Page 25 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘Maybe you’re lying,’ Lachlan points out with a shrug. ‘Maybe you’re the one inflicting this pain that supposedly comes around whenever there’s any mention of the past. The curse thing is flimsy as fuck.’

‘I’ve felt it,’ Kade says. ‘It’s real.’

‘Maybe he’s doing that to you through the bond.’

‘I would never hurt him unnecessarily.’

‘I watched you shoot him with a rubber bullet.’

‘That was necessary, and I healed the worst of it.’

‘Who knows what a man like you deems necessary, Harker?’ Lachlan wonders aloud, mostly focused on the meat he’s not using cutlery to consume. ‘I know Kade trusts you, but I don’t. You’ve kept him in the dark, and you’ve used what you know to your advantage.’

‘My advantage?’ Riley echoes. ‘What advantage do you perceive?’

‘Having him by your side while you became untouchable.’

‘I’m not untouchable.’

‘When I first got here, your biggest concern was whether Penhalyx was involved. You must be shitting yourself at the thought of the old man finding out it was you who’d had his son all these years.’

‘He’s more dangerous than you realise.’

‘Penhalyx has been out of the public eye for years now,’ Lachlan says with a shrug. ‘No new Helixx breakthroughs. He survived the tax scandal. Went sideways into obscurity after the kids died, that’s what I heard.’

Riley asks, ‘What do you think he wanted his son for?’

Kade casts back to last night.

He wanted your body for himself.

He was planning it all Julian’s life.

Lachlan glances at Kade before answering.

‘I know he planned to marry him to Savannah Alderwyck. I did a light search on her yesterday. She’s still in the UK but cleverly hidden, I think.’

‘What else?’

‘What else what?’

‘What else do you think he wanted his son for?’ Riley quietly demands, arms crossed. ‘Dig deep, Bodyguard. Did you really not see it?’

‘See what? That your piece-of-shit father was planning to kidnap them? You tell me, you’re his son.’

‘I’m nobody’s son, and it’s sad to see you’re blind as ever.’

‘Blind as ever?’ Lachlan echoes, strained. ‘What does that mean, kid?’

‘Don’t call me that.’

‘Answer my fucking question!’

‘Answer your own question,’ Riley suggests sharply, ‘rather than asking me for a truth you’ve already decided to reject. Look at you, clinging desperately to a version of the man you loved that doesn’t exist anymore, trying to instil his virtues in my First Captain so you can tell yourself you were human enough to count because you were loved by someone with a moral compass.’

‘First Captain,’ Lachlan sneers. ‘You get that from a cartoon you liked?’

Riley’s blue eyes glitter with serene malice. ‘But if I were you, I’d take a closer look at that humanity you’re clinging to, because it’s slipping.’