by Keta Kendric
Khane loves me. He broke his loyalty to his brother for me, I reminded myself.
“Your role as the Bookkeeper meant that you were your father’s advisor, probably advised him on just about every move he made. For him to make it an official role, meant that you had been doing the job long before you earned the title. It also meant that you were good at it.”
I swallowed hard, gathering my words.
“The way I saw it, if people were going to come after me for what my father had chosen as his lifestyle, I may as well have a say in what happened. However, the job became ineffective when my father stopped listening to my advice. He started making rash decisions because of his gambling addiction. The addiction was so bad, it was like setting a child loose to make decisions their minds weren’t equipped to handle. I found myself fixing more of his mistakes than I was helping the Black Saints maintain their reputation and improve the business. His addiction caused me to lose control of him as much as he had lost control of himself.”
“You will always be in danger for what you know. Who he has killed or has ordered to be killed. Who he’s made deals with. The blackmails he has in play. Where the bodies are buried.”
“My father needed help, and since my brothers weren’t helping him, me and Mecca stepped up. I helped him strategize and I advised, and Mecca ran the streets for him.”
Was that pride I saw on Khane’s face?
“Your father got all the credit when you two were behind the scenes, pulling the strings.”
One of my shoulders lifted into a shrug. “I never saw it that way, but I guess others would.”
Khane stood glaring at me, and I could tell that there was a river of thoughts flowing through his head.
“There has been one question I have been dying to know. Whose idea was it to form an alliance with us, you or your father’s?”
“Mine,” I answered.
Khane’s hawking gaze made me take a step back. He was looking at me like he didn’t know me anymore. Only when his features started to soften did I take a breath.
“I had no idea that I would have to marry anyone. I had no idea about your background with the syndicate. I only put the idea of an alliance in my father’s head as a way to alleviate some of the problems we were having. My father took the idea and ran with it without telling me what he was doing behind the scenes. I knew nothing about my father’s side deal with Angel Ramirez.”
His unreadable, quiet expression had me squirming.
“You were willing to let Angel put a bullet in your head to keep that secret. I admire that kind of loyalty, not only to your family but also to your duty. If anyone else finds out what you were to your father, they will come after you. However, if they come, I can promise you, they are making an appointment with death—me.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved that he believed me and not missing that all the horrors of hell had risen up in his gaze at the mention of death. I took a quick glance back at the table before looking back at Khane. He tilted his head, his squinting gaze pinning me in place.
“You think that I brought you down here to hurt you? You honestly think that I am capable of laying a hand on you?”
“No,” I answered, the word falling over my lips, weak and dripping the uncertainty I failed to hide. The idea of him hurting me had never crossed my mind until he had marched me down to this basement and stood me in front of this torture table. His face scrunched, a mixture of hurt and concern.
He cupped my face in his large palms. “Little secret, Desiree. I hate the word never. But, I know with every shred of life in my body that I would never hurt you. If you don’t believe anything else, believe that.”
I nodded, grateful, and deeply touched as his words reminded me of what we meant to each other. I slung my arms around his waist before burying my face in his chest. After he loosened the strong caress he’d wrapped me in, he eased me back and re-took my face in his hands.
“I understand why you couldn’t reveal yourself as the Bookkeeper, and respect that you never would have.”
“You do?” I asked, awed by his admission.
He nodded, and an easy smile made his lips twitch. “You are way more powerful than you give yourself credit for, Desiree.”
My brows crinkled as my face rested against his warm palm. It was baffling that the same hands I’d seen hack a man’s arm off, stab, shoot, and murder were capable of providing the most loving touch I’d ever felt.
“You are the only person to make me go back on my word, not once, but twice.” Now, he had my interest piqued, and wondering why he had bought me to his dungeon room.
“First, I betrayed my brother, something I would have never in a million years thought possible. Then, you made me swallow a vocal promise I made sitting at Angel’s table.”
My tight expression caused his smile to deepen before he took my hand and, thankfully, pulled me away from that deathly table. He walked me deeper into the room. I hadn’t noticed it the first time because I was distracted by a screaming man, but there was another hall in the far corner of the room. The dusty-gray stone walls camouflaged it, made it appear to be just another wall until you were right on it.
Khane led me down the hall. The walls were so tight they appeared to be closing in on us as we walked. Once we’d cleared the hall, it opened up into a space the size of a small bedroom. The front portion of it was walled off by thick floor-to-ceiling bars.
However, it was the person laying on the other side of those bars that drew my attention. Relief washed over my face, and I finally understood why Khane had dragged me down here. I even understood why this was where Khane had chosen to put them as it was likely the only place that would keep them alive. The person’s face was turned away from me as they slept on a cot, but I would recognize them anywhere.
“Dad.”
The End
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