Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
I take the stairs two at a time, doing quick work to see where he might be hiding.
Each floor is worse than the next. Open floor plans of mass chaos are what greet me. Something tells me this fucker is all the way on the top. I motion to Cristian to check the other direction while I continue up to the top floor.
There is nowhere else he can be.
When I make it up to the last floor, I see the shadow of a man in the distance. I don’t have a clear shot, so I step closer, getting the angle I need to take him out.
“It’s over, old man,” I say. I lift my gun and am about to fire when the man speaks.
“It’s just like I’ve always said, Alaric … Only the dead have seen the end of war.” He turns to face me, the scar I gave him so many years ago marring his face. A face I thought I would never see again.
I stumble forward. “Damian.”
“Very good, dear brother. Did you miss me?”
“I don’t—”
“Understand?” he asks before I can finish speaking, and then I realize my mistake. In my shock, I never noticed the gun now trained on me. He has the advantage. “Yes, I figured it would raise some questions.”
“You’re alive.”
“Look at you. So smart. Maybe Dad was right to leave everything to you.” He snickers.
“Is that what this is about? The business?”
“It was never about the business.” His voice cuts through the air like a dull knife cutting through meat.
My brother is alive …
“It was you?”
“Ding. Ding. Ding. You are finally getting it.” A sardonic smile on his face. “‘How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure,’” he says, quoting The Count Of Monte Cristo.
“You are no Edmond,” I fire back, but in his sick, twisted mind, he thinks he is. He thinks this is his revenge. For what? And then it hits me. For her.
This is all for Grace.
I lift my hand to him. “It’s not what you think. You never had the full story.”
“I don’t want to hear your lies. I have plotted this moment for years, since her father showed me the note. He helped me, you know. Helped me orchestrate all this.”
“Ask him. He knows the truth.”
“It’s too late for that.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, knowing the best way to disarm someone is to keep them distracted.
Keep him talking.
“I had no use for Moreno anymore. It wasn’t supposed to take so long, and he was growing on my nerves, so I killed him. But he was the perfect scapegoat, the old fool. This should have been over years ago, maybe he would have lived if the original plan had worked.”
“And what plan was that?”
“I was going to start a war between you and Lawrence, and then while you fought, I would take everything. I wanted you to see what it was like to lose everything you cared about, and since I was all you had, I started with my death. Then I would take my business back. The only snag was Michael went into hiding …” He looks downright insane now. His smile makes the scar across his face look mangled. “But now I have a better plan. I’m going to take Michael’s daughter. I’m going to take the woman you love.”
Without even thinking, I start to run toward him. I catch him unaware because his eyes go wide as I attack. His gun drops to the floor. I go to raise my own, but he’s too fast, and mine falls as well.
Each of us struggles to get control.
Fists fly.
Blood sprays.
I don’t want to kill him. I just want him to understand.
“It’s not what you think.” He punches me again. “Just listen to me, Damian. Grace committed suicide.”
“Yes, because you hurt her,” he spits.
“But not the way you think.”
“You broke her.”
“No!” I shout. “I never touched her. Her father broke her. My father broke her. You broke her.”
He shakes his head at my words, and I use the opportunity to tighten my grip and fling him down.
“She didn’t want to marry you. She killed herself because—”
“The letter,” he fires back, rabid. Out of control. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not. The marriage was a noose around her neck. She came to me. She didn’t love you. She knew she would be forced to marry someone in our family, so she proposed that she marry me instead. She thought she lov—”
“Enough!” he screams, scrambling around to get to me. “You’ll say anything.”
We circle each other. No weapons, just our hands.
“Think about it. Why would I lie now?”
“Because of your precious little dove. Don’t worry, Alaric, I won’t leave her in a cage for long, just long enough to clip her wings.”
That’s all it takes. I’m throwing my body onto his. We twist and turn, the edge of the construction site getting closer and closer.