Page 52 of Ruthless Prince

My parents are in the kitchen at the table.

Nico gives me a nod. “Son. We should talk about what happened.”

“We should.”

I leave Ellie with Aurora—the two seem to be getting along well for such a short time of knowing each other—and follow my father into his office.

“I am sorry,” are the first words out of his mouth. “I shouldn’t have locked you up. I have some trust issues, you see.”

“I shouldn’t have tried to kill you.”

“You were just trying to save your wife.”

“Thank you, for getting her out of that house.” I bow my head. “I wasn’t able to.”

He places his hand on my shoulder. “You would have done it if I hadn’t locked you up in my cell. Don’t beat yourself up about that. We’ve missed years together, Vincent. It’s going to take time for us to truly trust each other. I’m guessing life with Igor wasn’t easy.”

“It wasn’t.”

“And life without you wasn’t easy.”

“How come you and … Mom didn’t have more children after I was gone?”

He sighs and leans against his desk. “Your mom has trouble conceiving. It was from an attack that happened to her years ago. Her crazy aunt stabbed her in the stomach.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. It made conceiving very challenging. We tried after you were gone, but we were unable to. You’re my son, Vincent. I want to make things right with you. So, I propose we go after Ellie’s father and Dimitri and take them down. Let us work together.”

For the first time since meeting Nico, I start to feel like I’m home with him.

“I like that,” I say.

He nods once. “Good. So, let’s go get the bad guys.”

Chapter

Nineteen

VINCENT

The first stop is Dimitri.

Since he’s the one sending assassins after me, Nico and I want to target him to end this.

Ellie and Aurora stay back as Nico and I leave. A few of his guards come with us in a separate car.

“I can’t believe I’m going to kill Dimitri,” I murmur on the car ride over to his mansion. It’s really Igor’s mansion, but Dimitri took over it after Igor died. “You know, he loved kicking the shit out of me when I was a kid. Igor just stood back and let it happen.”

Nico shakes his head. His knuckles around the steering wheel turn white. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, son. If I had known you were alive, I never would’ve stopped looking for you.”

“It’s not your fault I was kidnapped. I don’t blame you. You know, I was happy when Igor died. A huge weight left my shoulders. Now, I can move on. With Ellie. With you and Mom.”

“You’ve said ‘Mom’ twice now, I’ve noticed.”

“It’s getting easier. It’s going to take me a while to call you ‘Dad’ though. Just give me time.”

“You take all the time you need.”

---