Page 124 of Vengeful Vows

But at this point, does it even matter?

I follow him into the office, and he gestures to the couch.

I sit down, pulling my legs up beneath me.

“You know what I’ve done. Who I am.”

“Yes.” Patrick nods. “I do.”

“Are you... are you going to kill me?”

Patrick snorts. “No, no, a’stor. Nothing like that. Not over this.”

“I know how this kind of stuff works.”

“Do you, now?” Patrick gives me a slight smile and raising a silver eyebrow. “Please, enlighten me.”

I sigh. “Someone betrays you; you get rid of them."

“Maybe that's the way Niall Murphy does things, but you get more than one chance in the Burke clan.”

“Really?” It seems crazy to me that he wouldn’t be brutal and swift with his punishment.

“Speaking of Murphy…” He takes his phone to slide across the desk toward me. “You can call him, if you want.”

I stare at him, starting to tremble. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. All I ask is that you stay in this room while you talk to him.”

I just keep looking at the phone, and finally, I pick it up and dial my father’s number.

“Hello?"

There’s a lot of background sound, like he's throwing a dinner party or something.

My blood starts boiling.

“Daidí?”

“Bree,” he breathes. “Where are you? Have the Burkes let you go?”

“No,” I state. “And I don’t want to go.”

My father pauses for a long moment. “What was that?”

“I said I don’t want to go. I know what you did. They told me what you did to their family, and I don’t want anything to do with it or you.”

He snorts. “Oh, so they’ve filled your pretty head with lies, have they? I didn’t know you'd turn traitor so easily, Bree.” He pauses and then mutters something I can barely understand under his breath, but I know it’s about my mother.

“What did you say?”

“I said you are just like your mother.”

“What are you talking about?” I stand up. “Did… did you do something to her?”

I don’t want to believe he could stoop so low, he could be this much of a monster. But he killed Declan’s mom knowing who she was. Could he have done the same with mine?

He wouldn’t, right?

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