Chapter 42

Forty-Two

Regan

T here were so many times in my life where I looked at my dad and forgave him. When he said or did something that hurt and I brushed it off.

I hadn't realized until this second how resilient I had become.

The day at Sweet Haven, he had looked me in the eye, told me I was never going to run his business, that I was useless, and what had I done? Brushed it off and went to go to a party for his benefit. Nothing had been there for me that night, but I had gone so no one would think he didn't care because he couldn't attend.

I had been helping him get on good terms with people so his campaign would run smoothly next year, and he had said nothing but cruel things in return.

Maybe I had gone numb to my feelings or my wants, maybe I was weak and cowardly, or maybe I was just strong enough to handle it. Each time, I pushed it aside and moved on.

But was I strong enough to watch my father put a gun to my head and pull the trigger?

My chest heaved as I pushed Rook aside, facing my dad.

"We don't want any deal you have," I said. "You would kill me? For what? Your business? So Elliot can run it one day and I don't get in the way? Why?"

He fought off Aiden and Hero, who were holding him down. While they let him go, they didn't let him stand up. "Elliot will never have my business. All of you young kids are so stupid, I couldn't trust any of you to run it. Elliot will die the minute the lords find out what we did, and I need somewhere to place blame."

I glanced at Elliot, who was fighting against the ties and gag now, hatred and fear coating his face as he glanced from my dad to me.

"But why? Why not pass your business down to your own child?"

My dad sneered, looking up at me with pure malice in his eyes. "Because, Regan, you were never meant to be more than a puppet. You were supposed to make me look good, nothing more. But you, you had to bring all of this on us. You are trying to ruin everything."

I could barely move, shaking my head as I turned to Rook.

"There is nothing to ruin now," Rook said with a smile. "The house belongs to Regan. Asher knows about your theft and is already working to undo the damage and calm the lords back down. He's also helping to assure you have no business left."

My dad's eyes went wide. "What have you done?"

"Took every single one of your clients and business partners and told them the truth. You are stealing from every single one of them. They no longer want to do business together. Everything else left was donated. Money, assets, buildings. All of it was given away this morning to people whose lives you helped ruin." Rook leaned back in the chair, grinning now. "And best of all, your daughter, your own flesh and blood, is now loyal to me. The only person in this world who might have been able to save you is now sitting on this side of the table with me, ready to determine your fate, and I will carry out any fate she decides for you. I honestly thought killing you would be the only thing in this world to make me feel better about what you did, but this, Cameron—your own daughter telling me how she wants your life ruined and me getting to carry out her wishes—is the best revenge I could ever ask for."

His eyes jumped to me again. "Regan, I'm sorry. Please, I shouldn't have done the things I did, but you know how important a legacy is to me. You know how important this business is to me."

"I think we are way past a simple ‘I'm sorry,'" I said. "I don't want you to have any of it back. I'm glad he took it all away from you."

Rook stood up, moving next to my side, but I turned to face him.

"I'm so sorry," I said, not taking my eyes off my dad, "I didn't believe you."

"You shouldn't have. I'm glad you waited for proof, Rebel. I wouldn't want anything less, and I have no issue proving the truth to you."

Before I could respond, a loud crack echoed through the room. Elliot had managed to free one hand and had grabbed the knife Evie had shoved into the my dad's chair. His face twisted with rage as he lunged at my dad.

"You think I'm just going to sit here and let you throw me under the bus?" Elliot snarled. "You think I'm going to die after you make a mess of things? You told me I would get it all, but I was just one more puppet for you."

My dad's eyes went wide with shock, but before he could react, Elliot plunged the knife hard into his chest. He yelled before he collapsed to the floor, blood pooling under him.

A stunned silence filled the room. My heart pounded in my chest as I stared at him on the floor now. I felt like I should do something. Like I should run over and help him, but I couldn't move.

Rook turned to wrap his arms around me, hiding the view of it from me. I didn't want to see it, but part of me felt like I needed to see proof of what had just happened.

Evie yelled out, and Aiden's voice boomed for Hero to grab Elliot. I fought at Rook, forcing him to let me glance around his arm to see what was happening.

Elliot stood in the middle of the room, a bloodied knife held up, swinging wildly if anyone came closer.

"No," he yelled. "No way are you guys stopping me now. He's dead. The company is already set to go to me. I need out of here."

"Rook," I whispered, pushing away more. "Stop him. He's going to kill someone else. Just stop him."

"Stop him, as in…" His voice trailed off, eyes wide as he watched me.

"Yes, as in, stop him ."

"You know what that means," he said, his hand moving up and down my arm.

"Yes, I know what it means. If we let him go, he's going to blame this on us and go after everything. Do it," I said.

Rook nodded and stepped towards Elliot, who was still waving the knife. "Alright, put it down."

"Stay back!" Elliot yelled, his eyes wild with desperation. I knew he would kill anyone in here and not feel an ounce of guilt over it.

Rook kept moving his hands up in a non-threatening gesture. "Put the knife down and we can negotiate something."

Elliot's gaze darted around the room, sweat dripping down his face. "Negotiate? There's nothing to negotiate! He betrayed me, and now you're all trying to kill me. There's nothing to negotiate because I'm leaving here and telling everyone what happened."

In a sudden move, Elliot lunged at Rook, aiming the knife at his chest. Rook twisted to avoid the blade, but Elliot's fist came up, connecting with the scars on Rook's side. I could see the moment the pain shot through Rook's body. He stepped back, momentarily debilitated.

Elliot grinned, thinking he had the upper hand for a second, but Rook recovered fast. With one swing of his arm, Rook landed his punch.

I knew what came next. There was a knife in Rook's fist, and I knew he was going to shove it into Elliot's neck.

Rook looked over his shoulder at me, and I could see the small wince as he twisted his body.

"Rebel?"

"Go ahead."

I could only stare as Rook slid a blade across Elliot's neck.

The blade curved in, sinking further into his neck before Rook pulled. Blood spurted, coating Rook as the other guys watched. Some part of his neck fell to the ground, and I gagged, clamping my mouth shut as bile rose in my throat.

"That solves that issue, then. He can't come after anything your dad might have promised him or make us out to be the killers," Aiden said.

I looked over at Elliot, thankful that Rook had rolled him over, so nothing seemed wrong with him at this angle.

"Karma really caught up to him for leaving you alone with me," Rook said with a tight smile.

Hero cocked an eyebrow. "Or maybe the trying to kill her, ruining her chances of getting the business, or, I don't know, maybe killing him?"

"Okay, I get it, but that night is how we ended up here," Rook said.

"I'm glad, though. For all of it," I said. "Not only was he a very shitty boyfriend, but he was turning out to be a worse stepbrother."

Hero and Mason grinned as Aiden and Evie walked out of the room.

"Come on," Rook said, his voice gentle now as he wrapped an arm around me. "Let me get you out of this room first and we can figure out what to do next."

I nodded, tipping my head back to look at the ceiling as I walked out past my dad's body. Some part of me felt numb to it, but I wondered if that was the shock more so than me being cold or uncaring towards him.

As we stepped into the hallway, the weight of everything that had happened crashed over me. The pain of losing my father, the betrayal, the violence—I could barely breathe. But then Rook's arm tightened around me, and I knew I would at least never have to be alone in it.

Rook walked me out to the hallway and into the main house before he turned to wrap his arms around me.

I leaned in, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything for a few minutes.

"You asked me every step of the way," I said. "You let me have a say."

"I told you I would try not to do anything without asking you first. I mean, I had to do a few things without running it by you, but I thought you would be okay with them."

"You gave up a lot of that hope for revenge on him."

"It's alright. I got what I wanted."

"Him dead?" I asked, the words still not hitting me yet.

"No, Rebel. You. I decided I wanted you and I could live without any of the other stuff."

Tears welled in my eyes again, and I moved up him until he lifted me. "I love you, Rook," I whispered, kissing him hard. "I love you so much and I'm sorry I ever doubted it."

He kissed me back once, smiling as he sat back on the couch with me on top of him. "I told you, I like that you stood up for yourself, even against me. It makes me know you aren't just loving me because I'm forcing it somehow. It lets me know that you are going to love me even when I am difficult to love."

"And you love me even when I am difficult to love," I said. "I didn't know I would find someone who would somehow make me face all of my fears and desires at once. You've dragged me into your dark, dangerous world and shown me how strong I am. I've never felt more like myself. I love you."

His forehead dropped against my chest. "I have spent days wondering how this would all turn out. It's been a long time since I had such little control over my life. This outcome felt like a faraway dream, something I was stupid for hoping for. Thank you, Rebel."

"For what?"

"Trusting and loving me every step of the way, even when it pissed you off."

We stayed like that for a few minutes, enjoying being wrapped up together.

"What do we do now?" I asked, looking back down the hall towards the office.

"We can either work to get it all pinned on Elliot, but it's going to be a huge investigation that could ruin our business and Asher's since he helped me with a lot of the logistics of it," Rook said, his face scrunching as he grimaced. "Plus, if Candy has any care for either of them, she would fight it."

"Or? Because that doesn't sound great."

"We take out the bodies, burn this half of the house down, make it look like an accident, and shut down the investigation as fast as we can."

"Couldn't we do that if we blamed Elliot?"

"Not quite. A murder investigation is going to go a lot further than a house fire, especially if the next of kin isn't going to push for it to be investigated, and we offer them a bribe to stop looking. The house fire option would raise less suspicion for Candy too, and she would know everything would be left to her since they weren't married."

"Okay. We do that, then."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to make the decision just for us. You need to be okay with it."

"What's done is done anyway. Just get it over with."

He gave a soft smile and leaned down to kiss me. "Whatever I can do to help. Go over to the living room. I'll send Evie in. She already texted Harper."

As I walked to the living room, the weight of the situation began to press down on me. My father was dead, Elliot, too, and our lives had just changed in ways I couldn't fully grasp yet. I sat on the couch, my mind racing with everything that had happened.

Evie filed in, then Harper, who had a million questions, and finally Rook came back.

"Hey," Rook said, filling the doorway. "It's all done. Well, almost. How are you doing in here?"

"Good enough, I guess. Can I come back out there now?"

He nodded, reaching out a hand to me. "Come on." He led me down the hall until we reached the hallway to my dad's side of the house. The add-on had been so unnecessary and I realized now it was to keep me out of his business. A whole separate house so he could hide away and make sure I would never be involved.

Not only that, it was so he could hide away and pretend to be sick in bed when he had really been working away in here to try and run drugs. The anger surged again, taking over until I was nearly shaking.

Rook squeezed my hand once, bringing my attention back on him.

"Want to burn his entire place down, Rebel?"

His eyes met mine when I turned, and I felt a rush of relief. "With you? Yes."