Page 180 of Devious Knight

I get to the power station with fifteen minutes to spare. There are cars parked all around but I don’t see anyone until we’re on the hour mark.

First I see Parker walking around the side of the building. I was wondering if he was going to have the balls to face me.

At least we don’t have to play nice anymore.

Nikoli follows behind him carrying a laptop. He’s as tall as Parker, but with black hair and a crooked nose that looks like it healed that way after being broken several times.

Seeing the man I’ve been after for so long flares my temper and my blood pressure spikes like someone turned on a fire beneath my skin.

A guard comes next with Isabelle. Behind him are at least forty men carrying machine guns. They look like a battalion ready to fight.

These guys definitely came equipped for a war.

Isabelle is gagged and ropes are wrapped around her wrists. In the mixture of the moonlight and the lighting from the power station I can see bruises on her face.

They hurt her.

Whoever did that will pay with their lives.

The group walk to the front of the station and stop by the steps leading up to the entrance. The guards fan out on either side with their guns raised.

I open the car door and get out with my hands held up to show that I have no weapons on me.

In these situations your weapons become whatever you can take from your enemy.

I look at Isabelle and the asshole holding her places his gun to her temple. The pleading terror in her eyes grips me and I hate that I have nothing but my presence here to offer her.

I pray with everything inside me that whoever is coming to back me up will get here fast. And that they’ll know what to do without her getting hurt.

“So this is him,” Nikoli says in his accented voice, drawing my attention away from Isabelle.

He looks me over, sizing me up with a smirk on his twisted face.

“This is him,” Parker answers.

Slowly I turn to face my godfather. I stare at him head on, challenging him with the firm look in my eyes. “Is that really all you can say?”

“There’s nothing else, kid.”

“No apologies or anything like that?”

“No. I hoped this day would never come but I accepted that if it did I’d stand by my choice.”

“Your choice?”

“Wealth and power.”

What an evil asshole. “Was anything real with you?”

“Yes. It was all real. I was real with you. I took you as a son because I couldn’t have children of my own.” He speaks with a straight face, showing no remorse. This is the first I’m hearing that he can’t have kids. It explains his frivolous lifestyle.

“I still thought of you as mine even after my dear best friend found out the details of my secret life,” Parker continues. “Your father wanted to pull the plug on our investments and expose my crimes, but in my mind that didn’t change the relationship I had with you.”

“That means nothing to me.”

“But that’s what you wanted to hear, wasn’t it?”

Maybe. Perhaps I did want the explanation. Because at least now I know.

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