I bite down hard on my bottom lip. Enough to draw blood.
Dad’s been pulling the strings for longer than I ever imagined.
“I wanted to make her the next big artist. I knew she had it in her. She’s beautiful, talented, and so very broken. But Dutch…” Dad’s jaw hardens. “Dutch bludgeoned my plans by falling in love with her. Women.” He shakes his head. “They’re the downfall of us Cross men.”
I take in a slow, even breath, trying to ignore the metallic scent of blood hanging in the air. The magnitude of Dad’s manipulation expands fully in my mind.
He’s had his eye on Cadence foryears.
I don’t have anything else to throw up, but I bend over and cough up spit and bile. Weakly, I wipe the drool slipping down my chin.
“Y-you really think I’ll keep this to myself? I could be recording all this right now. I could have you arrested.”
“Do you really think you can do that, Finn?”
My nostrils flare. I remember my beating that day in Kurosaki’s meeting room. The yakuza won’t let me or my brothers live if this ever gets out.
Jarod waves a hand at me. “Your father is concerned that I raised you to be too soft. He’s right. To protect you, I let you grow up with the chickens knowing you were an eagle. My sons, of course, are the chickens.”
It’s embarrassing how clear everything becomes in that moment.
Jarod Cross has never treated me like his son, but I foolishly spent my entire life trying to please him as a father.
He pulls at the expensive three-piece suit like it itches. “I have to cover up. I have to hide. I have to be so careful of the image the world sees.This”—He gestures to the dark, putrid room and the blood on the floor—“is all yours. Don’t you understand? You don’t have to wear a mask. You don’t have to pretend to be civilized, to follow laws and morals. You’re above it all, Finn.”
I shuffle back. “I won’t ever becomethis.”
“You don’t have a choice. Do you think the Grave City Crew is the worst of your problems? Kurosaki is about to take over this city. Everything is about to change.”
I can’t take another second down here, listening to his evil villain monologue.
Abruptly, I whirl around. “I’m leaving.”
“I’m not done.”
I stride away.
And then I hear a gunshot.
The room is so small that the sound ricochets, threatening to burst my ear drums. Stopping, I duck and cover my head.
Silence rings out.
I tremble at the realization that I could have died. Just like that. In the blink of an eye.
Jarod Cross walks over, the gun hanging at his side. He gently takes my elbow and helps me to my feet. “Forgive me. Your father and I are trying to teach you the same lesson, but he has more patience than I do.”
I barely hear him.
My heart is beating from outside of my chest.
My body doesn’t feel like my own.
In a soft, parenting tone, Jarod says, “You’re a smart kid, Finn. You know that you’ll have to wield this gun someday. You’re not naive enough to think that you could join your father and keep your hands clean.”
I’m shaking all over, my feet glued to the floor.
“If you know, then skip the moral dilemma. The longer you hesitate, the more dangerous it gets for you and everyone around you.”
