With a quiet sob, he exited with Matt, leaving me alone just like everyone always had.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
OREN
Istopped by daily, leaving notes or lunch for him, but it’d been a week of no contact outside of our training. A week of me knocking on the door, of waiting to see if he’d talk to me. I didn’t deserve it, and my protection had rendered him broken, but I was persistent.
I loved him.
I loved him more with each passing day, each moment he wasn’t nearby. There was a hole in my chest, and no amount of liquor could cure the anguish, where the one thing that would… the onepersonI wanted more than anything in this world would never look at me the same again.
I was fucking trash, just like my father had molded me to be, and if I’d known it would always turn out like this, I would have found a gun and ended my life to spare him the pain ofme.
I was a fucking mistake, a poor human who never learned right from wrong. By wanting to protect everyone, I’d lost the one person I couldn’t survive without, and nothing…nothing was worth the pain. Nothing was worth the ache because there was nothing to live for.
Without Thorne, there was no point in life except to end my father’s tyranny. After that, I would gladly end myself too.
That was the plan I didn’t tell the others. If cornered, I’d end my father and then myself. As their commander, I owed it to them to take the blame for everything he’d hidden. A corruption that ran so deep it would fall on my name regardless. With both of us dead, the Valens name would be tarnished, but the Valens reign of terror would be over.
And it would finally happen today, my father’s final mission. Little did he know we’d plotted around his curated plan, a plot set in motion under my leadership during our squad’s clandestine meetings without Thorne present. Invitations were presented to him, but there wasn’t much communication between any of us, and he sure as hell didn’t want to attend our discussions after… after everything that happened.
Studying the maps and papers in his office from multiple meetings with my father and being used as his puppet, I learned his schedule. With his trust gained, I scoured his desk when he left. Quick action was important, and the more I searched, the better I learned how to hunt for material—material in the form of his hidden secrets.
The first was the discovery of his secret base, and uncovering the depths of his corruption was insanely eye-opening. His evil ran deep—smuggling guns and equipment to the cartel for hefty prices. And this entire time?
He trained us,The Vipers, to make sure his illegal actions were secured and carried out.That’swhat we were. A bunch of idiots who hadn’t seen his deceit until this mission was upon us, and now it was my job as their leader to see it through to fruition.
My father would be joining us on this mission, but he would not be returning alive. This was our final move, and I did not care if it ended in the spilling of my own blood.
Placing the last gun in its holder at my thigh, I looked up to our squad. Everyone else knew the plan, but with Thorne stuck in his room, he was unaware of the mission or what it consisted of.
While no one knew I planned to sacrifice my life, the biggest question was whether Thorne would catch on. While there were doubts, I had none. He was smart, practical, and could easily read a room. It would take him no time to decipher the logistics of this mission.
My father stood at the front, watching us carefully. While I’d gained his trust for the moment, I would neverfullyearn it, and that’s what made this so difficult. We were playing against a multitude of factors. Factors that needed to align perfectly to end with a clean shot into my fucking father’s head.
Clearing my throat, I looked at Thorne as he adjusted his gear. This was the last time I’d see him, and I hoped in my absence he’d heal. Rubbing the back of my neck, I parted my lips. “Do you have everything you need?”
He glanced over his shoulder and down at me. Clad in our dark uniform, it hugged his body in ways I continued to wish I had gotten the time to paint. Adorned similarly to me, he cocked his head to the side, slipping on his balaclava. My mind immediately traveled to our night in the alleyway, his emotionless reply ripping me from my moment of reminiscence.
“Yes, sir.”
With a simple nod that hid the yearning in my heart, I turned to the rest of the squad. “Our mission is simple. We’re to help aid in the smuggling of weapons through the various military bases before they’re sent overseas. Our duty is to guard the deal while General Valens witnesses its completion for our bargain. If this goes according to plan, everyone is free to leave the base.”
With a nod from Matt, he jerked his head to the waiting Black Hawk. “Simon will be ready for us when we return, so let’s get this shit over with. Ready Liam?”
He gave me a half-hearted smile, dipping his chin without a word.
“Good. General Valens?” I said over my shoulder, glancing to look at my father. This was his death mission, and all I saw was a smug monster awaiting slaughter. “Ready to go, sir?”
“I was ready ten minutes ago, Commander, or do you still make it a habit to be late?”
Biting my retort, I gave him a nod. “Let’s load.”
It wasn’t my father’s comment that had me turning around quickly, it was the lack of one that squeezed my chest to the point of being uncomfortable. He didn’t defend me, and something as small as that was far more detrimental than any gunshot wound. I didn’t deserve his protection when I’d lied, but I couldn’t help but wish he’d done it one last time before I died.
The flightto the base was smooth, silent—a culmination of everything my father had instilled in his men. He sat at the front, a guardian of pain and punishment, his reign far longer than any man should’ve been granted.
Everyone had been assigned their roles except for Thorne, but with the way his shoulders were taut and his back straight, I had no worries he’d unleash hell once he realized there was a separate mission going on.
