Page 59 of Violent Reign (Violent Kingdom)

Hospital security buzzes us into the front gate, and Jase drives through the razor wire-topped fences, parking in one of the visitor slots. He leaves the car running. We might be leaving in a hurry. Juliette opens her door and steps out of the car, her glossy blonde hair gathered into a tight bun at the top of her head. Coupled with her black skinny jeans and flats, she looks like a lethal ballerina. I follow her, wondering if Nathan is watching me through one of the large windows dotted across the building. I don’t doubt it for a second.

Juliette ushers me away from the car, walking beside me as we make our way up the front steps to the main doors of the facility. “Last chance to back out,” she says. “Nobody would blame you.”

I stop at the doors. “I have to do this for my family,” I say emphatically. “For myself.”

I need answers. And Nathan has promised to give them to me if I’ll visit him. The first few times he requested my presence, I ignored him. I kept my head down and began to build my new life. I installed Joshua Grayson as my new COO. He’s overseeing Capulet Corporation business while I tend to my children and my husband. He’s also, finally, living openly as a gay man, engaged to his long-time partner. The irony doesn’t escape me, that somebody I once detested has swiftly become somebody I trust implicitly with out family’s business matters. It doesn’t hurt that he and my father have a friendship that stretches back many years. My father, now out of the hospital and semi-retired, is even dating someone himself, though I’m not sure who the lucky lady is yet. I visited Will a few weeks ago, to apologise, and to make sure he was okay. He’s moved Jennifer into his house, and they seem to be giving each other a lot of support in the wake of the nightmares my family has put them through.

Ten minutes later I’m buzzed into a secure interview room with a table and two chairs. The entire room is beautiful, like something out of a manor, and I find it ironic that Nathan has landed in the lap of luxury in what should be a time for him to be punished. He’s serving thirteen life sentences for murder, on account of being a fucking serial killer, but the judge saw fit to condemn him to a psychiatric facility indefinitely after he failed the sanity tests.

I know Nathan. He doesn’t belong here. He belongs in a supermax prison. Actually, he belongs in hell, but while he still walks the earth, he should not be allowed to reside in such splendor.

Whatever. I’m not here to examine his surroundings. I’m here for the truth.

He keeps me waiting, which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve chosen the overstuffed armchair that faces the window, with sprawling visions of the ocean beyond. Eventually Nathan strolls into the room, no cuffs in sight. He’s just… walking around free in here, for fucks sake. I want to scream at the female orderly who deposits him in the room with a smile and an offer of coffee. He beams at her, orders a pot of coffee - don’t forget the sugar cubes! - and sits across from me.

“Aves,” he says, a grin stretching from ear to ear. “It’s good to see you.”

I fold my hands in my lap. “You look good,” I say begrudgingly. “Have you been tanning?”Are you fucking kidding me?

“There’s a beautiful terrace that gets afternoon sun,” he explains, obviously thrilled by my incredulity. “I get a lot of spare time to read the classics. I’m working through Shakespeare’s classics at the moment. I just finished Hamlet.”

Are you fucking kidding me?

“It sounds like a vacation,” I reply tightly. “But you know I didn’t come here to talk about your incarceration.”

“Rehabilitation,” Nathan corrects me. “When you’re insane, people think you deserve to be rehabilitated. Even when you’re a murderer. Isn’t that bizarre?”

I raise my eyebrows. I have to agree with him there.

“Anyway,” Nathan shrugs. “I’m glad you’re here.”

I wish I were anywhere but here, but for some fucking reason I couldn’t stay away. There’s a knock at the door as the orderly slides in a tray with a pot of coffee and two cups sitting on saucers, the little bowl sitting beside the pot stacked with cubes of brown sugar. I watch as Nathan pours coffee into one of the cups, picking up the saucer and offering it to me. I accept it reluctantly, despite the fact that I was up half the night last night rocking Jasper as his first tooth was cutting through his little baby gums. I take a sip of coffee, watching as Nathan pours his own cup and stirs in two sugar cubes. He’s always had a sweet tooth. He drinks his coffee, smiling indulgently as he waits for me to open the conversation. I suppose I’d better get going. I have questions for him, and two babies and a husband at home who I’d like to get back to as soon as possible. This visit to my murderous cousin is but a blip on the radar of my otherwise stress-free, splendiferous new existence as Avery Montague.

“Why did you ask me to visit?” I enquire.

Nathan shrugs. “I’ve spent my entire life not caring about anyone. But I cared - I care - for you, Avery. And Adeline. I loved her. I don’t know why I still need you. Maybe it’s because you look so much like Addie. Maybe it’s because of the childhood we shared. Either way, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist coming here. Not when you have so many questions for me.”

I take another sip of coffee. “You killed Addie. You drowned her.”

Nathan shrugs, but a darkness flits across his gaze. “That’s not a question. You already know this.”

“Because she was pregnant,” I add. “And you said it wasn’t your baby, right? Whose was it? And why did you think she was going to leave”

Nathan stares down into his coffee. “She was supposed to marry Joshua Grayson. But Adeline didn’t do as she was told, did she? She was a whore. She wasn’t just fucking me, her own cousin, under everybody’s nose. She was fucking Rome’s bestie. You remember Merc, don’t you?”

I swallow with difficulty, nodding.

“I tried to convince her to get an abortion,” Nathan continues. “God knows,everybodyfucking tried to convince her. Your father. My parents. But she wouldn’t. She was in love with that piece of shit drug dealer.” Nathan’s expression darkens with anger. “Enzo tried to give her pills to make her miscarry, but she figured out his plan. She was always too smart for her own good, that Addie. You, on the other hand…” he spreads his palms wide. “Just dumb enough for me to pull the strings behind the scenes.”

I laugh bitterly. “Ouch.”

“Oh, don’t take it personally,” he adds, sipping his coffee. “You’re not actually dumb. Most people have never had to deal with somebody like me, is all. Your sister was more… shall we say, suspicious than you. A little more paranoid. It should have protected her, but that’s the thing about irony. If she’d just taken those abortion pills or done what she was told, we could have avoided this entire mess and she’d be here today, alive and in my bed as I ruled the world with her.” He drains his cup, standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets. “C'est la vie,” he shrugs. “That’s life, isn’t it. You want to take a walk with me? The view from the terrace is insane.” Isinsanehis new favorite word? He sticks out his elbow, as if inviting me to link arms with him.

“Only if I don’t have to touch you,” I reply.

“Suit yourself,” he says, tipping his head toward the door. I refill my coffee cup, and Nathan does the same, dropping two more sugar cubes into his cup and stirring with his finger. He sucks the coffee from his finger and gestures for me to follow him.

The terrace is beautiful. It’s made of limestone, furnished with elegant wooden tables and folding chairs. It looks as if it belongs beside some sort of mediterranean castle. Fucking figures. It wraps around the rear of the huge building, a large grass area sprawling beyond it. At the edge of the grass is a sheer drop into the rocky ocean below. Nathan stops at a table in the middle of the terrace, but I point to a lone table and chairs at the edge of the cliff.

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