Chapter 26

Knox

Three words.

Three-fucking-words.

That's all it takes for me to drop my hold on her, snatch the papers out of her grasp and ignore everyone in the fucking room as I escape. I hear Xan and Tay shouting for me to come back but I don't listen, I want to get in my car and get as fucking far away from here as I can but I can't. Not with all the fucking pigs on the lookout for me. I head for my bedroom, slamming the door closed behind me. I pace the length of my room until I can calm myself enough—well, enough that I don't shred the papers in my hands. I rest my back against the far wall and slide down until my ass meets the hardwood floor. Ignoring the sounds of shouting from outside my room, I sift through the papers. The top ones are all Lakeland's medical records. I exhale sharply at the sight of the word amnesia.

She was telling the truth!

I comb through the rest of her records seeing that the doctors strongly urged for her to see a therapist to help with gaining her memories back but there are no records here of her ever seeing one. Her discharge papers state Percy signed her out against doctors recommendations that she needed to remain in the hospital. He used her amnesia against her but why? What the fuck did her father get out of keeping her away from me? The next one is a report on medication for Lake. None of the medication listed is what she said Percy had been giving her for years. I scan over the next couple of reports to find a receipt from a pharmacy for a script under her father's name for all five of the medications she mentioned to me at Central Park. The fucker was drugging her to keep her memories suppressed.

I place those papers to the side and will myself to remain calm as I see Roberto's on the next set of papers, I scan over the report and still at the last paragraph that is addressed to me.

Knox,

You owe me nothing, you owe no one a thing except for your mother and sister.

There is a key attached to the back of this letter, find the safety deposit box and everything you need to take over will be there. It's in your hometown, your mother will know which bank.

You hate me and I understand that, I wanted your hate, I wanted you as far away from me as possible. You owe it to yourself to know the truth. That girl was nothing but a pawn in a battle of men wanting more money.

Find the truth.

I turn the page over trying to see who it's from but it's stapled together with the medical records that show Roberto didn't fucking die. I thought I managed to shoot him in the back of the head but by the looks of these reports, I grazed the side of his neck with the bullet. If this shit is true, why the fuck did he pretend to stay dead all this time? I stand and grab the manila envelope from the bed and turn it upside down, a single gold key falls to the bed. I stare at the fucking thing like it's going to attack me. Grinding my teeth, I snatch the key and shove it in my pocket, then scan through the rest of the documents Knight gathered for me. Anger courses through me at the still shot image of Percy, Karl and Giovani. There is a fourth person with them but their face is obscured by a mask. It's not the fact that I can't see that has my blood boiling, it's the fact that I can tell from the body shape that it's a woman who has a leash clasped to a collar around her neck. Karl holds the leash in his fat stubby hands.

I flick to the next photo to see it's a picture of a man"s back as he stands next to a white Honda. I flick to the next image which gives me a side-on view of his face and everything inside me stills, my heart rate slows at the sight of my father's face. Too lost in the sight of Roberto Da Luca's face, I don't hear the door open.

"Knox?" Tearing my gaze from the picture I turn to see Lakeland and my mom standing in the doorway with Tay and Xan behind them. Lakeland nibbles on her bottom lip for a second before pulling a piece of folded paper from her back pocket and crossing the room to hand it to me. I stare at it for a second before finally standing and taking it from her. The moment I read over the contents it slips through my fingers. As I stare down at her, tears cloud her eyes. "I lost our baby," she chokes out. Without thinking, I toss the other papers to the bed and wrap my arms around her and bury my face in her hair as she cries for the loss of the child we will never know.

"You were pregnant the night of the accident?" Xan says. I flick my gaze to him to see a horrified look on his face. Tay reaches out and places a hand on his shoulder but he shakes it off before storming out of the room. I don't have it in me to deal with his pity party right now, I've got too much on my mind and can barely process everything I have just learned.

"I'm so sorry." Lake hiccups. Pushing her back, I bend down and grip her face between my hands as I swipe away her tears with my thumbs. The shattered look in her eyes spears me.

"You did nothing wrong?—"

She shakes her head as she reaches up to grip my forearms. "I killed our baby and I can't even fucking remember it! I don't even remember you! I deserve everything my father did to me, what kind of mother forgets about their fucking child—" I stop her hysterical rambling.

"None of this is your fault. I read everything, Lay. Your father did this to us. Giovani, Roberto, Percy and Karl are going to fucking pay for what they took from us." I vow.

"Knox, we can't kill Karl," Taylan says. I cut a glance to him.

"You think I'm going to let that fucker live?"

"You can't kill him without proof. We need solid evidence that he had something to do with what happened to Wave, River and Lake… without it we start a war we can't win."

"I'm not waiting–"

"You won't have to." He cuts in, then says, "I got a message from King, the meeting with the heads of the families is set for two days' time. We go to the meeting, get a read on Karl and if he does anything, we go to the others and tell them." I mull over his words for a second before turning back to Lakeland. Her eyes are filled with fire and pride swells inside me at that look.

"You ready for what comes next?" I ask her, this is the only chance she is going to get to say if she wants in on the war that is to come.

"I want them all to pay for what they took from us."

Unable to contain my smile at her reply, I nod and look back at Tay. "Get Xander and the men ready to fly to Switzerland, we meet with the heads and then we go to war against my father and uncle."

We all sit around the table. The fucking thing is round so no one is able to be seated at the head of the table, giving us the illusion that we are all equals here. There are no weapons allowed in this gothic style church that serves as our meeting ground, only the leaders and their seconds are allowed in here. I ignored that rule when I dragged Lake inside. I felt Karl's beady eyes on us the whole time but ignored the cunt. I know Xander is on edge and if Karl makes one wrong move, Xan is going for his jugular.

Ian, the leader of the English sits while his four seconds stand behind him, Andreas and three of his men sit while four others stand behind them representing the Russian's, the Irish cunt sits with four of his men seated on either side of him and three stand at attention behind him. Costa, the leader of the Greeks sits while his two men stand behind him. Bishop and his four brothers plus his brother-in-law sit with his man Luka standing behind them but it's the sight of Royal, Chaos and Chanel with a man standing behind her that holds my attention. They are all young, around my age, but the fact a woman sits at this table as a leader is fucking awe inspiring. Karl, Ian and Costa will be hating it.

Switzerland puts all of us on equal ground, this is the one country no one runs. It's not through lack of trying, anyone who has tried to take over this country has been pushed out by all of the families currently claiming a seat at this table. I must stare at Chanel too long because her father and the man standing behind grunt and growl in my direction. I raise my hands and smile.

"I meant no disrespect, Murelo. I'm just honored to be alive to see a woman claim a seat at our table for the first time as a leader." Chanel smirks and winks at me, I can't help but grin at the badass.

"Now you've seen it you can look elsewhere," the guy standing behind her sneers. It's obvious in the way that he stands directly behind her and how he grips the back of her seat that they are together. The fact he is able to stand behind his woman and not feel inferior is a fucking testament to him.

"You allow your men to speak out of turn?" Karl the dirty fucking mutt asks.

Royal shakes his head. "He isn't my man, he's hers and if you try to silence him you will learn why we call her Sin."

"Noted, young Murdoch," Karl answers but it appears Royal doesn't approve of being called out as young.

"We're here and kept our word to introduce all the families to the Memento Mori, is there anything else?" Bishop says directing all our attention back to him.

"Yes," Ian answers. "The war between you and the Albanians has caused setbacks for us. Our shipments have stopped and with them out we no longer have a supplier." Well sucks to fucking be them, dumbasses should never have gotten into business with the Albanians, they have too many enemies.

"Your shipments will continue." All eyes turn to Royal. "Constance will now be running the arms shipments under our guidance. The price for the firearms will remain the same but the contract you had with Halil will be changing."

"You do not dictate the terms, boy, the Albanians weren't yours to take out–"

Chaos cuts Ian off. "Yes, the fuck they were. Those cunts took the life of my brother, they're fucking lucky we stopped at killing just them and didn't go after their fucking families!"

"And the feds that were killed, that brought a lot of heat on your family," Andreas adds.

"My son had nothing to do with that," Knight snaps. "I will not apologize—my wife and I took the lives of the survivors from that day. You want to argue over heat from the feds and the loss of Halil, come at me. I'm right fucking here and ready to go to war with any of you if you so much as show me an ounce of disrespect over avenging my fucking son!" Everyone in the room lowers their heads in a show of respect for the loss Knight Murdoch suffered, no one should have to lose a child.

"No one will take action against your family, you were within your rights to avenge the death of your son, Knight," I say with conviction, daring any of these other fucks to argue against me. Before the Murdoch's arrived we all agreed that no one would take action against the family.

"I say you should have taken the families out," Costa adds. The Greeks do things differently to the rest of us, they keep everything to do with their family hidden and never disclose any information to outsiders. They are a wildcard in this little peace treaty we have going on.

"If you are here to argue or try to come after my family for the backlash over the death of my cousin, then I am telling you now, you will have the entirety of the Memento Mori and the Murdoch mafia coming after each of you," Chanel's tone is cold and void of all emotion, earning smirks from all the men around the table. I spy Karl grinning at her like she is a prize and clench my fists under the table.

"I just said, no one will come for any of you. We voted earlier about that, Knight was within his rights to do what he did. Any of us here would have done the same thing." I pull my gaze from Sin to look at Knight for a second before settling on Chaos knowing that he is the one that needs to be tamed. I can feel the bloodlust clinging to him and I know exactly how it fucking feels to need the blood of the cunt that took your sibling from you to coat your hands. "You have my condolences; my twin sister was murdered six years ago and she is the reason I currently sit where I am. The bloodlust will pass over time, but the hunger for revenge will never stop. Well, for me it hasn't stopped. It may be different for you but just know, the Canadians will never seek repercussions against you for avenging the loss of your brother. If you ever need to cross my border to find a fucker involved in his slaying, you need only ask."

He nods his thanks. "Appreciate it."

"As new members to this table there are rules to be followed," Andreas says.

Royal scoffs. "Coming from the guy who only has his seat at this table because my aunt gave it to him?" The Russians begin to spew insults at Royal in their native tongue.

"Zakroy svoy chertov rot, poka ya ne zakryl yego dlya tebya!" (Close your fucking mouth before I close it for you!) Gage roars, silencing the Russians.

"Your nephew disrespects us, we will not stand for that," Andreas claps back, glaring at Gage.

"And I will not stand for your men hurling insults at my family, pull them the fuck in line now. Do not forget who you are speaking to, Andreas. My wife may not be present but remember who the fuck she is and it is by her mercy you have Russia. Push me again and see what happens." Fuck me, Gage Murdoch just spanked Andreas' ass in front of all of us without a single fuck given.

"Enough! I did not come here for petty squabbles between families," Ian snaps. Since the moment we arrived here and he saw me, Ian hasn't spoken a single word to Karl which leads me to believe he has severed ties with the fucker.

"I move to petition the Memento Mori as a head family in the US alongside the Murdochs. All in favor?" Bishop declares.

"Before we vote," Costa cuts in. "What guarantee do we have that they will not disturb the peace we have built? It has taken generations for us to get to this point where we are able to meet. I will not vote yes just because they are your kin."

"They will be under our guidance and we will vouch for them," King says, speaking for the first time.

"That is not enough, they are young and seek power," Costa says, earning glares from the Memento Mori. "Rumors have reached us that they operate without your consent and they have a man who is on the FBI's most wanted list in this room with us." Costa brings a valid argument to the table, none of us can afford that type of heat right now, especially not me as I'm preparing to go to war and have CSIS on my ass.

"Those charges were overturned," Chanel snaps.

"Forgive me, but that means nothing to me. I want assurances, Bishop."

"What assurances, Costa?" Bishop's tone is hard and unyielding.

"I want the peace to remain amongst our families. If they are coming for the Albanians and from what I hear, they also possess Columbia through a union of your son and his wife to be, what is to stop them from trying to wage war against us? Can you stop that and personally guarantee me that if I was to offend your son he wouldn't retaliate?"

"A school," Chaos announces drawing all our attention to him.

"What?" Karl says in disbelief.

"We can guarantee peace through a school," he says.

"How?" I push.

Chaos looks around the room as he speaks. "We open a school here on neutral territory, where all future heirs attend. It will be a school for kids like ours. If we can raise our children in a setting like that, then peace will be achievable for all future generations."

"A school?" Andreas says in wonder.

"Yes. Hatred and bias is taught. No child is born with hatred in their heart, they learn it from us." He has a valid point and after learning about the loss of my own kid two days ago, I want to ensure that the day I decide to have a child that they are protected.

"Who would run this school?" I ask.

"We would all be able to vet any potential staff members, as this wouldn't be a normal school, it would be a school that teaches our children how to run our empires—fighting, shooting, self-defense—we would be raising our children in a unified setting," Chaos answers without missing a beat.

"We do not operate like you, my children are raised and taught–"

Chaos cuts Costa off. "We make the school a maximum of four years, from the ages of sixteen to nineteen so if they should so choose, they can still attend college but this is mandatory. This way none of us are there to influence them and they are able to mingle and meet others, brokering their own form of peace without us interfering."

"You will send your children to this school?" Ian asks.

"Yes," he says with zero hesitation.

"I don't have children so therefore my vote is null and void for this," Andreas announces.

"Who covers the cost for the school?" Karl asks Chaos, the sound of his voice grates on my fucking nerves. Before Chaos can answer, Rook cuts in and takes over.

"We all do. I have two young daughters as you know, if this school is a way for me to protect my daughters, then I say we all fucking fund it." The next hour is spent going over the terms of the school and trying to decide if this is a good idea or not. Karl and Ian agree, which surprises me but given the fact none of their children will attend the school as they are older, it makes sense. Andreas has agreed to go with the majority given the fact he isn't planning on having children and the fact he bats for the other team. Costa tried to vote against the school but lost to the majority. The construction on the school will begin immediately. They will board at the school for four years and need to integrate with other kids from different families. We have also agreed to open the school to politician's kids, princes and princesses and so on, as long as they understand how the school is run, they may attend.

"Now, all in favor in offering the Memento Mori a seat at this table with the notion of peace in the works?" We all agree to allow them to share in the heads of the families on a trial as long as the school works out.

"Don't fuck this up, kids. See you for the opening," Karl snickers as he and the others head out. I call out to Chaos before he can follow after his family.

"Yeah?"

"Your uncle asked for permission for you to cross my border," I say.

"He did, but turns out, she isn't there."

"Really?" I say surprised.

He narrows his eyes. "The fuck does that mean?" I smile and shake my head before shooting a glance over my shoulder at Lake who looks fucking furious. I get it, she is pissed that I didn't call Karl out but Taylan was right, without proof I can't touch the cunt.

"It means, I know what it's like to be led on a woman hunt, only for them to outsmart us."

"Oh, this bitch thinks she is smart but she isn't that good. I'll get her ass back and show her what the fuck happens when she runs from me."

"If you manage to keep her ass by your side, send me instructions on how you did it. I think I may need it." Lake must sense my gaze on her, she pops her head up and shoots me a glare. Chaos snorts. "Looks like you just need to cuff her ass to your side."

Now I scoff. "I tried that. She picked the lock and then stabbed me before jumping out of my second-story window and running."

"Yeah, good luck with that one," he says with laughter in his tone.

"Thanks, I'm gonna need it." We shake hands and say goodbye, then I turn back to my boys and Lake. The three of them stand there with murderous looks on their faces and I get it, now with this shit out of the way, it's time to go to fucking war.

"Let's move, we got a lot to prepare for," I say.

"What about him?" Lake grits out, sighing I scrub a hand down my face.

"Unless he gets involved or we have concrete proof he has been aiding the others, we can't touch him, Lay. I'm sorry." Her nostrils flare in anger and her tiny hands clench into fists at her sides.

"I want Percy dead. If that bastard helped him in any way, I will kill him and not give a single fuck about the repercussions, do you understand?" My cock twitches in my pants and I bite down on my lip to keep from smirking. She looks fucking sexy barking orders at me. I'm so fucking her ass on the plane as punishment for making me hard in front of my boys.