Page 84 of Prodigal

“And I don’t trust you,” Ennis shot back. “Yet here I am, surrounded by all your armed men.”

André sighed around the forkful of delicious confection melting on his tongue. “Well, took you two long enough, huh?” He’d expected them to start going after each other the moment they sat down, but at least they had the decency to wait untilafterAndré’s belly was full of food he couldn’t even pronounce. Both men looked at him. “Why don’t we get down to the heart of the matter, hm? No sense in pretending.” He paused. “Do you know who is responsible for Gideon’s mother’s death?” he asked his father.

Next to him, he felt the sudden tension that flooded Gideon’s body. He lowered a hand between them, stroking Gideon’s thigh in an effort to soothe him, though he wasn’t sure if it would work or for how long it would last.

“What do you plan to do with this information?” Ennis asked Gideon, who stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“Kill everyone involved,” Gideon responded harshly. “That’s what I plan to do.” His nostrils flared, muscles tight under André’s palm. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’re stalling.”

Ennis faced him squarely. “I am here only because I love my son and I want to do right by him.”

“Fuck you,” Gideon spat. “You only suddenly decided you wanted to do right by him when you found out he was with me.”

“Hey.” André nudged him with his shoulder. “Let’s take it down a notch. Please.” He understood Gideon’s anger and frustration but didn’t want the situation to get out of control. “Tell us what you know and we’ll all go our separate ways.”

Ennis glanced away briefly before meeting André’s eyes. “That’s not what I want. I don’t want us to go our separate ways.” His eyes beseeched André even as he said, “Although, I don’t know how that happens after today.”

It was André’s turn to stiffen. “What does that mean?” He watched Ennis’s Adam’s apple surge. “Who killed Gabriella Winters?”

“I did,” Ennis whispered. “I killed her.”

Before that could fully register, Ennis was on the floor and Gideon was standing over him with a gun in his face.

André jumped up. “Gideon!”

Armed men peeled away from the shadows, encroaching on them with their weapons drawn. André froze, his hammering heart plunging to the soles of his feet.

“You killed my mother?” Gideon roared, his body trembling as he pressed the gun harder against Ennis’s forehead. “You fucking?—”

“I was given a choice…” Ennis lifted his chin, meeting Gideon’s crazed eyes. “Your mother or André. I chose my son.”

Gideon’s entire body shook.The hate, the anger, the remembered agony of just what he’d lost, vibrated through him. Relief too, that he was finally getting answers. But his hand remained steady. The gun in Ennis’s face didn’t waver, not once.

Because Gideon knew what he had to do. He knew.

He’d suspected Ennis—just as he’d suspected every single member of The Council—of being behind his mother’s death. Behind the second attempt at Gideon’s assassination. But hearing it now, knowing the truth, he wanted to toss the gun aside and tear the man on the ground apart with his bare hands.

“They gave me a choice.” Ennis wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, his gaze was on André, who was making sounds of distress just over Gideon’s shoulder.

But Gideon couldn’t focus on him.

“I chose you,” Ennis told André.

Gideon swung, smashing the gun into Ennis’s face.

“Gideon! Oh my God!”

He ignored André’s shout. “Don’t look at him,” he snarled at Ennis. “Don’t fucking talk to him.”

Blood ran down Ennis’s temple, but he still didn’t look at Gideon. All his attention was now on the son he claimed to have been protecting.

“I got an envelope one day.” Voice shaking, Ennis’s eyes pleaded with André. “There were pictures of André inside.” He faced Gideon then, with blood running down his face and emotion roughening his voice. Gideon didn’t give a fuck about any of it.

“Speak,” he ordered. He wanted all the details, and then he would make that motherfucker pay. The way he’d been itching to do for so long.

“Photographs of André and his mother were in the envelope, along with a note. The person said they knew who André was to me and that he and his mother would die if the Winters heir wasn’t dead, by my hand, within a week.”

André made a forlorn sound, stepping up to stand beside Gideon. Maybe he was seeking comfort, maybe he was offering his own, but Gideon couldn’t get past the heat of anger, the rush of pain. It was a tight ball stuffed down his windpipe and hecouldn’t fucking breathe, couldn’t think. He just wanted to spill more of Ennis’s blood so the sonofabitch could feel what he felt, could experience what he’d experienced. What no child should experience.

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