Page 40 of Prodigal

“What happened?” Gideon asked Samir.

“Canto is coding.”

Goddamn it.

13

André satwith his head bowed, hands clasped between his knees as he waited in the hallway outside the med unit. He didn’t know what he was supposed to feel, but he just…

That was his father in there fighting for his life. The man who didn’t want him, who hurt his mother so deeply she never loved anyone else. A man who’d made his disinterest in Gideon plain for everyone to see, and still, André sat there trembling because he didn’t want Ennis to die.

Wasn’t it fucked up?

He thought back to what his life was like a month ago when he didn’t know Gideon Winters and the chaos and danger that surrounded him. When André could pretend he didn’t care that Ennis had no use for him and had chosen one child over another—the sister André had never met but had seen on magazine covers and TV screens. So poised and polished and clearly groomed for greatness.

His eyes burned and he blinked, furious at himself for feeling anything at all. Furious at Gideon for putting him in this situation. Furious at Ennis. At his mother too. He couldn’t count on anyone but himself. He couldn’t trust anyone but himself.Despite Gideon’s sweet words, André refused to allow himself to go down the same road as his mother…

Fall for a wealthy and powerful man only to be discarded when he was done having his fun.

He got up and swallowed before approaching Samir, who stood at the door to the makeshift hospital while Gideon was inside with the doctors.

“I need to leave.”

Samir didn’t look at him. “Gideon wants you to stay here until he’s finished with the doctors.”

“No.” He cleared his throat. “I need to leave this place. This world. I want to go back to mine. Today.”

Samir turned to him then, dark gaze heavy and assessing. He scared André—his silence and the easy way André could see his death reflected in the depths of the other man’s eyes. He was terrifying, but André lifted his chin and held Samir’s stare even though he wanted nothing more than to run and hide.

They called him a coward, Samir’s eyes. But they held no surprise because apparently, Samir expected this of him, for André to tuck tail and run. But this was him protecting himself. He would take his chances out there. After all, being in the company of Gideon and Samir wasn’t all that different, was it?

“Jules and I are leaving today.”

One of Samir’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you?”

Fear flashed in André’s chest. What did that mean? Were they not gonna be allowed to leave? Were they— “You can’t keep us here against our will.”

Samir rolled his eyes and turned away, giving André his back. “Relax. We’re not in the habit of keeping people who don’t want to be kept. But you will wait until Gideon is finished. You can tell him yourself, to his face.”

Did he think André wouldn’t do it? That he wouldn’t tell Gideon the same thing he just told Samir? His mind was madeup. He’d long overstayed his welcome. Time to get the fuck out instead of hiding away.

He returned to the bench, sitting with an ankle crossed over his knee as he waited for Gideon to reemerge. Was Ennis dead? Surely Gideon would have already returned if that were the case.

André shook his head at himself. He couldn’t help it, the traitorous part of him that worried about his father’s well-being. He hadn’t known that part existed until today. He’d thought he would hate the man, and he did, but hate wasn’t all he felt.

He lowered his leg and leaned forward, hunched over with his face in his hands. He’d expected to go his entire life without being in the same room with Ennis. All the things he wanted to say to that man. All the questions he wanted to ask. He thought he’d go to his grave never knowing.

Maybe he still would.

Maybe Ennis wouldn’t make it.

How would that make him feel?

He took a deep breath. Someone had tried to kill Ennis. Just as someone had tried to kill Gideon all those years ago and had taken his mother’s life instead. This world, the world Gideon and Ennis inhabited, scared the fuck out of André. He didn’t want Jules anywhere near it.

Didn’t want to be in it.

But he was, wasn’t he?

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