Page 20 of Serpent King's Revenge

"Give me a moment," I said as I picked up the phone again. I walked into the bedroom, this time leaving the door open.

Then I was dialing…the phone was ringing.

And his voice came over the line.

"Dad," I spoke into the receiver, pacing alongside the bed while clutching the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. "I need your help."

"Sprout, thank God,” he said. “I hadn’t heard from you in a few days and I was starting to get worried. What’s going on?”

“You need to promise you won’t get mad,” I said.

He barked out a bitter laugh. “You sound like a teenager, Sprout–but for some reason, I think this is going to be worse than sneaking out to see a boy.”

I bit my lip. “Yeah…Nathan is in jail.”

My dad went silent for a second, processing what I’d just said. “Not sure how I failed to hear about this,” he said. “Fucking Hayes…she’s gone crazy with this case, probably nabbed him on some trumped up charges. I mean, I’m sure your boyfriend–excuse me, fiance–knows how to cover his tracks.”

I swallowed hard. “They got him on something that was my fault.”

“Which was?”

I knew he wasn’t going to like hearing what I had to say next. “The murder of Tyler Matthews.”

“Fucking Christ, Abigail.” Shit–he only called me Abigail when he was really mad. We were out of Sprout territory. Then again…I’d been complicit in killing a federal agent, so I guess he was right to be a little upset. “This is…fuck! And you want me to get him out after he killed a fed?”

“I just need to talk to him,” I said. “I’m not planning a prison break or anything.”

Not yet.

“Or you could get away from the Triad,” he replied. “You shouldn’t be involved in the first place and you know it.”

“No fucking way.” The words came out before I even had a chance to process or plan them–and I knew that was a mistake. “I can’t just walk away. I love him.”

“You love him…” Dad echoed, and I could picture him shaking his head, squeezing his temples like he did when I was being petulant. “Abigail, he is a psychopath. You understand that, right?”

“Well, when you find someone who matches your crazy…”

My dad didn’t appreciate the joke.

"Please, use this chaos as your exit, Abby. Get out while you can," he urged me, his voice firm. "Leave Nathan Zhou and all this darkness behind. We can go back to Boston and everything will be…I don’t know, the way it was. This is what Nathan would want.”

But nothing could go back to the way it was–and no matter what Nathan wanted, I was going to save him. I was pregnant…and even if I wasn’t, I absolutely wasn’t going to leave Nathan behind.

I stopped pacing, steeling myself against the fear and the protective instincts that had always driven my father. I was his little girl, I knew that–but I had a child of my own to worry about now, and they needed their father just as much as I needed mine. "I can't, Dad. I just…I can't." I swallowed hard, my resolve solidifying with every beat of my heart. "Not now. Not like this."

There was a heavy silence on the other end of the line, and I knew he understood—even if he didn't agree. He always knew when my mind was made up.

"Alright, Sprout," he finally said, back to using the nickname that took me back to scraped knees and bedtime stories. "So what do you need from me?”

I sighed, more grateful for my dad than I could have possibly imagined. “I need you to get a message to him,” I said.

My dad groaned in frustration. “Right…of course you do. You know that could put me in hot water with Hayes, right? I’m not with the FBI–”

“I know, but it’s important,” I said. “I just…I want you to check on him, make sure he’s okay and not…I don’t know, not dead, not being tortured, something like that.”

“Simple enough,” he said. “You haven’t heard from him?”

“No,” I replied. “If I had to guess…he’s protecting me. He doesn’t want me involved.”

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