Page 167 of A Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse

“Open the door, Gabriel.”

“I’m sorry, Sassy, but you seem to be under the impression that you can push me around like you do my brother. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve had your say, now it’s my turn,” I told her coldly before crossing my massive arms around my chest.

“Why the hell would you do this, Gabe? Why would you put everything you’ve ever built in peril? Was it to have more money? More power, maybe? And how dare you belittle what my mother went through. They tortured her before she died, asshole!”

“Do you think you have the monopoly on pain?” I asked calmly.

“What? No, of course not.”

“Well, then stop acting like you’re the only one who’s suffered.”

“That is not fair!”

“You would like me to be fair? Let’s do that then. I’m sorry you lost your mother in such a tragic way, I really am. I loved Maria, she was a very gentle person. But you forget, I lost my mother too, and so did Sarah.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her parents were killed when she was young. She also lost her sister, and her freedom when she was forced to go to work for the vilest people on earth.”

“I didn’t know,” she stammered.

“Of course you didn’t. I’m sure you were too busy screaming shit at her to ask.”

I projected an image of my goddaughter onto the screen behind her.

“What are you doing?” Sass screamed.

“Turn that shit off, motherfucker, or I will hurt you,” Mace shouted, and was immediately stopped by my bodyguard.

I didn’t listen because I wasn’t very good at following orders, ergo why I’m the General, and Mason, an emancipated member.

“Do you see how beautiful my niece is? Well, there are people in this world who would take one look at her and hurt her. We are trying to stop them. Place in something more balanced.”

“By becoming like them?”

Instead of answering her question, I asked in a tone that made Mace tensed next to her, “Do you remember Elise Winslow? She was kidnapped and brutally tortured.”

“Yes, I remember. But what does this have to do with anything?”

“The people behind her kidnapping were part of my father’s inner circle. What you don’t know is, he was but one ring among millions that need to be dismantled.”

“And your answer is to become like them, and drag my family and me with you?”

I was more than fed up with this argument. Time to put an end to this conversation.

“I’ll make a deal with you, Sass. I will give it up, all of it, if you can look me in the eye and tell me you’d be this sanctimonious if Ryu had been in Elise’s place...”

“How dare you use my daughter to add weight to your stupid argument?” she gasped.

“…if she’d been mutilated by the worst scum of this planet and crying for somebody to help her, for her father or uncle to save her.”

“That’s ENOUGH.”

“I’m sorry if I have no empathy for your outrage or moral compass, Sassy. Because if you want us to compare our pains, we can.

You lost Maria because my father hired someone to hurt her, and this killed Liam.

Well, my father hurt me too. No one was there to protect me or make it stop. If the fucker hadn’t been fixated on me, he would have sold me without blinking an eye.

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