I walked over to the fireplace where shimmering specks of light shone onto the white shag carpet laying before it. When I was a kid, before I was sent to the farm, before my father was killed, before Vault was on this path, I used to sleep beside the fire and listen to it crackle, and my father would read to me.
Now, I hated fire. I hated what it had almost killed.
I casually sat in the antique purple velvet chair, crossing my bent leg over the other and leaning back. I rested my hands on the padded armrests that had carved lions’ heads at the base. My father used to relax in a chair like this in the evenings, although it was in England where we grew up before my mother sat on Vault’s board.
His glasses would perch on the bridge of his nose, and he’d have to keep pushing them back while he read. He could be deadly, but he also had a lightness to him that made my childhood a little easier. He’d often sit me on his lap and talk to me about Vault and how it all started. A secret government that didn’t follow the laws, but had laws of its own. Its purpose had been to take out individuals that governments couldn’t due to laws, politics or resources.
But that had changed when Mother took over.
She would never admit to missing him, but I knew parts of her did. She had to because she made one fatal mistake the day she killed him—she killed him.
Instead of years of torture, she gave him mercy. He knew it, too. They were the last words whispered from his lips. I couldn’t hear him, but I knew what he said, ‘Thank you.’
But none of it mattered anymore. All of this was ending. I was taking out Vault’s foundation and that included Mother.
“I don’t like her.”
I sighed. “You don’t like anyone. And you’re making this personal.”
She turned and her heels clicked evenly on the stone as she walked over to the window. “It’s too late. I told Brice to get rid of her.”
Bile rose in my throat and my heart thudded against my rib cage. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Brice looked after Vault’s Toronto house and was a cold son of a bitch. “A shame.” I’m going to gut you. I stood and headed for the door like I didn’t give a shit. Like I wasn’t being torn apart inside by a dull, rusted blade.
“You really don’t care about her? You were using her for Vault?”
I closed my eyes briefly before I turned and faced her. “No, I don’t care. You taught me better than that. But like I’ve told you before, I would’ve utilized her brilliance.”
It was like something flashed in her eyes, a greedy bead of hope for using another person for her own benefit. “And you believe she can take over her father’s work? The girl was rather pitiful and didn’t finish her schooling.”
And whose fault was that? I had no idea if London could, but it didn’t matter, none of this did. I was here to get my sister, Chess, out of prison, convince my mother London was valuable again so she’d drop any security on London’s cell in Toronto, and to find out what I could on the farm as well as details about the anonymous board member. It didn’t look like I’d get much out of her on the farm, or the board member, but there were other ways.
“Yes, I do. She’s been working beside her father since she was able to hold a test tube. I wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble for pussy, no matter how good it was. That was a mere bonus.” It was my best lie yet and there wasn’t even a flicker of suspicion in my mother’s expression. “But you’ve had her imprisoned, and torture has a way of destroying the mind.”
“Kai, you know the protocol. It’s not torture. Merely methods to persuade that have been used for centuries.” Torture. I knew them because I experienced them.
“And what do you need to persuade her for if your plan was to kill her?”
She laughed, a mild, frilly sound that didn’t match her cunt attitude. “I’m certain you’re aware, your loyalty was unclear. We required a test.”
I fuckin’ knew it. “And did I pass?”
“Not with flying colors, son.” I couldn’t stop the twitch in my jaw when she called me that. I wasn’t her son; I was a product of Vault. “Regardless, the girl hasn’t been touched in weeks. She was rather feisty until you saw her. What did you say to her?”
And of course Mother had looked at the security feed that day I went to the Toronto house to erase the email Tanner sent. I’d been walking down the dark, cold basement corridor when I heard her—London. I’d kept walking, even made it to the door, before I turned back. I had to see her even though I knew I couldn’t get her out. That day destroyed me. What I had to say to her was worse.