Page 51 of Havoc

A bruise that looked a lot like the imprint of my father’s ring he always wore. Tears formed in my eyes as I looked down at him. He cracked his good eye open and smiled, sort of.

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “I’d rather it be me than you, Pressie.”

“But it’s not your fault, why did you lie?”

“Sometimes, we need to lie to those who can’t see reason,” he told me. He picked up my hand and squeezed it slightly. “I’ll heal. Funnily enough, this isn’t the worst beating I’ve had from him.”

“Hendrix did it,” I seethed. “He was grinning like a fool when I got back to my room.”

Chance sighed. “He’s not like us, Pressie. He doesn’t have the heart to understand motives. He wants to impress Gideon, and he’ll use whatever he can to do that.”

“Why do you call him Gideon?” I inquired. “He’s our father.”

“Yes, he may have fathered us,” Chance told me. “But he’s not a father. A father would never do this to his children.”

Tears swept down my cheeks as I ran into his bathroom and dampened a hand towel. I started to slowly and gently dap at his face, careful not to hit anything that was hurting. Chance hissed as I swept near his eye, and I felt my body shake with unshed tears.

“I hate him,” I said. “I hate that he thinks I’m no good because I’m a woman…that I’m not enough.”

Chance took my hand and kissed the back of it. “Pressie, you’ll always be more than enough. He’s not good enough for you, remember that.”

I smiled down at my big brother, my protector. “Thank you.”

“Go back to your room and get some rest, kid.”

I laughed when he called me kid because I wasn’t one, not anymore. I placed a kiss on his forehead, careful not to hurt him anymore, and left the hand towel in his hands before I moved to the door. Before I walked through it, I turned back around. Chance was pulling himself up on the bed and wincing.

“Thank you.”

He looked over at me and smiled, and then I moved through the door and back to my bedroom.

~

Current Day

I put the note back in the drawer and smiled. Chance had been my saviour, not once, not twice but far too many times when I pushed my luck with Gideon. I never called him dad or father after that day. He was Gideon, and it was just the start of my rebellion, which landed me on the path that would lead me here.

I also didn’t stop with my poisons, only this time I never confided in Hendrix. He’d betrayed me for the last time that day. He’d been banished from the house just a few weeks later and I’d never had to look at him again.

And just two months later I was gone.

Now, I knew it was all Sonora. Sonora and her sickening plan to have Deacon succeed, with her behind him of course. Deacon couldn’t lead a hungry horse to a trough.

I was dumb to trust her, just like I was foolish to trust Hendrix.

Yet, I felt as if I could trust Chance, because he’d always had my back and Lennon…he’d gone through a lot because of me. And he was still here, gathering intel, protecting me and my play for the seat.

Which was now mine.

No one was going to cross me again, no one was going to steal from me again.

As I headed for the storeroom, I made sure I had grabbed everything I could think of that I would need. Opening the door to the storeroom, I picked up a couple of jerry cans of petrol and opened them, pouring trails after me into the rooms, and the foyer, down staircases leading into the basement and other rooms. Sonora screamed up at me, but I slammed the basement door shut and blocked her out as I checked the garage to make sure the boys were free and clear. Chucking the rest of the petrol in there, I picked up the cigarette case I kept in my bra and put one in between my lips, lighting it, and taking a puff. I flicked the lighter onto the trail of petrol and headed down the gravel pathway to the car waiting for me. As I slowly walked down, I heard the first bang of an explosion, followed by more as the house exploded behind me. Lennon’s eyes were wide, and I could see the explosion in the window of the car. Getting in, I took one last look at the house of torment before Lennon peeled out of the driveway and followed behind other cars I knew once belonged to Gideon.

“Chance is in the McLaren, and Pierce and Caelan took the Ferrari, Hadrian is in the Lincoln.”

“And you couldn’t pass up the Porsche.”

“Hell no, it’s a motherfucking Porsche.”

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