Page 66 of Vengeful

I shoved the thought away with force. I wasn't that little girl anymore. I hadn't been her for a long, long time.

"You both made it," he said blandly.

"Yes we did," Chloe said. "Zachary didn't."

A flicker of something passed across Dad's face, but it was gone quickly. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was regret.

Regret for what? That we survived the trials and Zachary didn't? If that was what he thought—

I pushed away the flare of anger too. Letting that get the better of me wouldn't help me right now.

"Working together?" Dad asked.

I raised my chin. "A little bit, yes. And with others." I gestured to the twins and Slade. I silently added Shannon and Ronnie, who didn't deserve what happened to them. They should be standing here with us.

"We've also decided we're not in competition with each other anymore," I added. "We're done playing your games and dancing on your strings. If you want to hand the family over to someone like that, it won't be either of us."

His eyebrows twitched. "Do you feel the same way, Chloe?"

A moment or two of silence was broken by her saying, "Yes. Neither of us wants it enough to hurt each other anymore. We've done some horrible things to each other, just to please you. None of it's ever enough. We're done."

Dad made an indeterminate sound in the back of his throat.

My heart hammered. It was one thing to take a stand, and another to deal with his response. We may be the ones who ended up with our heads under the waves. If he could get past Hunter, Parker, Slade and Dane to do it.

Dad actually smiled. "It's about time."

I blinked. "What?" That was not what I expected to hear. Did he actually look…pleased?

"I've been waiting for you to stand up to me," he said. "I don't care if you work together. In fact I was hoping you could. I wanted you to figure out a way to lead together. After all, youhave some big shoes to fill." One side of his mouth tugged up higher than the other.

"Smug prick," Parker said loudly.

Hunter grunted his agreement.

Slade didn't say a word, but I felt his anger and frustration from a metre or two away. Same with Dane. Not to mention a laugh that came from the direction of Reuben or Caleb. I didn't look to see which one it was.

"I don't understand." I shook my head. "All this time, all you wanted from us was to stand up to you? Everything else was completely unnecessary? The teddy bears, the trafficking, the mercenaries, the cars, all of it?"

He shifted his umbrella to his other hand. Shame it wasn't struck by lightning.

"The mercenaries weren't unnecessary," he stated. "But if you stood up to me and told me you had no regrets about working together, it would have ended right there."

"And the asshole of the year award goes to…" Hunter said darkly. "Which is saying something, because Caleb was way ahead of everyone else up until now."

"I see you survived too." Dad's eyes took in the twins with his usual level of disapproval.

"Of course they did," I said, drawing his gaze back to me. "I'm in a relationship with them and Slade and I'm not giving them up. If you don't like it, that's too bad."

If he wanted me to stick up for myself, that's what he'd get. My guys and I were in this forever. Nothing he, or anyone else, could say would change that.

"And Dane and I are together," Chloe said. "We don't need your permission or approval either."

Dane stepped over to place a hand on her shoulder. "No, we don't."

"Of course you don't," Dad said. "I don't care who you're with, as long as they treat you right."

"I must have misinterpreted all those looks then," Parker said. "I was pretty sure you looked at Hunter and me like we were something you scraped off the bottom of your shoe."

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