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“You can stay with us until Fitzgerald is put down,” my father said as if he were talking about an animal. “I will keep you safe.” He rose from the couch and headed over to the flat-screen television on the wall. “I want to show you something. Videos that may help jog your memory. It’s been a long time since we were together. You were only eight when I lost you.”
He opened the laptop on the table and flipped through the folders on the screen. My dad had worked in intelligence and was ridiculously good with computers. It was funny because I had never owned a computer or a cell phone.
It was too risky.
When he found the correct file, he clicked a few buttons, and a video started playing on the screen. “This was your first birthday party. Your mother was so worried about making everything perfect that nothing went according to plan.”
He chuckled as my mom appeared in the video, her blonde hair and blue eyes the mirror image of me.
“Viktor!” Mom pretended to be mad but couldn’t help but smile as she looked at him. “Stop filming me. This is a disaster. My father is ruining everything.”
Holding the camera in front of them, he hugged my mom from behind and kissed her cheek. “No more fussing, Abigail,” he said in a fake American accent. “I won’t let your father ruin Katarina’s special day.”
He was around too many people to let his Russian accent slip. I could see Fitzy in the corner of the frame, glaring at them. He stood against the wall, dressed in an expensive suit, armed with a severe expression.
“What did my grandfather do?” I asked.
“He tried to intimidate me by inviting The Devil’s Knights and The Founders to our home.” He sat on the couch beside Vera, the remote in his hand. “Your mother knew the truth about me. She accepted it and promised to take my secrets to her grave.”
“But Grandfather knew you were lying.”
He nodded. “At the time, he didn’t have proof. I was good at covering my tracks. It took him seven more years to find a single shred of evidence. And even that wasn’t enough to out me the way he did.” Dad drank from his glass and sighed. “I was well aware of Skull Island. I knew your grandfather would try to imprison me where The Devil’s Knights torture their enemies.”
I lifted an eyebrow at Cole, who remained expressionless. Of course, he couldn’t tell me every detail about The Knights because of his oath. But having my father explain more about their world didn’t break any rules. He seemed to know everything about the secret societies.
“So I made friends. Thought ahead.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked at me. “I knew your grandfather would find a way to send me to Skull Island. And I saw this as an opportunity to learn more about The Devil’s Knights. Your mother was well aware of everything I did. I never saw the need to hide from her. She was my partner in every way.”
I smiled at his sweet words. Because the man I could see in my mind was protective and fierce, a man who loved his wife and child.
“When the extraction team invaded our home, I planned to go willingly. I never meant for your mother to get hurt. There was no reason for trained men to shoot at me and hit your mother.” He downed the contents of his glass and set it on the coffee table. “Your grandfather planned to kill your mother. He’d already murdered his eldest daughter. And with both of them out of the way, he thought he could get rid of me. But I knew too much about him and was already ten steps ahead.”
“How did you stay alive all this time? Why didn’t he kill you?”
“Because I had help from friends. If anything were to happen to me, they would release the information about Fitzgerald to the world. He knew I would make good on my threat. The information I obtained kept both of us alive. It’s also the reason you will inherit his fortune.”
Home movies flicked on the screen as he told me more about his life with my mother. Starting with my first birthday party, all the way to the last month we spent together.
In the movies, I could see how much he loved my mom and cherished the ground she walked on. We were his entire world, ripped out from under him.
“You must be tired,” he said after we talked some more, and I couldn’t stop yawning. “I’ve prepared a room for you.”
I followed my dad and Vera upstairs, latching onto Cole’s arm. My dad pushed open the last door on the left. “I had the designer decorate this bedroom for you, hoping you would one day return to me.”
I stepped forward, standing on my tippy toes to hug him. “Thank you, Papa.”
He hugged me back, pressing a kiss on my cheek. “Thirteen years,” he whispered. “Not a single day went by that I didn’t miss you, Katarina. Goodnight. I’ll see you in the morning.”
After he left with Vera for their bedroom, I closed the door and sat on the bed beside Cole. My mind raced with dozens of questions, one of which I had been wondering all night.
“Why do The Devil’s Knights call it Skull Island?”
Cole slipped his fingers between mine and glanced over at me. “Because no one ever leaves the island alive.”
“Have you been there?”
He bobbed his head to confirm. “I had to do horrible things to become a Knight on that island. They wouldn’t let us pass the initiation without enduring a final challenge permanently imprinted in my mind.”
“Like what?”
