Ashley
“Welcome, welcome,” Rhett says as we are dragged into the main ceremonial room on the basement level of the crypt by Vincent and his guards. They bound our hands behind our backs upstairs before removing our weapons. Our cells were collected and thrown into a large bag. I’m not sure who has it now, but Theo will still be able to hear as long as they are powered on. Jase warned him not to call the authorities if something like this should happen because we suspect Carter has the authorities in his pockets, and all it will do is alert them to Theo’s involvement. I hope he sticks to the promise he made us. I don’t want anything to happen to Lo or my friends.
“Now that everyone is here, we can get this party started.” Rhett grins as he welcomes us with a flourish of his hands, adding drama because he just can’t help himself.
Not everyone is here though, I notice, taking in the people sitting on the floor against the wall with their hands and feet tied and tape over their mouths. My eyes skim over them quickly. Lili, Jocelyn, Anna-Lynn, Knight, Richard, and Eric Stewart.
Bree cries out at the sight of her father lying facedown on the cold stone floor with blood seeping out from a nasty-looking wound on his side. Anna-Lynn and Jocelyn have silent tears streaming down their faces. Lili locks panicked eyes on Ares as he shouts and wrestles with the men holding him hostage. I glance over my head and caution him with a look.
My mother’s husband, Richard, is here, but there is no Pamela or Emilie. I hope it means she got away with her daughter and not that Carter has something special planned for them. Bile travels up my throat at the thought. Rhett hates my mother for what she did, and he’s not going to let her get away with it. If Mom is on the run with my baby sister, it’s only a matter of time before he finds her and drags her back.
“Why is your son and heir tied up?” I ask, not fighting when the two men holding my arms pull me toward my bio dad. Rhett is wearing a gold cloak with the hood down so I can see every expression on his evil face.
“Because he’s a treacherous cunt.” Rhett kicks Knight in the stomach, and I regret asking the question. “He’s weak and soft, and he was never going to be my heir.”
“He’s worth a million of you, you sadistic prick.” Despite how I just cautioned Ares, I can’t hold the words back.
Pain rattles through my skull and radiates across my cheek as Carter slaps me.
Ares, Jase, and Chad roar and yell obscenities, and the sounds of flesh hitting flesh reminds me why I need to control my errant mouth.
“Oh, how you have disappointed me.” Rhett grips my chin painfully, digging his nails into my flesh. The pretense is long gone, and there is no trace of that softer look he usually uses with me. All of it was a sham. “But most women do. We had plans for you, but you’re too mouthy, too uncontrollable, too reckless. I blame Doug’s influence. He ruined you.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to trap my retort inside.
Carter flings me back at the guards. “Line them up beside the others.”
We are shoved to the ground beside the others with Ares lined up alongside Lili, then me, Jase, Bree, and an unconscious Baz and Victor. Baz fought with his guards upstairs, and they drugged him to shut him up. Vincent knocked his brother out cold and carried him over his shoulder down here. They killed the four Stewart guards without hesitation.
“You may leave.” Carter dismisses his guards with a cursory look.
One of Carter’s men dumps the bag with the phones on the window ledge before leaving. Vincent stands in one corner, leaning against the wall and smirking as he crosses his feet at the ankles.
“You’re a fool,” Jase says, glaring at him. “Whatever he has promised you, he won’t deliver.”
“On the contrary, punk,” Rhett says, landing a punch to Jase’s ribs. “Vincent has proven his loyalty over the past twenty-plus years, and he will get everything I have promised him.” Rhett nods at his coconspirator. “You are looking at the new Despond Luminary.”
Rhett said he was going to elevate a master’s family to Luminary status. We had been looking at Carter’s master’s families, trying to identify who it could be. But we were way off track. Their identity was under our noses all along. So, Vincent sold out his brother and his family and his Luminary for a seat at the new table. If he thinks he will have any power, he can think again. The role will be a figurehead in name only. Carter will be the only one calling the shots. How stupid do you have to be to do that man’s bidding for twenty years with the promise of an empty crown?
“You said you needed us, but that was just a lie,” I surmise, working hard to keep my voice calm as I attempt to loosen the rope binding my hands. I know the others will be doing the same, so keeping this narcissistic sociopath talking is our best angle. “What is it you are really planning?”
“It wasn’t entirely a lie,” he says, seating himself on a stone throne that wasn’t in the room the last time. “I did need you. I needed you to complete the final steps in my plan so I could get to this point. Everything I have done, and everything I have allowed you to believe you have achieved, was all planned. Rescuing Chad. Rescuing Lili. Daphne escaping from HQ and letting her leave for overseas. The latter was done to make you trust the Foxes, the former so you’d get cocky and think you could take me down.”
His arrogant chuckle bounces off the walls while I continue discreetly working at the rope, a little thrill going through me when it starts to loosen. Beside me, Ares flinches a little, not enough to be noticed by anyone but me. His arm moves imperceptibly, and I know he’s already free.
“I needed you to help me to get rid of Manford and Salinger,” Rhett adds. “I needed you to expose my son for the traitor I always suspected he was. You were supposed to murder my wife during Chad’s rescue operation, but I wasn’t too upset. I got to murder the whiny bitch myself after all.”
Knight shouts behind his gag, and Rhett gets up off his throne and coldcocks him. My brother’s head lolls forward, and he slumps sideways with his head resting against Anna-Lynn. Eric still hasn’t stirred, and I’m not even sure if he’s alive.
The psycho drones on. “Vincent helped Victor to hide Daphne and Blade after I ordered Clinton’s murder, all those years ago, so I could keep tabs on you until I was ready to reveal your identity,” Rhett says, reveling in the sound of his own voice as he stares at Ares. “Your sister never had cancer. I bribed the doctor to give you false reports so we could lure Daphne home. You were supposed to come too, but she let you disappear without telling Victor, and we lost track of you.”
Oh my God. I know what he’s going to say next.
Anger rolls off Ares in waves, and I hope he holds still until an opportune moment presents itself.
If Ares attacks now, he’ll end up dead.
I turn my head, my eyes probing his and pleading with him to be smart.
