It would be better if I were dead.
Emma hands Henry the bag in her hand, and without asking, I know what’s inside.
Knives. The things they’re going to use to torture me.
I deserve it. After what my father just said, I know I do.
I’m not afraid of pain. My father made sure of that, but I really don’t want to die without seeing my true family again. The ones I chose. The ones who took me in. I want to give them hugs and say goodbye. To say I’m sorry.
I don’t think I’ll have that chance.
There’s no way they’ll find me in time. The tracker is gone, and it seems Emin has made himself completely untraceable. Not even Lex or Diablo can find them.
Even Henry was a ghost.
“Anything else you’d like to ask before we get to work?” Emin asks, meeting my gaze.
I wet my dry lips. “What do you want from Anthony? Why did you go after Tatum, Viktor, and Luca?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Tatum is a nuisance. He got in the way. And Viktor and Luca were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps if Anthony would stop interfering with my plans, I wouldn’t have to put so much effort into ruining them.”
“And what are your plans?”
Emin grins. “Well, I have the casino and the club, but I want to expand. Why have a little when you could have it all?”
When I say nothing, he sighs. “You never were smart. Fine. I’ll spell it out for you. I want the drug trade. I want to push Anthony out. I want Pink to dominate the market.”
“But it keeps killing people.”
“Yes, the early stuff did, but Henry has been tweaking the formula and managed to perfect it. This is going to make us so much money. But I can’t do that when Anthony is in control of the ports and is still the main supplier of cocaine. Do you see it now? Are the pieces starting to fall into place now?”
“Why can’t you just share? There’s more than enough room at the table for both of you.”
That makes Emin’s eye twitch. “That’s not how it works, Ara. That’s not how this business works!”
His frustration bleeds into his voice, and I’m taken back to those days he’d visit me in the basement—how he’d try to make me conform, try to get me to answer his questions just like he wanted.
You belong here. You asked for it when you cried, begged.
But I could never fake it. I could never be what he wanted.
I never wanted to, either.
I just knew I deserved more. I deserved to be loved. Emotions aren’t wrong. They don’t make you weak.
No, feeling things makes you strong.
Emin schools his features once more and then stands up.
“Enough talking. I answered your questions, and now I have some of my own. You will answer them as I take you apart.”
Henry hands him the bag, and he opens it up, a knife flashing as it appears in his hand.
“I think what would be poetic is to start with your back. Just like your lover. He screamed when we took his skin. Did you know that? Cried. I wonder if you’ll make the same sound.” That makes my entire body strain, trying to escape, to punish them. But I go nowhere.
“Turn him around, Samvel. We need to get started. And don’t worry, my children, you’ll both get to keep a piece of him.”
25
