Not until I figure out how to explain that I just made a deal with the man who nearly destroyed us. That I'm trusting Frank Murphy, of all people, to help protect us.
That I'm that desperate.
Instead, I get in the Audi and sit in the silence. My hands grip the steering wheel. The shaking is worse now. The headache is building. The comedown from last night's cocaine is making everything sharper, more painful.
I need another line.
The thought is automatic. Immediate. The solution to every problem. Just get high and everything will feel manageableagain. The guilt. The fear. The crushing weight of every choice I'm making.
But I don't reach for the cocaine.
Not yet.
First, I need to get home. Need to tell my security team about the threat to tomorrow's party. Need to figure out how to protect everyone without revealing that I'm working with Frank.
The engine starts with a smooth purr. I pull out of the parking space and drive through the abandoned docks, past warehouses with broken windows and graffiti-covered walls. Past the places where people who don't matter anymore used to work, used to build lives, used to think they had futures.
Like me.
I used to think I had a future, too. Used to believe I could be something other than this. Other than a Murphy prince drowning in cocaine and violence, and choices that damn me a little more each day.
But that future died the day I found Father hanging in his office.
Now all that's left is survival.
And I'll do whatever it takes to survive. Even if it means making deals with devils. Even if it means trusting snakes. Even if it means becoming exactly the kind of man I swore I'd never be.
The kind of man who'd sacrifice anything to win.
The kind of man who'd destroy himself to save his family.
The kind of man Frank Murphy always knew I could be.
My phone buzzes. A text from an unknown number.
I already know who it is before I read it.
“The paperwork better be ready by noon tomorrow. And William? Don't disappoint me.” - F
I don't respond. Just set the phone down and keep driving.
The city passes by in a blur of gray buildings and people who don't know they're living in a war zone—who don't know that tomorrow night, at a party they'll never hear about, decisions will be made that could change everything.
That could save us all.
Or destroy us completely.
I think of Aoife again. Of the way she looked at me in that basement. The anger and hurt and something that might have been the beginning of trust.
I broke that trust. Shattered it when I told her to smile at the engagement party while her father fights for his life. When I showed her exactly what kind of monster she's agreed to marry.
But maybe that's for the best.
Maybe it's better she knows now. Better she sees me clearly. Better she understands that the man she's going to spend her life with is capable of anything.
Even making deals with Frank Murphy.
Even sacrificing his own soul.
