Page 49 of A Father's Insistence

Chapter Twenty-Three

Theodore

Itry my hardest not to look down at my mother. I know she’s a person who for many years I’ve held hatred for because I thought she’d abandoned Victoria and me, but it was all lies. She was escaping the real villain in this story. I need him gone.

Matthew Carter presses a device against the door of the cellar and holds a finger up to silence us.

“Three men, two women,” he relays back to us. “We need to go in quickly and hard. It’s my guess the men will be armed. Two of them will make a grab for the women and use them as shields. They won’t kill them, yet. They lose the bargaining chip if they do. Hamilton will no doubt have one of the ladies. Give me a few seconds, I want to try and ascertain their positions better.”

We all nod in agreement with him, and he goes back to listening at the door. A few minutes later, his eyes go wide with fear, and he drops the listening device and pulls out his gun.

“We go in now. One of the women is about to be raped.”

“Tamara,” Joanna gasps from beside me, and Nicholas and I both step in front of William. I can physically see a change come about him. He’s been calm and collected, up until this point, but his pupils darken to the point where I’m unable to see the color of his irises. He surges forward, but his brother and I hold him in place.

“Out of my way,” William growls.

“Joanna sing hush little baby. Quickly, if he loses it when we go down there it could be the end of Victoria and Tamara,” Nicholas orders as Matthew prepares his men, and they smash through the door into the cellar.

“Wh-What?” Joanna stutters in confusion.

“Do it!” Nicholas shouts.

“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,

Mama’s going to buy you a mocking bird.

And if that mockingbird don’t sing,

Mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring.”

Joanna sings, and William goes limp in our arms. His pupils shrink back, and his brown eyes reappear.

“I want my wife,” he informs us, and both Nicholas and I step aside and allow him down into the cellar. I pull Joanna to my side and follow them down. The basement area is damp, and the smell of mold invades my nostrils. Is this similar to the place Joanna was hidden away? I turn back to her in the dim light of the stairway and can see the hesitance in her eyes, but then it’s instantly masked with a determination so strong I can’t help but feed from it.

We reach the bottom of the stairs and are faced with a stand-off. Matthew and his men are pointing guns at two men: one my father and another I recognize from visiting him. They each hold one of the women. My father stands behind Tamara, and the other man is behind Victoria who looks dazed and confused. A third man lies unmoving on the floor—blood has started to pool around him from a wound to his chest. I’m left in no doubt that he’s dead or nearly there. It’s a fatal wound, but I feel no sorrow for his death.

“You’ve changed your hair,” William speaks first and cocks his head to where Tamara stands, wearing a wig of thick black hair.

“It wasn’t my idea.” She tries her hardest to struggle against my father’s hold, but he’s too strong for her, and there is a hesitancy in her movements, probably because of the child within her stomach.

Nicholas takes control of the situation with his commanding presence.

“It’s over, Hamilton. Let the ladies go.”

“It’s not over until the blood in your body flows all over this floor,” my father retorts and moves his gun from where it’s pointed at Tamara’s head and aims it straight toward Nicholas. He doesn’t pull the trigger, though. He knows the speed of the men who have guns pointed at him is far superior to his own. He’d be dead before the bullet leaves the gun.

I push Joanna closer to William, and he tucks her behind him, so I can step forward to join his brother.

“It’s over, Father. You’ve made too many mistakes. Put the gun down.”

A lecherous sneer crosses his face.

“I see you’ve brought my little whore with you. I underestimated her ability to escape the way she did. I guess I’ll have to work harder at breaking her when you’re lying dead next to the Duke. So many titles for me to take. A whole new world to rule over.”

“You sure it’s only cigars he smokes and nothing a little stronger?” Matthew raises an eyebrow over at me.

“I’m beginning to wonder.” I shrug my shoulders.

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