Chapter 24

Ariana

24

"The Black Hand," I say it again. "The people to whom you owe your entire career, I'm guessing. Otherwise, I can't explain why you're standing here so chill, knowing that one of them tried to fucking kill me. A federal agent, I might add. Quantico will have their hands full when I blow the lid off the whole thing; you realize that, right?"

"I had no dealings nor any agreement with Masterson—"

"But you sent him out to find me," I cut him off. "He said that much before he put a gun to my head. How did you think this was going to turn out, Dad? That I'd be brought back home, safe and sound, and we'd do a teary-eyed photo op for the press? Did you think I'd happily volunteer for your state senate campaign out of daughterly love and gratitude? The minute you shook hands with those people, your life and your career were over!"

"Do not talk about things you clearly don't understand!" my father finally bursts. "The Black Hand is powerful and dangerous, Ariana. You have no idea who you're dealing with, and neither do those biker assholes. Had they just left Everton like I repeatedly asked them to, you wouldn't be in this situation!"

"They didn't leave because this is their city, too. They're helping people. They're doing more for this community than you ever did, and what bothers me the most is that they believed you; they fucking voted for you, Dad, and you went around and stabbed them in the back. I see right through you now. I see the real you."

"Ariana, the Steel Knights are criminals."

"The only criminal I see here is you," I reply. "Mom was getting closer to the truth, wasn't she? Is that why the Black Hand silenced her?"

This hits him right in the gut. He exhales sharply, struggling to feign outrage, but I see the slump in his shoulders. The liberation he feels now that the truth is out in the open. There's no way of putting this behind us, no way of scrubbing it off the board, and he knows it.

I am looking at a stranger yet we share the same blood.

I have to distance myself from him now. There is no room and no time left for second chances.

"Your mother's death was a tragic accident," my father says, his voice low and cold.

"I spoke to Detective Amstaff."

"That man is bitter. He is a disgraced officer of the law, nothing else!"

"I saw the case file," I reply. "Dad, the only thing you can do right now is convince me that you didn't order the hit on Mom. That's it. Tell me. Tell me you didn't arrange for the Black Hand to kill her."

"I did not!" my father snarls, his face red with fury and emotional impotence. I just held a mirror up to him, and he didn't like what he saw. "I didn't order the hit. They did it on their own."

"And you said nothing."

He scoffs and runs a hand through his hair, a muscle ticking in his square jaw. "What could I say, Ariana? I warned Rose, I begged her to pick another story, to focus on something else. But your mother … you remember her; you know how determined she could be. Once she caught the scent of blood, there was no stopping her."

"Amstaff said the same thing." I pause and take a deep breath. "You helped the people who killed her. You helped bury the truth about Mom. About your wife. Do you understand how that looks?"

"I tried to get her off that story; she was going to implicate me—"

"She was your wife!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "My mother! How could you? How could you do that to your own family? I've been living a lie, but it ends here tonight."

My father takes a step toward me, and I don't like the look on his face. His voice is cold, his tone menacing. "Ariana, we can't be out here anymore. We should go somewhere else and talk about this."

"Stay the fuck away from me," I warn him. "You're a monster. You did all this for your career, for your political advancement."

"I did this to position myself high enough to be able to help people! I have always worked for the people!"

"Like the kids who got tossed out of Sweet Mother of Mercy so your buddies could build a residential complex? Like the dozens of drug dealers who still walk freely because they're paying the right people in your network. Or what about the shamefully unethical companies you've allowed to dump chemicals in our water? Was that working for the people? Don't think for a second that I don't know what's been happening under your watch. I know everything!"

"Ariana, enough! We need to get out of here."

He tries to grab me, but Kendric comes out with his weapon locked and loaded from behind the mausoleum. "The only thing you need to do is not move a fucking muscle, or I will blow both your kneecaps off," he says.

"I should've known," my father growls. "You poisoned my own daughter against me."

"All we did was show her the truth. The only poison she ever drank came directly from you," Kendric bluntly replies. "Don't take another step, Mr. Mayor. It ends tonight."

"You keep saying that, but what did you think would happen? That I would just roll over? Did you think I didn't come prepared?"

"Oh, I know you came prepared," Kendric chuckles. "But your associates are currently tied up."

As we speak, two Steel Knights are currently watching over the car that accompanied my father here. We knew he'd have a security detail with him. They were quickly neutralized and cuffed but will be released once we've finished.

Kendric gives me the cellphone scrambler. "Turn it off. We need a status update."

"Right, yeah," I mumble and press the green button on the top of the device. The screen goes blank, and my phone beeps twice. Incoming texts, hopefully from Sky and Raylan.

"You're making the worst mistake of your life, Ariana, getting in bed with these bastards," my father says. "They'll toss you aside the minute they get what they want, and I've come too far, sacrificed too much, to let you or anyone else ruin everything. Not when I'm so close."

"So close to what?" I ask, fumbling through my jacket pocket for my phone.

"The ultimate seat of power. Where do you think I'm headed once I get into the state senate? It's a straight road to the White House," my father replies.

"I'd rather burn the whole country down than see a dirty piece of trash like you running it," Kendric says. "I served my country. Proudly. You're not worthy of the White House, Mayor. You're not worthy of running this fucking city."

"It's over, Dad. You might as well face it."

He can't stop himself from smiling. A clicking sound has me looking up from my phone. My father glances somewhere to the side. I follow his gaze and feel the very life leaving my body as four armed men come up the hill with semiautomatic weapons pointed at us. "I had a feeling they wouldn't be too far behind," he says. "I'll get away with a slap on the wrist, but you two … Ariana, it's not too late to just leave and never come back. I can help you."

"Your Black Hand friends?" Kendric asks, his weapon still pointed at my father.

"I hope they're still my friends," my father answers, waiting for the gunmen to say something.

"The Black Hand has invested too much in you to let it go to waste," one of them replies. "But there will be a price to pay for this."

"Forgive me, I was just trying to save my daughter," my father sighs deeply. "Sadly, I've discovered there is no saving her. Not anymore."

The words hit me like a punch in the gut. "Wow, so easy to toss me to the wolves, huh? I suppose you tried a lot harder with Mom, but you might as well have been the one who sabotaged her brakes," I say, my voice trembling. "I can't believe you'd stoop this low."

"Power, Miss David," the first gunman says. "Power is absolute."

The second gunman steps forward, and we're surrounded.

Oh, God, this wasn't supposed to happen.

"I was careful on my way over," my father says. "How'd you find me?"

"There's a tracker in the seam of each of your jackets, Mayor David," the first gunman says. "The Black Hand is always watching."

"Where's Masterson?" Kendric asks.

"Doing his part, ever the faithful soldier."

"I've got a bone to pick with him."

"Get in line," the third gunman replies. "Put your gun down, slowly."

Kendric glances back at me. All I can do is look at my father. "You do realize they're going to kill me, right?" I ask him.

"I can't save you, not anymore," he says. "You and this biker goon will be sacrificed for the greater good. I tried to protect you, Ariana. I really tried."

"You're going to let the Black Hand murder your daughter?" Kendric scoffs.

"As far as I'm concerned, her blood will be on your hands. You're the ones who dragged her into this," my father says, then looks at the first gunman. "End it quickly. Do not let her suffer."

I can see the pain in his eyes. Yet he takes a deep breath and chooses to walk away, unable to hold my gaze anymore.

"Murder-suicide it is," the second gunman mutters.

My father turns his back on us and makes his way down the stone path leading to the northern entrance of the cemetery.

I listen to the faint echo of my father's footsteps receding, time slowing down as beads of cold sweat bloom on my temples. Too much tension in my body makes my jaw tighten and lock as I struggle to find a way out of this mess.

"He just left me here to die," I whisper, still shocked. "My own father …"

"For what it's worth, he's not the first nor will he be the last," the first gunman calmly replies. "There are bigger things at stake here, Miss David. I'd stick around and explain everything; perhaps then it would make more sense, but I'm afraid you've run out of time."

Kendric moves to protect me, but there are three other men present with a clear line of fire. It will only take one bullet to end my life, and I fear I may not get to see another sunrise.

"Murder-suicide," I mumble.

"I'm sure we can work something out," Kendric says, doing the one thing I never imagined him capable of doing. He's trying to negotiate with the enemy. Something tells me it won't do much good, but if it buys me even one second to get the hell out of here, I'll take it. Right now, all I can focus on is surviving, no matter the cost. "The cabal has seen what we're capable of," Kendric adds. "If you kill us, it won't shut the MC down. The Steel Knights will only be more emboldened to tear you to pieces."

"Which Steel Knights?" the first gunman asks with an evil grin. "The ones back at the Henry residence?"

The silence that follows speaks volumes. They're talking about Sky and Raylan. "Oh, God," I mumble, my knees suddenly weak.

"Yeah, they're probably already dead," the gunman replies. "Like so many of you who insist on learning the hard way, there is no escaping the Black Hand. You either do as you're told, or you die. Only the strongest survive, only the smartest. It's how we keep this country at the top of the food chain."

"Country? You motherfuckers haven't gotten out of New Hampshire yet," Kendric says. "Don't try to make yourselves bigger than you actually are."

"Well, it doesn't really matter for you two, though, does it?" He points his gun at my head. I stare at the muzzle, at the cold darkness within.

There's a bullet in there with my name on it.