“Impossible. The last thing Theo wanted was for his kid to follow in his footsteps. He did everything he could to keep her interest at bay.”
“Impressionists are good at making you see only what you wish, too.”
The wheels controlling reason turned furiously. My mind raced to find another explanation. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t always have to make sense to be the truth. Your father was powerful, but he was also feared. That book—your family’s legacy— was the key to Chicago. He owned it, possessed it, and controlled it. Whoever controls it, takes the city… and any city of their choosing.”
“She’s not some aspiring crime lord.”
“But what she needs is money, I imagine. She’s a young, single mother in a dangerous city. With her father’s guidance, she could sell it to the right buyer. I didn’t hear anything after that.
She’s a young, single mother…
Single mother…
Mother…
Mian had a kid?
Rage, pain, and jealousy—each fighting for dominance.
She had a fucking kid.
Even when jealousy still questioned how it could even be possible, my conscience had already accepted the fault.
I. Let. Her. Go.
When her father murdered mine, I made myself forget her. I beat my heart black and blue until I was convinced she had never been.
I’d known she’d always choose him over me, so I made her pay for her father’s betrayal by forgetting.
“How old is the kid?” I choked. It was clear he had been keeping tabs.
“Not even a year old. The kid’s date of birth escapes me.” He fluttered his fingers as if it was of little importance. Perhaps to a man who’d never fantasized about the day he’d own her mind, body, and soul, it was a blip.
But to a man who possessed those thoughts every single day for six fucking years…
I was nothing other than tormented.
Was she married?
Were they a happy fucking family?
No.
She was too young.
Damn it. She was mine.
“Use the boy.”
I blinked to clear the fog telling me to murder. “Come again?”
“Her son. Use him.”
I felt like I was being strangled. If it showed, he didn’t let on. He continued to talk and eat those damn grapes.
“You saying I should hurt her kid?” I’d much rather hurt the prick who fathered him.
“You don’t have to.”
If you can’t.
It was the real meaning he’d left unsaid.
Son of a bitch.
“Maybe I just need to make her think I will.”
Chapter Eight
Pretty girls shouldn’t starve.
MIAN
“So he just let you go?”
Anna showed up to see if I needed her to babysit about ten minutes after I rolled out of bed. If I hadn’t been so afraid of who might have been standing on the other side of the door, I would have cried at her thoughtfulness. Last night hadn’t gone as planned.
Scratch that.
Last night, I’d made the second biggest mistake of my life.
“He let me go,” I confirmed. When Anna noticed how spooked I was when I opened the door, the confession of my first and last job poured out of me.
She didn’t sound as if she believed I had gained my freedom so easily. She wasn’t the only one who found it strange. I was just glad I didn’t have to add paranoid to my list of faults. It would have gone right under moronic.
“What do you think he meant by seeing you soon ? I mean it’s so spooky. Do you think he’ll come after you?”
“I don’t know.” He’s stayed away all this time. A part of me was hoping last night wouldn’t change that. The other part—the moronic one—was curious. It’s been three years since I’ve seen him. What kind of man was he now?
His errand boy insisted on seeing me home safely. So, not only did Angel have reason to come after me, he now had access to me. During the ride back to the city, I just knew he was taking me somewhere private to dump my body after silencing me forever. But then he asked for my address and actually drove me home.
“But what if he does ?” Anna whispered as if Angel could hear her. “Maybe you should call the cops. He basically threatened you, right?”
“He’s not going to kill me. He’s probably just blowing smoke.” No matter what our fathers did to each other, we were the innocent bystanders. Surely, he knew that?
Maybe he did before you broke into his house and stole from him.
My worry shifted to the expensive watch burning a hole in my hoodie. There was no way Z missed the watch when he searched me. He had to know I lifted it yet he let me get away with it.
“But didn’t you say your father killed his? What if he wants revenge?”
“He would have come looking for it long before I broke into his father’s home.” After his father was dead and mine was imprisoned for it, he’d forgotten all about the stupid kid with a crush.
“Just be careful. You’re the only friend I’ve got,” she pouted.
“I promise. I don’t plan on ever seeing Angel Knight again, and there’s nothing he can do to change that.”