Fuck.
We had to get out of here. A thought that Dean apparently didn’t share. He calmly walked over to the corner of his cell and sat down.
“You boys might want to do the same. That fall can really hurt your noggin.”
He could do what he wanted, but I wasn’t giving up. Neither was Sean. He’d already run up the stairs and was trying to bash the door open. Since he had that covered, I moved around down here, looking for another way out.
The cloud filled the room, making every step I took feel heavier as a haze floated through my mind. Coughing on the chemical taste filling my lungs, I stumbled over to a table in the corner where some tools were laid out. If I couldn’t get out, then at least I could be armed. I didn’t know where my hand rake went.
The last thing I saw was Sean’s limp body tumbling down the stairs.
Lanaand I spent over an hour crying into each other’s arms. She thought I hated her, but that could never happen. I hated myself. All this time I thought I was protecting people from Daddy. I did everything he asked, and never said a thing about what was really going on. And that was okay, because the people I loved were safe.
But they weren’t.
He hurt Lana. Not only that, but he broke a part of her soul. He took something she could never get back, and she’d lived with it in silence because she didn’t want to hurt me. Lana cared about me so much that she kept his secret so I wouldn’t lose my only parent. How did I repay that kind of love? I couldn’t. But I could make sure that Daddy didn’t hurt anyone else.
Even if that meant helping Mason.
I didn’t want my father to die. There was still a piece of the man I loved inside there. The darkness that ruled him though…
The weight of a man was measured by his actions and Daddy’s scales were tipped so far in one direction that it didn’t matter how much good he was capable of. So if he had to go, I could live with that. But death wasn’t the only option. If he was locked up then he couldn’t hurt anyone else, and maybe he’d take the time to think about the kind of man he wanted to be.
Daddy may have given up on his soul, but I still believed in him. I just had to convince Mason to do the same. Which would be a lot easier if I could find him. I’d been looking all over, searching every room I came in, and found no sign of him.
The only places I didn’t go were the east wing – that was Micha’s – and any place I thought might be Mr. Kessler’s space. While I was somewhat comfortable with Mason, his family was another story. A stronger person might’ve risked going in their spaces, but that person wasn’t me.
Sighing, I headed across the entryway for the only room I hadn’t been in. If I didn’t find Mason in the kitchen then I might have to swallow my nerves and infringe on territory I didn’t want to. My heart stopped when I walked through the archway.
Micha was standing behind the island.
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
My brain screamed at me to ask him, but my throat couldn’t choke the words out. I just stood there opening and closing my mouth while my heart thundered in my chest. I could feel his dark eyes boring into me, yet I couldn’t move. All I could hear was his voice saying,‘I’ll remove the problem.’
Maybe I should leave?
Micha’s eyes narrowed as he dropped a water bottle on the counter.
It took everything in me to gulp back my yip and stay where I was. His annoyance was heavy in the air. I wanted to speak. I told myself over and over to say something. But the only word that came out was, “Mason.”
His brow rose. “What about him?”
“Um… He’s… Not…”
“Speak up.” His voice thundered through my ears, making me jump back.
Once again I choked on my words. “He’s not… I can’t… where…”
“Where what?” Micha asked. “Where’s Riley? Where’s Mason? Where’s your cold heart, or the truth that will set my brother free?”
Ouch, that hurt.
“Mason,” I whispered.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” he rolled his eyes, “but he went somewhere with your brother.”
