Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
I shake my head, unable to take my eyes off the angry scar, not able to comprehend how I missed that all of these years. I never saw it when we went to the beach, and she would even wear a bikini. I never saw it when she would dress up in plunging outfits, or the handful of times I accidentally walked in on her in the bathroom. Was it always there and I just didn’t notice, or was she going out of her way to keep it hidden? “I don’t . . . I don’t understand. How are you still alive?”
“Because my husband was not the man he portrayed himself to be. He was weak, and when it came down to shoving his hand inside my chest and taking my beating heart into his hand, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t rise to the test. He failed, and instead of stripping his title, The Circle buried his indiscretion and allowed him to rise in power in order to avoid a rising war.”
“How do you mean?”
Priscilla steps back, adjusting the buttons of her silk blouse and fixing her suit jacket back into place before adding the fifth bullet to the chamber. “Because at the time, there was no knowledge of another heir. My son was too young and inexperienced to take the crown. He was barely eight and would never have made it through the ritual, let alone holding the weight of Empire on his shoulders. If Lawson did not rise in power, we would have been left with the very same predicament we have today. Only unknown to the members of Empire, we do have an heir waiting in the shadows, waiting for my son to fail. And he will.”
I shake my head. “He won’t,” I tell her, lifting my chin. “If you think something like this is going to keep him from taking Empire as his own, you don’t know him well enough.”
“Tell me, sweet cheeks. How is he going to rise in power when the heart of the innocent he needs to sacrifice is already dead and buried?”
“He’ll find a way,” I tell her, more adamant than ever. “History has a habit of repeating itself. If Lawson can walk out of that tomb without completing the ritual and still rise in power due to The Circle’s fear of war, then Zade can too. Nothing has changed. There is still a war brewing, and if Zade doesn’t rise in power in the next few days, then Empire will all but burn itself to the ground.”
“Your faith in my son is severely misplaced,” she says, making a show of spinning the chamber again. “He will fail. I promise you that. The Circle will not make the same mistakes they once did, and now that news of Zade’s lineage is starting to spread, he’s got nothing. With or without you, he will still fail.”
Priscilla gives me one last haunting smile, and I know this is it. My time is up.
She strides toward me, tilting her head to the side and looking like some kind of messed-up psychopath. “It’s been a pleasure, Oakley,” she says, lifting the gun right to my temple. “We had a few good years together, but it’s time for a new adventure. You and your father were both destined for bigger things, and unfortunately for you, only one of you is ever going to achieve it.”
BANG!
Chapter 19
ZADE
My knife slices across the guard’s throat, and I watch as he crumbles to the ground at my feet, blood spurting across the entrance of the underground bunker. Usually, I’d stand here a minute and really take in the artistic splatter against the wall, but not tonight.
It’s already taken us too long to get here.
“Come on,” Sawyer says, pushing past me and stepping over the fallen body, eager to get inside and find her, but fuck, I don’t know what we’re about to find. It’s been nearly three hours since they were taken from my parking garage, and for a while, we were able to track them from Cross’ cell, but after twenty minutes, that signal went dead, which could only mean they’d either found the phone and destroyed it, or they’d gone deep underground.
In my professional opinion, if I needed somewhere to hide an army, I’d go underground too. Though, who knows just how many followers Matthias Quinn actually has now. Because Cross sure as fuck left a good chunk of them bleeding out in my parking garage.
I don’t blame him though. At first, I was furious that he even considered taking her away from the safety of my penthouse, away from the safety of my protection, but he couldn’t have seen that coming, and at that magnitude too. What it really comes down to is that Cross came to me first. He asked for approval to take her to his home, and I willingly accepted. Well, kind of. It was more of a begrudging acceptance. Either way, Oakley was down in that parking garage on my say-so, and I can only hope that Cross has been able to do his part and keep her alive.