Slowly, Jack rises to his feet. “I am not working with Mathew.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I recognize a lost cause when I see one,” Jack replies. “I know defeat is not something you’re familiar with. It’s a lesson I should’ve taught you, I suppose.”
I grip the gun tighter, alarm bells going off in my head. “What are you talking about?”
“Mathew won.” Jack steps out from behind the desk and advances on me. “There’s nothing you or I can do except bow down.”
“Are you fucking insane? He won’t accept surrender. He’ll kill every one of us to make sure we don’t rise against him.”
Jack stops in front of me, so the gun is pointed at his chest. “And what would you have me do, Mason? Kill my son?”
The shock of hearing my name on his lips is almost enough to make me drop my gun.
He hasn’t called me by my given name in years.
Not since I was a little boy.
Shit.
“Do something,” I hiss. “You’re Jack Payne. You always have something up your sleeve.”
“Not this time,” Jack says.
I shake my head. “I refuse to believe it.”
“Then run,” Jack tells me. “Take London and run. Maybe you’ll have enough of a head start.”
What the fuck is happening?
I came to him in search of an ally, not a tired, old man.
What the hell are you going to do now? You have no more tricks up your sleeve, no more aces to play.
With only a handful of loyal men and women, I know it’s not early enough.
The walls are already closing in, and no amount of raging will change anything.
“Paynes do not run,” I snap. “I will not let Mathew do this.”
Jack shrugs. “Do what you must, then.”
I stare at him, anger and panic clawing at me. “So, that’s it, then? You’re just going to let him take it all? What the hell did he do to you to make you a pathetic old man?”
Jack’s eyes flash. “Careful, boy.”
“Or what?” I step closer to him and bare my teeth. “You’ll give me more shitty advice? Save your breath, old man.”
Jack closes the distance between us and raises his hand.
My heart skips a beat as we stare at each other.
Then the door to the office is thrown open, and Carlisle hurries in. Slowly, I face my right-hand man.
“What happened?”
Carlisle clears his throat. “I don’t know what the fuck happened, but they came out of nowhere, and they’re everywhere.”
