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“They had him on record for murder. And so...they came for him.
“When the police raided in the middle of the night, Cem tried to get me out. For all his shortcomings as a father and all his monstrosity as a person, he did love me. Or at least, he thought he did. Maybe he didn’t know the meaning of love, but...he made the biggest mistake of his life thinking I could ever love him back. He gave me a gun. A gun to use against our enemy.”
I swallowed hard. “I shot him. Point blank. Just before I was swarmed by police and arrested.”
Neri stiffened beneath my hands, but she didn’t say a word.
I kept speaking and stroking her wonderful curves. “For four weeks, I rotted in a solitary cell. They took my leg, my cane, my hope. No one told me what was going on, and no one came to help. By the time I was pulled out of prison and dragged to meet the chief of the international operation, I was half delirious.
“I just wanted to leave. I just wanted you. And if that meant dying so I could wait for you on the other side, then so be it. I wanted everything to be over so I didn’t have to keep missing you every fucking moment of every damn day. But then...things got strange.”
“Strange?” she whispered, turning around and shivering as I ran my soapy hands over her full breasts.
I didn’t look up, hypnotised by her body as I said, “The men who arrested me that night told their chief I’d been the one to pull the trigger and kill Cem Kara. They knew who I was. They knew I was his biological son, and also knew—through one of their many snitches—that only a week before, Cem had pledged me into the family business and made each of his generals swear me their allegiance. With him dead, I was the next ruler. I had all his power and commanded his men’s loyalties. With one bullet, I became their greatest asset because I’d killed my own father. I’d betrayed him for the same reasons they were trying to shut him down. And that...well, that made me valuable.”
“Oh my god,” Neri gasped.
“I expected them to throw me in chains or kill me, but...they offered me a deal.” Guiding her beneath the raining showerhead, I rinsed her hair before saying quietly, “The chief locked the door, unhooked his phone, and pulled out a top-secret file. I was in that room with him for six hours, and when I walked out...I was a free man.”
“I-I don’t understand.”
“Only he, one other agent in the AFP, and I know. I was sworn to secrecy, but I could never keep a lie from you, so...I’m telling you this on the proviso that no one else can find out. No one. Do you hear me? Not a damn soul. We come up with a story for everyone else.”
I waited for her to catch my eyes and nod. The intensity of her blue gaze fisted my heart.
I sighed as I accepted her promise, then murmured, “His terms were simple: inherit everything. Every penny. Every wrong and terribly bad thing. They promised not to confiscate Cem’s wealth, if I legally accepted the name Aslan Kara, assumed my rightful place thanks to my birth right and succession, and become the next ruler of my father’s empire.”
My lips curled back. “Not to become him, but to prevent another from rising up to replace him. They wanted access to the largest crime family in Turkey. They wanted to quash uprising gangs and learn where every girl Cem had sold had ended up and with whom. They wanted to know who supplied his drugs and who bought the most. They wanted to know how trades were made, secrets were kept, laws were amended, and how many politicians—not just in Turkey, but worldwide—were on his payroll.
“When I marched back into my father’s mansion on a newly fashioned leg and a world of secrets inside me, I honestly feared I’d be shot by the very same guards that’d hurt me in the past. I stalked past men who’d helped Cem torture me. I outright ignored a guard that’d knocked me out for trying to escape and did my best not to punch the one who’d pushed me to my knees each time Cem wasn’t watching all because he could.
“I summoned Cem’s generals—my generals—to a meeting in the smoking room. The same room where I’d sworn a blood bond to my father, and he’d named me his heir. They came but not willingly. They sulked and scowled, expecting me to rip apart my father’s empire, so you can imagine their surprise when I told them that the only part of his business that I was shutting down was the Fairy House. All the girls were handed over to the people I now work for to be debriefed and sent home so they didn’t compromise my position as their double agent.
