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Find them…panic boomed inside my head.
Who else would they find? The answer sent a pang of desperation coursing through me as the lecturer stepped up to the podium, looked straight at me, and spoke. “Okay, let’s find out who here knows anything about laundering.”
21
Finley
I waited all fucking day. It was just like him not to show up…even as the rest of the Commission had descended in a flurry of howling winds and Sikorskys earlier in the day. But that wasn’t good enough for Dominic Salvatore. It wasn’tenough just to carry a name which made others look over their shoulders. No, he had to drive his status home by making the other heads of the families wait.
He was an outlier…in the worst possible way.
What a fucking legacy waiting for me.
I stood on the rise of the headland, in the exact same position I'd stood mere nights ago when Dillon Shaw had roared and demanded his daughter leave this place…and also on the night she'd come.
Anna Shaw.
The one person who was here to ruin me. The one person who made me question everything I knew. My chest tightened as I lifted my gaze to the darkening clouds, and the only person who made sense.
When I was with her, I sank into a bubble of calmness, swallowed by those perfect eyes and her quiet presence, the one quiet space in this screaming world of rage.
It was that screaming that grew louder as a black speck grew larger on the horizon. All fucking day I'd waited, pacing the floor in my apartment, the walls closing in until I'd gotten the text message not five minutes ago.
Father: Be waiting when I get there.
So here I was…waiting, just as he wanted.
Always as he wanted.
I didn’t need to turn my head to feel them beside me, Pavlov on one side and Max on the other. Both men looked like shit, sunken eyes and twitchy fingers making them dangerous as hell. None of us had had any sleep, not knowing what was out there.
I drank after ending my call with Anna. Drank and thought about the shitstorm that was about to be unleashed on this island. A storm that was bearing down right now as the speck in the distance grew larger and larger.
Within minutes, the helicopter was making its descent, all shiny and black against the twilight sky. I never shifted my gaze, never lowered my head, even as the rotor blades whipped gusts of wind toward me. That clenched fist inside me trembled with the force as the machine landed and the doors opened.
The three of us waited as my father heaved himself down from the chopper and straightened his jacket before ducking his head and making his way toward us.
But he didn't stop to greet us, just kept walking straight past, making me turn and hurry after him. And all of a sudden, I was fucking five once more, running after the man with the massive strides, the one who never gave me a second glance—for my entire goddamn life.
“Where are we with the issue?” he enquired, glancing around on his way to Building One.
I lengthened my stride, and kept my voice low. “There’s been nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Apart from her father coming to the island to demand his daughter's return, you mean?”
I hid the flare of panic. “I had him followed.”
“And lost him…” Disappointment was etched in his tone.
But then again, when wasn’t it when it came to me?
Building One came into view and in a second, I was back there, carrying in a bottle of Macallan, ready to see Baldeon once more.
“Make sure you’re waiting for me when I’m done…and Finley…” He turned his head then, those dark eyes seizing mine. “I’m disappointed I didn’t hear it from you.”
He pushed through the open door and into the foyer. I followed, knowing this was the way it always was with him. Only son or not…I wasnevermore important than the man himself.
He stepped up to a closed door halfway along the darkened hallway, pushed the handle, and stepped through. I caught a glimpse of the others, their guarded gazes shifting to my father before they noticed me…until my father met my gaze, and closed the door in my face.
