hand and pulls me back, shoving me up against the wall of the tunnel, I prepare for the worst.
