Page 45 of Midnight Legacy

Maybe I couldn’t kill all the bad men, but I could certainly dispatch those in the vicinity of my wife. I chewed the side of my mouth, lost in my thoughts when Cassandra poked me in the side.

“What’s that for?” I demanded, my brow wrinkling in confusion.

“You’re in your head again. We need to talk to each other, or we’ll slowly start to fall apart.”

“Cas, I’m meeting one of the world’s most notorious crime lords in a few hours. A few days ago, I discovered he was the dead uncle of my wife. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to invite him to dinner or put a bullet in his head.”

Her silence would be damning if her hand on mine didn’t tighten. “You can’t fix the world, Zee. He’s not your problem.”

“Technically, he is. He wants me to go into business with him, to take Malcolm’s place in his perverted empire.”

Cassandra just continued to stare out the window. “I always thought my family was perfect, that tragedy had stepped into their path and they were taken from me. Then, when I was older, I came to terms with the fact that they had probably been killed. Now, I have to face the fact that my uncle is a human trafficker and my father was a criminal.”

“Ouch!” I gave her a side-eyed look because she put him into that category because of me.

“Zee, we both know that you’ve killed men. I accept you for who you are, but that doesn’t change facts.”

“Fair enough.” I sighed and continued to watch the road. I missed my bike and wished I was driving back to London on it to clear my head.

“Uncle Dan was my dad’s older brother. If I understand the workings of your Council, then surely he should have had a place on it, not dad?”

The car swerved as I turned to look at her. “He was the eldest son?”

“Yeah, Dad always referred to him as his big brother.”

My mind reeled. She was right—only the eldest sons were allowed onto the Council. Younger sons had peripheral roles in case anything happened, and they had to step in to take their sibling’s position. If Cassandra’s father had a place on the Council, it was because Dante was already on it in another capacity. We were drowning in secrets and every time we uncovered one, another two were there to take its place. Our very own hydra of secrecy.

“You’re going to get frown lines if you keep scowling like that,” Cassandra commented.

“I’m going to go bald because I’ll have torn all my hair out,” I countered.

“That’s my job,” Cassandra said, arching an eyebrow. She tended to drag my hair out when my head was between her legs and she was screaming my name.

“Duly noted.” I couldn’t stop the salacious smile that emerged. There wasn’t a sub bone in her body, and that would have bothered me a year ago. Now it made lust trickle down my spine and my dick stand to attention.

“What are you going to do?” Cassandra asked, turning in the seat to watch me.

I glanced at her and kept driving. “You really don’t want me to answer that question, considering that he’s your last family member.”

“He hasn’t been part of my family for over twenty years.”

“Even so, there are some things you don’t need to know.”

I’d polluted her with enough of my darkness. All I wanted to do was lock her away from my world and give her everything she needed. For the first time ever, I felt ashamed of the life I’d been leading. She deserved better than me, but that didn’t mean that I would ever let her go.

“Zee, you don’t need to protect me from my past.” Her voice was nothing more than a whisper. “The ghosts in it have haunted me long enough.”

I lifted her hand and kissed the pulse at her wrist. “It’s time those ghosts were exorcised once and for all.”

“Maybe I should hear what he has to say? I need to know why Dad cut him out of our lives.”

My eyes met Cassandra’s for a brief moment. “I think we both know why, considering he had two small daughters.”

She sighed and slumped back into the seat. “He was my favourite uncle.”

“He was your only uncle.”

“You’re just being pedantic.”

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