I met his gaze, unflinching. "No. It's your daughter's life."
His jaw worked back and forth before he lifted his chin. "You disappoint me, Gavriel."
"How so?" I kept my voice neutral, though I knew exactly what was coming.
He turned, his grey eyes cold as steel. "Your weakness is becoming a liability. You’re distracted."
"She's not a weakness."
"Everything you care about is a weakness." He moved to his desk, opening a drawer to withdraw a file. "I've tolerated your . . .dalliancebecause it kept you occupied. Even if you fucked up shipments. It’s gone too far now, talon. It threatens our arrangement with Juarez."
He tossed the file onto the desk. I didn't need to open it to know what it contained—surveillance photos of Elin and me, details of our relationship, perhaps even transcripts of conversations. My father's reach was extensive.
"End it," he said simply. "Or I will."
The threat hung in the air between us, heavy with history. I thought of Joel, of my father's gun against his head, of the heart I'd been forced to cut from his chest. The fact that my father, the man before me, had agreed and sanctioned the attack against Rhea just a few days ago . . .
My attention stayed on the folder on the desk. "No."
The word dropped like a stone into still water.
"What did you say?" My father's voice was dangerously soft.
"I said no." I straightened, meeting his gaze without flinching. "I won't end things with Elin. And Rhea won't marry Juarez."
My father's laugh was cold and brittle. "You think you have a choice? That either of you do?"
"I'm making a choice now." I stepped closer to his desk, slamming my hands flat. "You've controlled us, manipulated us, sacrificed us for your ambitions. No more."
He recoiled just the slightest bit as he stammered, "Y-you ungrateful—"
"You killed Joel all because he loved Rhea and she loved him. Because he interfered with your plans for her. You made me cut out his heart to traumatize her into submission." My voice remained steady even as rage coursed through me. " You pressed a gun to my temple and swore you'd paint the walls with my brains if another shipment vanished. Well, every single one has arrived intact. Even the ones where you switched drivers at the last minute. Even the ones where you gave me warehouse locations crawling with DEA. Even the ones where your own men were ordered to hijack the cargo. I delivered. Every. Fucking. Time. All while still maintaining my relationship with Elin Perkins." I leaned my palms against his desk, bringing us face-to-face. "I'm done having you try to control my private life as well.”
For a moment, we were locked in a power struggle that had been decades in the making. Then his eyes narrowed as he calculated. "You would choose that whore over your own blood?"
The words were designed to wound, to provoke me into making a mistake. Instead, they crystallized my resolve.
"I choose love over fear. Something you never understood." I stepped back. "Rhea won't marry Juarez. Elin won't be harmed. And if you try to force either of those outcomes . . ."
I let the threat hang unfinished. We both knew what I was capable of.
My father’s expression shifted from rage to something more dangerous—cold scheming.
"You think you can defy me and walk away?" He moved around the desk, circling me like the predator he'd always been. "You think your little rebellion means anything? I built this empire with blood and bone. I won't let my own son destroy it."
I stepped closer, my voice dropping to a whisper that could cut glass. "Then we have a fucking problem, Father. One that ends with someone bleeding out on this floor."
My father closed the distance, close enough that I could see the flecks of gold in his dark eyes—eyes I'd inherited, though I hoped not the cruelty behind them. “You aremytalon, and youwillcome to heel, Gavriel Azzaro.”
“Not on this.”
He took two steps back, pulling his gun and pointing it right at my chest. I stood there unmoving, chin held high as I stared him down. Something told me that he wouldn’t pull the trigger. Maybe it was the death grip he was trying to have on me or the fact I was his sole heir to the family. I didn’t know. The longer I stared him down, the more I saw questioning in his eyes.
My Goddess will take care and protect Rhea if this goes wrong.
Taking a step toward him, I pressed the barrel of the gun to my chest. My father flinched, as I gave him a hard stare and lifted my eyebrow at him in question.
Pull it, fucker. I dare you.
