21
Wylder
I burstthrough the front doors of my house. A couple of guards stared, uneasiness flickering across their faces, as I strode through the foyer with Mercy, Kaige, and Gideon at my heels.
I didn’t say a word to the Noble underlings, just stalked up the stairs and onward into the hall that led to Dad’s office. I hadn’t paused for even a second since Kaige had parked outside the mansion. Fury burned in my chest and unfurled through my limbs, making my hands flex and clench with the urge to find something to punch.
The sight of the study door up ahead cooled my rage just a little. I had to get my temper under control to have this conversation, or Dad would just brush me off. I needed to be clear and incisive, not ranting and raving.
He wasn’t getting away with his betrayal.
I stopped and dragged air into my lungs. Then I glanced back at my woman and my friends. “I think I’d better talk to my father alone.”
Mercy frowned. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? We know what he’s capable of.”
Kaige nodded, cracking his knuckles. “We’ll back you up every step of the way.”
I shook my head. “I’ll get the most honest answers out of him if it’s just family. I don’t want him focused on anything but what I’m saying to him. You don’t need to worry—I can handle it.”
“We’ll be right outside,” Gideon said, quiet but unshakeable. He wasn’t going to question my competence by outright saying it, but the implication was clear: if I did happen to need them, all I’d have to do was shout.
If this situation came to that… I didn’t even want to think about it. I wished I didn’t have to wrap my head around the things my father had already done in the past few hours.
Keeping an iron grip on my temper, I walked the rest of the way to the study and grasped the doorknob. I half-expected it to be locked, but it twisted easily in my hand. I marched in without preamble and kicked it shut behind me.
Dad was sitting behind his desk, his expression its typical impenetrable mask. “I expect a knock rather than you barging right in,” he said, as if this was the time to be chiding me like a toddler.
I bit back half a dozen snarky retorts that leapt to my tongue and strode up to the opposite side of his desk. I braced my hands against the top, leaning slightly forward, and met Dad’s eyes with a gaze I kept as firm and steady as my voice.
“You undermined our operation at the waterfront property. You ordered a bunch of the men who were supposed to be supporting us in defending it to leave—so they could steal the Storm’s supply of Glory while his men were distracted.”
Dad gazed back at me, looking so unruffled—almost bored—that it took all my self-control not to lunge right across the desk and sock him in the nose. “I’m glad that you were able to put the pieces together so quickly,” he said. “Maybe that mind of yours hasn’t gotten so soft after all. It was a perfect plan, as evidenced by the fact that it went off without a hitch.”
A perfect plan? I couldn’t stop a little venom from creeping into my tone. “Do you have any idea how many of our men died because of that plan? We were holding the Storm’s forces off until we lost so much support. We could all have been slaughtered.”
Had Dad hoped that even more of us would die? The thought struck me with a chill that cut through my anger. Maybe he’d wanted Xavier to mow me down like so many of the Noble and Claws men who’d fallen today. One disobedient heir off his plate.
Dad simply shrugged. “Our men know the risks of our line of work. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good.”
Funny how those sacrifices had all been by the men he hadn’t trusted enough to call on for his secret operation—the ones he must have known would be more inclined to stick with me. He’d played a move that would secure his goals and also eliminate underlings he thought could become a future problem without getting his own hands the slightest bit dirty.
But I still didn’t understand what those goals were. I gritted my teeth. “The greater good? What about the waterfront property you’ve invested so much money and time in? We had to pull back—we were going to lose it anyway. Lord only knows what Xavier and the others have done to the site now.”
Dad chuckled, a low humorous sound. “Well, I, for one, hope they took as much aggression as they pleased out on it. It’ll be easier to claim insurance if I can easily prove that the damage was maliciously caused by an outside source.”
I still couldn’t wrap my head around what he was saying. “You had all these plans for it—you put so much effort into getting the contract—”
Dad waved aside my protest. “Plans change. We have to think on our feet and adapt to changing circumstances. Ever since the drug distribution incident, that property has become too much of a hassle to deal with. It’s much more to our benefit to cut our losses and focus on a new business venture.”
I stared at the face of the man I had once thought held absolute power in Paradise Bend. I knew that wasn’t the truth anymore. He knew it too, and maybe that was why he was going off the rails like this.
“A new business venture,” I repeated slowly. Something that to him was worth even more than the waterfront property. All the unpleasant suspicions that’d entered my head when Gideon had announced what he’d discovered came rushing back to the front of my mind. “Tell me you’re not going to start selling Glory.”
Dad gave me a thin smile. “Why shouldn’t I? You’ve seen how avidly the people of the county are responding to it. We certainly couldn’t leave it in the Storm’s hands with the power it was giving his people.”
“One warehouse full isn’t going to last all that long.”
“Which is why it’s a good thing my men were also able to find information about the Storm’s suppliers in that warehouse. We can set up our own distribution channels and take over the entire market. Even expand it farther abroad.”