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Once in the computer, my fingers trembled as I clicked through the files. They were nested in a confusing fashion, and a quick search didn’t reveal anything on Gustave Beaumont. Maybe there was nothing?
I blew out a long breath. Did I really want to know that my father was a villain? I squeezed my eyes closed. What would I do with that information? Could I really serve someone whose currency was the flesh of others?No!
I wet my lips and again heard Jason’s words ringing in my ears. He’d called me another one of my father’s whores.That’s not me.
My left hand curled into a fist as I moved the curser back to the search bar. No, I’d come here as a soldier for my family, and there was honor in slaying our enemy. But as I pecked five letters on the keyboard, I knew in my heart that Drakos wasn’t the monster I was led to believe. I hit the last letter:
Devil
No sooner was the word in the search bar than files began flickering to the surface. None were locked. As I flipped through them, my blood chilled, and a clammy sweat broke over my body. The evidence was overwhelming. My father was a living horror. It started with Drakos’s father and uncle. They shipped and smuggled for one of Gustave’s rivals. That led to violence, and as the bloodshed escalated, it was unclear which side was more atrocious. Then, in more recent history, Constantine and his cousin, Adrian, stepped to the helm of their company and continued to fight with my father.
There was so much information, meticulously gathered; enough to make a strong criminal case against Gustave. But that wasn’t the way the underworld operated. No, the truth was, this was Drakos’s testimony to promote the justice of his feud.
Nausea roiling through my gut, I sat back in the chair and looked over the collage of photographs depicting a number of battered people who had died in one of my father’s shipping containers. This was my legacy. By fighting for my father, I was condoning this. It was utterly disgusting.
“This needs to stop,” I growled under my breath as I clicked out of the screen.
But how did I stop the devil?
I shut the device down and pulled the USB key out. Claude would only follow in my father’s footsteps, although he would no doubt fuck up the sordid empire. Waiting for it to crumble from the inside would take too long, though. There were already too many victims as a result of my father’s nefarious gains that I couldn’t sit back and wait for more.
I blinked hard at the opposite wall. The shadows from my phone light distorted the room, but it was the tears in my eyes that warped everything. Gustave Beaumont wanted one thing from me—Drakos’s head on a platter. It wasn’t like my husband was innocent either. He’d shed his fair share of blood. The only difference was that he abhorred sex trafficking. In that, we had a commonality. I could make a true alliance with him and use him to end my father’s atrocities.
“My father will never listen to me, but my husband might,” I whispered, swiping at my eyes.
“Speak, princess. I’m listening.”
Chapter 35 – Constantine
Talia’s shriek wasshrill enough to wake the dead.
Wearing nothing but sweatpants, I’d stood at my bedroom door, watching her break into the laptop. I could see from my position what she was looking at, and my chest soared with hope that she’d find the truth. It’d been clear for some time now that Talia wasn’t an active player in this war with her father, but rather the pawn I’d begun to hope she’d be. I wanted Beaumont’s hellish kingdom to fall, and tonight, it looked like a lethal blow had finally been struck. Marrying Talia was indeed the way to topple my enemy...but not in the way I’d originally thought.
“What am I listening to, Talia?” I insisted, remaining frozen just inside my bedroom.
Instead of answering, my wife dropped her face into her hands. Her soft sobs filled the room. Instinct made me want to go to her, but my iron will kept my feet firmly rooted to the floor.
