Page 130 of Dash

“Fuck piety.” He dropped the knife on the table and began to pace the room. “He gave me a pittance compared to his fortune. Your father was voracious.”

I eyed the knife that now sat at the very edge of my reach. “And you’re not?”

“Watch your mouth,” he snapped and although I braced for a blow, it didn’t come. The douchebag checked his temper before he continued. “Your father wasn’t happy with my oil, my gas, and my lands. No, Richard had to take it all. He stole the most precious thing I owned. That’s when he committed his greatest sin against me.”

Drew’s tablet beeped, interrupting Arthur’s tale. My uncle whirled to look at the screen. Drew holstered his Beretta and leaned over the screen. This was my chance. I dropped the napkin over the knife and dragged them both closer to me.

“Ten minutes to go,” Drew announced, unhooking his carbine from his tactical vest and holding it between his hands.

I glanced at Dash. With an almost imperceptible nod, he urged me to keep Uncle Shit talking. Not hard. He loved the sound of his voice. I also had a lot of questions that needed answers.

“So?” I ventured. “What happened?”

“Catastrophe.” My uncle paced to the end of the table, where he paused, and studied the frescos in the ceiling. “He stole Lupe’s affections right from under my nose.”

“My mother?” I gaped. “You and my mother were…?”

“I met her first.” His eyes acquired an odd sheen. “I loved her more than anything.”

“Did she…?” I had to clear my throat. “Did she love you?”

“In time, she would have.” He seemed so certain of that. “I proposed to her twice, but she said she wasn’t ready. The stars, she told me, didn’t favor the match.”

My mother had always read the night sky before makingimportant decisions. If she’d told my uncle that the stars didn’t favor the match, it was her way of saying no way in hell.

“She was a headstrong woman, set in her ways.” He dug his thumbnail under his index nail, and with a flicker, dislodged the icing trapped beneath it. “But I knew once I made her mine, she would comply with my wishes.”

He spoke of her as if she was a possession he could own. He didn’t know her very well, then. No wonder she’d rejected him.

“Then Richard came calling.” He wiped his hand on his trousers. “When I went on one of my missionary trips, the rake swooped in. I came back and Lupe was pregnant with Nix. I was magnanimous in my response.”

“Magnanimous?” I set both my hands on the table and toyed with the napkin.

“She was pregnant,” Arthur repeated. “I told her I’d forgive her if she got rid of Richard’s spawn and returned to me.”

Uncle had wanted my mom to get rid of Nix? No wonder she didn’t like him! Why my mother fell in love with my father remained a mystery to me, but why she rejected Arthur? That was clear as a bell.

“She married Richard instead.” He shook his head, setting his double chin aflutter. “He kept her pregnant with the rest of you whelps. Then Richard made her sick. He killed her.”

“My father had many flaws, but he didn’t kill my mother.” I fisted my hand around the napkin. “Disease did.”

“Richard was her disease.” Arthur pouted like a child. “His touch caused her sickness. God punished him for his greed by making her suffer. He then took her away from him, away from me. I was punished for my brother’s sins.”

It struck me that my uncle had a very convenient way of using religion when it suited him. He looked up to the ceiling as if besieging some invisible celestial being. At the same time,Dash made a noise and stretched against the wall. Drew glanced at him. Sweeping the napkin from the table, I dropped it on my lap, along with the steak knife entwined with it.

“She was gone.” Arthur sighed. “The only woman I’ve ever loved, stolen from me, assassinated by my brother’s sinful ways. That’s when I hooked into the NWO.”

“And when you decided to betray your own blood,” I pushed the words through my clenched teeth. “You’re a monster, you’ve always been a monster.”

“Your father was the monster.” Arthur puffed out his chest. “I’m the slayer, the chosen one, the bringer of justice.”

Hearing his delusions, I made a new resolution. If Dash and I survived this—no—whenwe survived this, I was going to change the future narrative of the Astor family. No more blood. No more deceit. The Astor curse was going to stop with this generation. The children of Lupe and Richard were going to be different. I was going to find my sisters and, together, we were going to forge a loving family.

“This isnotjustice,” I spoke up. “You’re deluded. You’re rotten inside.”

He was on me in two steps. Flinging his hand, he slapped me across the face. My cheek burned with a second blow that left me reeling. My neck screamed from the whiplash. Dash lunged, but in the next instant, he crashed on the floor by the wall, spasming and hissing.

The collar flashed, and flashed, and flashed.

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