I grabbed her cheeks, rubbing my thumbs over her face. “Nila...shush. I need you to let me do this.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. The diamond collar he’d almost extracted glittered in the false light of the chandeliers.
I forced myself to hide my nerves, soothing her with whispered confidence. “Don’t ask me to stop. It’s what I need to do to fix my family and yours—our very history.”
Tears trickled over my thumbs as she fought my decision. “But—”
“There are no buts, Needle.” Looking at Cut, I hardened my heart toward him. He’d done the right thing in the end. He’d let her go. Nothing had stopped him from killing Nila in front of me. Only his decency and lingering affection for Emma.
When Nila had forgiven him, I thought for sure he would pull the lever. He’d never been good at accepting charity.
But for once, he went against the actions of the man who’d raised me and became a hero. He deserved a fragment of respect for that gallant move.
But he also deserved to pay a very painful toll for every other sin he’d committed.
That was his fate.
And it was my fate to deliver it.
Nila pressed her cheek into my palm, her skin warm beneath my touch. “Kite...I—”
I understood her knotted thoughts and scrambled conclusions. “I know.” My voice was a breath as I kissed her. “I understand your fear, but you have to trust me.”
How many times had I asked her to trust me, only to shatter the trust she bestowed?
I won’t shatter it this time.
I knew what I was doing.
Don’t I?
Nila’s onyx eyes glowed with rebellion, and I steeled myself against yet another argument. I sensed she only wanted to support me. For me to lean on her while I did something so heinous. But I didn’twantto lean on her. I had to do this for me, my siblings, my past and present.
I couldn’t have her there because I didn’t know if I’d be able to carry out the punishment he deserved. I didn’t know if I’d break and crumble and submit to his power like I’d done all my life.
It would be my biggest trial. But I’d try my fucking hardest to make Cut pay.
Dropping my hands from Nila’s cheeks, I stepped back. “Just trust me, okay?”
Kill morphed from the men checking on the wounded, coming towardour tight-knit gathering.
Flaw had fetched his medical equipment and put his healing knowledge to work on those needing immediate attention. I trusted him to arrange help and take those who required more than he was capable of to the hospital without alerting a massacre had just taken place.
Killian had come through for me. He’d waited outside the ballroom where Tex, V, and our team of mercenaries poured in. He had his gun pinpointed on Cut and would’ve pulled the trigger if we hadn’t arrived at that exact moment.
He would’ve saved Nila without a bloodbath, but by doing so, he would’ve stripped me of the right to make my father pay. It’d been risky, barging in and giving Cut the opportunity to murder Nila right before my eyes, but Cut didn’t know everything that I did.
He slipped.
In Africa, I’d felt a slight thawing in him. And today, as we barged in and brought death on our heels, he looked almost...relieved. As if he expected me to show up and was grateful it was over.
I couldn’t understand it. But he couldn’t keep it hidden any longer. He’d finally shown the truth of how tired he was. How tired we all were.
All my life, he’d been a controlling bastard with unattainable ideals and strict rules. I’d maintained my belief that he never liked us, let alone loved us. But there was something more to him. Something I never let myself focus on as it only confused my conclusion of my father.
But I sensed it now. A deeper facet poured from Cut as Kill jerked him from Textile’s arms and pinched his shoulders. My father held a lot of hate and delivered many ruthless requests, but he also held compassion and guilt.
And that guilt had steadily grown more and more dominant the longer Nila lived with us.
