“I want my sister,” I say, keeping all the snark and petulance from my voice.
“That’s impossible. If I give you her, I have no leverage. And since this is a negotiation—like you needlessly pointed out—I’m not about to give you everything you wantandlet you walk away, now, am I?”
“So, you will let me walk away?”
“For the time being.”
“You’re being cryptically diplomatic, Victor, and it’s giving me a headache.”
He chuckles, and it’s sludge-like because of how slimy he is. Glancing down at my hands, I twist them, staring at how ash-stained and broken my nails are. Such a small price to pay for the massive inferno they started.
Laying them on the table, I watch him fighting the urge to look down at them. The sad fact is, he won’t. As much as he wants to see the proof again, he won’t—because I want him to. The longer we sit in this room, the more intertwined our lives will be, and that’s the last thing I want.
“If I leave my sister here with you, what guarantee is there that you will keep your word?”
“My word will have to be good enough; it is all I have to offer. What about you, Quinn? Will you keepyourword, or will she be the one to have to pay the price of my indiscretions?”
“Yourindiscretions? Hardly,” I say, looking him dead in the eye.
“It was an indiscretion. That’s not who I am,” he insists.
I slam my mouth shut, not willing to waste my breath arguing. That isn’t why I’m here.
Victor steeples his fingers, like he’s deep in contemplation, but he’s simply lying in wait, ready to strike. Except, he hasn’t yet, and that means something. Whether he believes I’ll bring him down, or he thinks I’ll change my mind, remains to be seen.
“I have made promises to powerful people, Quinn. If I let those people down, the ramifications will not be burdened on just you or me. These people will stop at nothing. They will start with your sister before moving on to your mother. Once done with them, they will start on your cousins, aunts, and any woman associated with our family. I’d fight for you, of course, but then they’d involve others because you…”
I slap my hand against the table. “No! You did this, Victor! You set this up, and now because you made a poor call, everyone but you is paying.”
“If you hadn’t burned down their warehouse, I may have had some leverage.”
My control snaps, the emotions I’ve been bottling up spilling over. “Bullshit!”
I don’t want to give him my anger or tears; I want him dead or at least held accountable. Yet, even after notifying the consulate, and sending them irrefutable evidence, I am facing the devil alone.
“Anyway”—he flicks away my outburst as if it’s nothing but an annoying fly—“I have managed to strike a deal with them. Which you should be grateful for. We have agreed your little stunt needs time to settle. We’ll take things slower, rebuilding when the time is right, if it ever is again. But no matter what I do with them, there is still the promise I have made. Will you step into the role, or do I delay them further, perhaps ultimately costing us more, so you can sleep better at night? Your sister is probably better suited.”
“Leave her out of it,” I snap.
“Then, it will be you?”
“Of course it will be,” I bite back with more emotion.
He points his finger at me, disappointment filling his eyes. “You need time. And when you stop being so reactionary, you will know I speak the truth. Your perfect academic results and sharp intelligence aren’t going to be enough when all people will see is your age and your designation. I say that as kindly as possible and with your best interests at heart, Quinn. All I want is to see you happy.” He pauses and then makes me wait an uncomfortably long time before he speaks again. “You’re eighteen, still a child, really, and you’re only recently designated; the combination means you're too emotional and overly sentimental to be reliable if you're set on tattling. If you were able to articulate in a more subjective and balanced manner, to say a situation and/or a person,theymight have been here to listen to you. But maybe not too.”
He fucking smirks. And as levelheaded as I want to be, I can’t help but glare at the center of his forehead where I visualize his blood oozing. I use it as a centering technique, staring between his eyes, envisaging his death until I have a better hold on my emotions. It actually takes no time at all, because I will do this. I will take down my father. “I will find someone to believe me.”
“I know. That’s why I insisted on delaying everything,” he patronizes.
“What about the child?”
“Oh please, Quinn. You can’t take what that woman is suggesting seriously, can you?”
I grimace, because what he said was so repulsive, I taste it like a sourness on the back of my tongue. I hate this man so much. How he can refer to the child who is obviously his with such a flippant reference is beyond me.
“Is it because he is deaf or because of who his mother is that you wanted them dead?”
“That’s quite an accusation, Quinn. Let’s stick to the facts, shall we? The child’s mother's claims are unsubstantiated, and now, because of her untimely demise, and that of the child, I will never get the retraction I rightly deserve. In any event, you and your sister are cared for, but I can’t bequeath you my estate, for the simple fact neither of you are Alphas. You can’t punish me for something my family put in place before I was even born. They established the rules we now have to live by generations ago.”
