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“You’re right about that,” Isaac angrily spat from his barstool, as he, too, pressed a large ice pack to the back of his neck, wincing as he strained to turn his head so he could lock eyes with her. “You were better off staying a ghost. As for the rest of it… No. What happened here isn’t your fault. Our fight isn’t with you.”
“Is-is it with Finn?” she asked, her wet blues blinking wide between the two of us.
She turned to me when Isaac didn’t respond. “With us,” I said, referring to me and Isaac. “No. We weren’t close to Cindy like Phantom was.Ourissues at the moment reside solely with our father.”
“So with that being said,” Isaac added. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“Ri-right,” Ginger muttered with a shaky nod. She got to her feet, offering us sad frowns. “I-I understand.”
“Ginger.” I reached out and pressed my hand to her shoulder, stopping her as she made to turn and walk away. “Don’t blame yourself. There was nothing you could’ve done.”
“Ye-yeah,” she whispered under her breath. “Whatever you say.”
She took her leave at the same time Father walked back into the room; his face clean from blood albeit his white button down was drenched in it. Thankfully his eyes weren’t swollen shut, but he’d suffered enough fatal hits to leave him black and blue for several days.
“What do you have to say for yourself now, old man?” Isaac fired off first, just before I could start to pick at these long overdue bones. As usual, Father walked over to the bar. Instead of snatching up a glass, he grabbed a whole bottle of bourbon and plopped down on a bar stool.
He took a nice swig or two before he finally gave us his undivided attention. “I’m not proud of what’s transpired, boys. You know what would’ve happened if—”
“She was his best friend, Dad,” I said with a sneer. “Youknewthat. How-how could you be so careless?”
“Careless?” he repeated with heated disdain, the end of the bottle meeting the counter in an angrythud,his jaw thrumming.
“Yes,” I said with a stern nod, which made an honest mixture of shock and ire flicker across his swollen face.
“You fucking played us,” Isaac said darkly. “You left us in the dark. Then Ginger shows up and what do you do? You devised a distraction, had us armed up to our necks raving around campus grounds preparing for a battle that was never coming, all because you didn’t want us to stumble upon the dirty little secret you’ve been keeping stowed away under our roof!”
“You have no fucking idea the amount of stress I’ve been under,” Father said with a sinister growl, his chest heaving. “The number of asses I had to kiss in order to stop Damienandour crew from skinning you boys alive after the shit storm you stirred up. Cindy’s capture put all of us Ravagers, Finn, and Jace in a deadly, uncompromising position and—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” snapped Isaac. “Have you gone mad, old man? Look who the fuck is in our house. We’re still in a deadly and uncompromising position thanks to you!”
Isaac was right. As tragic as Cindy’s death is, it didn’t solve shit with Father offering Ginger salvation in our personal residence. Even if he’d done it out of the goodness of his heart and his love for Griffin, other arrangements should’ve been made. The Bling Brothers were still hunting her, and it was a damning fact I knew he was aware of.
“Your brother is out there somewhere holding Samara hostage, andthisis where your true concerns lie?” Father gaped outrageously between us. “And you have the nerve to call me careless?”
“Phantom and Samara are fine,” I said thickly. “He won’t hurt her.”
Father scoffed and glared at me like I was out of my goddamn mind.
“And that’s another thing,” I said again since he was the first to bring it up. “You’ve been acting really fucking shady since Samara came in the picture.”
“And since you’ve admitted to knowing her father,” Isaac said, hopping off his barstool and stepping forward, “then that means you knew exactly who she was the moment you saw her name on the list. Funny thing is… you decided not to mention that to us. Why is that, Father?”
Isaac and I cocked our heads to the side as we awaited his answer. Father breathed in deeply and closed his eyes before he turned to face the bar and tipped the bottle back to his lips.
“Yes, I knew Samara’s father,” he said after a moment. “He and I are one in the same, or at least we used to be.”
“So, you were close,” Isaac insinuated.
Father nodded. “More than you know, Son. More than you know.”
“So, what happened to him?” I asked.
He chugged another mouthful of booze then turned in his seat, a sad look on his face. “He’s dead. He died thirteen years ago in an explosion that killed not only him, but his father, Niccolò Riccardo Antolini Sr. Nicholas Campbell was just an alias. His real name is Niccolò Riccardo Antolini Jr.”
“You say their names like they should be feared.”
He nodded again, his frown unwavering. “Samara’s grandfather was the big man everyone was afraid of.Allof the Valley belonged to him. There wasn’t a place he’d go where people weren’t fleeing or bowing their final moments down at his feet. It shames me to say that he once led our crew, too.”
