Sure enough, I spot Zane lurking behind one of the pillars, his arms folded across his massive chest. He lifts his chin to me in a nod of understanding. We probably don’t deserve theirforgiveness, but it does seem like things have relaxed a fraction between us and the other gangs at the university. Maybe it’s just because we’re all older and are a little less hot-headed—occasionally—or, more likely, because finding women we love gives us a better perspective on what’s important.
CHAPTER 27
Cain
I don’t expectmy father to make it to the cabin before me, and I’m right. He has a lot farther to travel. I doubt he’s made the majority of the journey by road. He’ll have taken a private plane and had a car waiting for him.
I’m not afraid or nervous about what’s about to go down. No, I’m too fucking angry for that.
I want my father to think I’m here alone when he arrives, so I order the others to find good spots around the cabin where they can keep me covered.
I’d like to think my father wouldn’t hurt me, but if he or his men realize his life is under threat, and it’s a case of me or him, they will not hesitate to shoot me. I’m not sure I can even find it in myself to care about dying either. I’m more concerned about Malachi being taken down in the shooting than I am about myself. He doesn’t deserve anything bad happening to him. Unlike me.
I keep going back in my head, questioning why I hadn’t learned the truth sooner. Why hadn’t I even suspected him? Maybe others would argue that I’d just been a child when my father had arranged Ophelia’s kidnapping, but surely, I should have considered the possibility? I’d known how much my fatherdisliked Ophelia’s family and how much he hated me spending time over there. I’d done my best to hide my nightly visits to her room, but of course my father had known. If only I’d realized the truth sooner, I could have saved Ophelia from years of torment at the Prophet’s hands. I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive myself for being so blind, but there is one thing I can put right. The Prophet is dead now, and soon my father will be, too.
Any man who hurts Ophelia will meet the same fate. Myself included.
A low purr of the engines of expensive, powerful vehicles meets my ears. I toss a glance over my shoulder, ensuring everyone is in place and none of the others can be seen from the narrow, unpaved road that leads to the cabin.
Two large Mercedes SUVs appear and slowly make their way toward the cabin. They reach the clearing and draw to a halt, the engines silencing. Every muscle in my body is rigid with tension, and I clench and unclench my fists at my sides. I’m painfully aware of the gun wedged in my waistband, and I won’t hesitate to use it. A part of me just wants to shoot the fucker in the face the moment he climbs out of the car, but the other part knows I need to hear the truth coming from his mouth. While I’m ninety-nine percent sure that he’s the one responsible for Ophelia’s kidnapping, I don’t want that remaining one percent to haunt me.
From out of the passenger seat climbs my father. Then the rear door opens, and a second, much younger, man climbs out.
My stomach drops. It’s been a while since I last saw my brother, Samuel, and he’s filled out. His frame is now almost as big as mine, and gone are the light curls of his childhood. His hair has darkened, and now he has my thick, light brown hair and blue eyes. It’s clear we are brothers.
He’s still young, at aged sixteen, but he is big, broad, and his face shows he’s already a man in the ways our father wouldexpect. That makes my heart sink. I can only imagine the violence he’s seen because it will be the same as I saw at his age. The life we live has already begun to turn him hard, and I hate to see that.
Automatically, my hands come up to sign to him.‘Sammy, I didn’t know you were coming.’
He replies,‘Good to see you, Brother.’
It is good to see him, but also… it isn’t. My brother knows nothing about what has happened, and it’s not as though I can take him to one side and explain it.
Whose side will he be on? Mine, or our father’s?
I want to believe he’ll choose me every time, just like I would always choose him, but the truth is that we haven’t been in each other’s lives much recently—something I feel guilty about—and I don’t know how closely our father has brought him into his fold. Being at the college, fighting in the club, saving, it’s partly been for my brother, but he knows nothing of it, so it won’t be something he counts in my favor. It’s my father’s fault Samuel is deaf, but that all happened a long time ago. Is it possible Sammy has forgiven him?
My father slams the car door shut. “Hello, Cain. It’s been a while.”
He holds out his hand to shake mine in greeting, but I can’t bring myself to do it, and I keep my fists clenched at my sides.
His eyes narrow. “Problem?”
I grit my teeth. “You could say that.”
My father gives a jerk of his chin, and four armed men climb out of the vehicle behind his. Perhaps I should have been more subtle and shaken the son of a bitch’s hand, but I just couldn’t do it.
“I assumed it was something serious by the way you’ve made me come all this way. I notice Felix isn’t with you.”
“Felix is dead.”
He sucks air in over his teeth. “One of my best men. What happened?”
“I shot him in the forehead when I learned that he’d betrayed us to the Prophet.”
I study my father’s expression for any sign of guilt, but the cold bastard’s expression remains unmoved.
“Are you sure about that?” he says. “That doesn’t sound like something Felix would do.”
