“Why don’tyouleave?” I argue. “This isn’t your stupid-ass meeting. And apparently, you weren’t invited here.”
“My daughter doesn’t want you dead,” Emilio implies simply through the space. “She’s made her decision very clear to me.”
“And you appeased her to shut her up,” Torin claims, flicking his attention back to his stepfather. “But let’s not get it fucked up that it won’t still happen. You’ll make it look like an accident. I’ll get some allergic reaction to something I’m not allergic to. Something will happen to make you appear as if you had no part of it, so she can’t claim you murdered me.”
“Don’t be?—”
“Stupid?” Torin cocks his head to the side before gently shoving me to the side so he has a clear shot at Emilio. “I’ve been your makeshift son for too many years,Dad. I know your plays. I’vedonesome of them. I learned from a cold-hearted killer, and I stood off in your dark shadow while you played.”
“Get the hell out of my office,” Emilio grinds out, causing me to turn back around and see a vein in his temple bulging from his head. “You’ve wasted enough of my time.”
“Last chance,” Torin warns stoically.
Emilio flies up from his seat, almost knocking the leather chair over in his wake. “Orwhat, you little shit? All you have is because ofme. You’re not even supposed to fuckingbehere. I married your bitch of a mother and took you, Lennox, and Ramsey in because I waslacking. And you became a fucking disappointment, while Ramsey became a fucked-up version of a killer, and Lennox thought he was better than everyone else. Three letdowns. At least, she”—he points to me—“doesn’t have a problem going up against me.”
“For how long?” Torin goads. “Until you’ve reached your limit? It’s not high; we both know that. Not even her mother wanted shit-all to do with you. Then you offed her.”
My stomach instantly knots, and my palm goes to the spot to control it. I’ve been dealing with and speaking to my mother’s killer without so much as a thought to her, most of the time.
I didn’t know her.
She’s an anomaly that obviously existed but Dad never spoke of her much. It was always Paisley who was around making my life a living hell. I replaced my birth mother with a woman who couldn’t stand me.
“The Forsaken Crew is pulling away from you,” Torin proceeds. “And you know that. It’s why you built The Void. You’re outnumbered; as much as the idea kills you inside, you don’t let it show. Everyone is tiptoeing around this bullshit reunion between the two of you, but we all know it’s not going to work. She’s South Shore, and she hates you, period. There is no middle ground to make up. There will never be a time or place where she’ll go to care for you. It’s been over before you shoved yourself into her life and threatened her to play nice.”
“You sound as though you’re becoming jealous, boy. The Void was a precaution, yes,” Emilio agrees, before he begins to round his desk. “Because Ramsey can’t lead, and you’re too half a man to do shit. Fully deaf in one ear which makes you a liability.”
“It makes me flawed. A man who knows he’s not immortal.”
“You live like that and you’re going to see how immortal you are. I’ve let you live long enough. You can thank me later.”
The hell?
“The only thing I’m going to give you props for, old man, is the woman at my side. Who isnothinglike you. I can only assume Amelia gave her balls and half a mind to stay the fuck away from you. Maybe she’s reincarnated into her daughter after all.”
Why is he saying this?
It’s the longest mention of my mom. But he’s right. Maybe I always had something in my head that kept Emilio at arm’s length, next to all the facts that have been told about him. How I’ve been able to carry this long around Emilio is a mystery, but I knew his wrath would bring more havoc into our lives so I stayed.
“Amelia is just like Haven,” Emilio confirms with each step he takes toward us. Every nerve ending in my body demands we get out of this room. That Emilio is about to fucking snap at any moment in time. “However, there’s one thing in this world she would never allow to happen. It’s why she pacifies my existence in her world.”
“My sisters…” I mutter without much thought. It’s why I’m here now.
“Your sisters, Wallace, andthem,” he grinds out, but he doesn’t bother looking my way to express his disgust. Kona and Koda release warning growls, but it doesn’t stop my sperm donor from erasing the distance between us. “Placing you on a seat protects everythinghe’sset out to build. Torin has always hated me. Especially after Lennox’s death. Why the fuck I would waste my time finding his murderer when he left me isbeyond?—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Torin carps out, stepping away from me and toward Emilio’s pending frame. “Judah saw right through your bullshit. Your fuckinglies.He knew you didn’t give a shit about us?—”
“Because you were all fuckups,” Emilio censures. “All of you. Notoneof you was worth a damn. Lennox is dead. You thought I wasn’t going to double-check and double down? That I wasn’t going to check to make sure thatworthlesspiece of shit wasn’t killed? I did. And he was?—”
“Bullshit—”
“Get it through your fuckin’head, Torin. He did me a favor. Two of you against me wasn’t going to work. Lennox was already against me. Once he got his hooks in you, that would’ve been it. I would’ve had to watch both of my shoulders when I now only needed to watch one. Your denial and hope make you weak. So, take it from me when I tell you I saw his body. Ihavethe bullets that took your stupid brother out but wait, there’s more.” His face skews into a malicious smirk. “I showed you mercy and didn’t lay them on your bed when I should have. Maybe you could’ve had that lead redone and thrown them into that stupid head of yours. It sounds like I did a disservice to myself when I didn’t. And I can’t say I was upset when it was him.”
I feel the animosity penetrating off Torin’s body and, I swear, I heard his heart crack.
However, he doesn’t utter a single fucking word.
“We done here?” Emilio prompts sharply. “Or do I need to make myself clearer, boy? Maybe louder? You’re a waste of fucking space—but then I found her…a silver lining. My long-lost daughter. I wasn’t going tonotget her under my thumb one way or another.”
