Page 46 of The Carver

And he had no idea how I’d really gotten the information.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You heard our partners. They’re pissed about the margins, so it was only a matter of time?—”

I already knew he’d done it, but to hear him admit it and justify it just pissed me off more. “Fuck you, Godric.” I stepped away,knowing I might break his windpipe if I stood there a moment longer.

He got to his feet and wiped the blood on the back of his forearm. “It’s an ecosystem, Bastien. If I don’t keep all the members of the system happy, it breaks down. They’ll come for me, or they’ll come for you. If we keep the system happy, then there are no problems. When I said we would do it your way, I meant it. But I have to think about my neck and your neck and Mom’s neck. I kept you in the dark to spare you—and that’s the honest truth.”

I’d made my way toward the window, keeping a huge gap of space between us because I wanted to punch him again.

“I got my hands dirty so yours would be clean.”

“And President Bernard? Was that to protect me as well?”

His nose had stopped bleeding for the most part, just trickles coming down. With his arms by his sides, he stared at me in defeat. “It had to be done.”

“He was the most popular president we’ve had in decades.”

All he did was shake his head. “It was just going to get harder?—”

“There are more important things than money, Godric. Like integrity, which you have none of. President Bernard worked his whole life to reach this moment, and you took it away from him instead of finding a different solution. You didn’t even try. Because life and freedom and humanity mean absolute shit to you. You’rehim, for fuck’s sake.”

“If by him, you mean Dad, then I take that as a compliment.”

Divided once again, just as we were when we were teenagers, we were enemies. In the five years we’d worked together we’d growncloser, put aside old resentments, built a relationship that hadn’t had a chance to grow. But all of that had gone to piss. “This is the way I see it. I have two choices…”

Some of the blood had dripped over his chin and down his throat. His chest was still because the breaths he took were gentle and even. He appeared calm as he stared at me, but it was all an act.

“I kill you and run the business—since you’re incapable of doing it yourself.”

He smirked slightly. “You don’t have what it takes, Bastien.”

“You think so?” I cocked my head as I stared him down. “How long has Dad been dead? Five years now?”

The calm he maintained was suddenly shattered by the question, his eyes narrowed like he didn’t understand the direction of the conversation.

“And you’ve never come close to figuring out who did it. Why do you think that is?”

Now, his breathing spiked, his chest rising and falling with the movements of his lungs. He suddenly shifted his weight, his eyes hardening like he saw the monster before him for the first time—and he had no idea I’d been in the shadows.

“Because you never looked in the right place, Godric.”

He took a step back, the breath he took so audible, it was like a gasp. In utter disbelief, he had no reaction, no words. He was in shock, so much shock that he couldn’t compose himself.

“So, yes, I will fucking do it.”

All he did was shake his head slightly, incredulous at the information, refusing to accept it.

“So, should I kill you and run this business ethically? Or will you let the girls go so I don’t have to?”

He finally gathered himself. “You kill your own father then act so righteous? Like some kind of fucking savior? Who gives a shit about these girls? They’re fucking nobodies?—”

“Danielle wasn’t a nobody.”

He gave me a blank look. “Who the fuck is Danielle?”

“The girl I went to school with. The one you shot.”

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