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“No, Daddy. No!”
The memory was bittersweet, the images rushing into the back of my mind ones I’d refused to acknowledge after finding a new family.
As the man who’d sired me walked through the door, four men flanking his side, I took aim between his eyes.
Jack Cormier looked the same except for the ugly scars covering one side of his face, his hair gray where it used to be thick and black like mine. It was obvious he’d been in a fire, the mottledskin and the difficulty he had blinking with one eye indicating he’d endured horrific pain.
Only I didn’t give a damn. After what he’d put me and Mother through, I hoped he suffered for weeks, months. And I wished that I could continue his agony. Maybe I’d introduce him to the Boogeyman, something he’d helped create with his violence and brutality. The ugly memories threatened to derail me, but I refused to allow it to happen.
That’s exactly what the man wanted.
Arman and Thomas were right beside me, Devin finally rising to his feet as well.
I’d never experienced the moment where all time stopped, where the air was sucked out of a room. While smoke continued to sweep into the room, the eerie quiet was a perfect backdrop for the moment.
Jack glanced from one man to the other before smiling as he locked his gaze on me. He threw out his arms as if making a gesture of endearment. “What’s wrong, son? Aren’t you happy to see your old man?”
“I’m going to ask again. What the fuck is going on?” Arman asked, taking a single step closer. That forced the men my father had hired to lift their assault weapons. They were dressed in black exactly as the ones I’d seen both at Arman’s house and in St. Barts. My father had exacted revenge. Why? Why did he want to destroy what I’d found?
“The bastard is trying to destroy me just like he did to my mother,” I answered.
“Please, son. You are my flesh and blood. You want to know why, Arman? All you need to do is ask your father for the real answer.” Jack wore a smile, the same one he did every time he beat my mother and me all those years ago.
When he took a step closer, I did everything I could to relax, even allowing the same calculated smile to cross my face as my father had.
“Did you like how I forged the signatures? All I had to do was steal the nondisclosure your father signed, Arman. Oh, did you know your father was in talks with Mr. Carlos here?” Jack laughed again and it was all I could do not to fire my weapon. “How about when I tipped off that sexy reporter that something juicy was going to happen at the party?”
“You broke into my house and stole the nondisclosure paperwork? What the hell is going on here?” Devin demanded.
“It would seem all of us in this room are at an impasse, Mr. Carlos. Incidentally, I’m sorry about your estate and the loss of your men but it’s just business.” Jack laughed once again, taunting all of us.
“Your father was released from prison a few months ago,” Thomas said with almost no emotion. I knew there was a significant story behind his words. “Jean Baptiste had me search to try and find out his whereabouts, but he disappeared.”
Jack grinned. “Yeah, I learned that was a necessity. I wanted to surprise you, son.”
Surprise? I wanted to kill him. There was little keeping me from it except the fact there were five against four. I couldn’t risk Arman’s life or Thomas’ either. Even if the fact Thomas had kept this knowledge from me was the worst betrayal bysomeone close I’d experienced in the entire time I’d been with the Thibodeaux family.
“Fine, Jack. Why target my real family?” I asked, as if I really gave a shit. All I wanted was to end the fucker’s life as I should have done as a child. Before my mother had basically taken her own life. Before I was forced onto the street.
“Your real family? You had a real family. You don’t really know. Do you?” Jack asked, shifting his angry gaze to Arman.
“I don’t care,” I answered.
“Let me enlighten you, my son,” he said in a dark voice. “I was Jean Baptiste’s right-hand man before he tossed me aside like trash. Didn’t you know that?”
The news hit me hard. I quickly threw a glance in Arman’s direction. He had no clue either. Was it even possible what the sperm donor was saying was true? If Thomas’ face was any indication, for once my father wasn’t lying. What in God’s name had been kept secret from me for almost thirty years?
“So the fuck what?” I taunted.
“So, the treacherous bastard betrayed me, especially when he accepted my own son as his. He had me tossed in prison. He was the reason for my face being set on fire.” Jack rubbed the disfigured side of his face, half laughing, the sound even more maniacal than before.
I sensed Devin shifting to the side, trying to get a better vantage point. “You forged the contract. Didn’t you?” I barked, half laughing myself. The man had taken a ruse to an entirely different level. I had to give him some credit. I hadn’t given a shit what prison he’d been shoved into, never going to visit, nevermaking a single phone call. He’d used the time against me as he’d done everything else.
Whether or not he’d worked for Jean Baptiste would be determined. Not that it really mattered at this point.
“It was all in fun.”
My birth father was a fucked-up human being. If you could call him that.
