Page 63 of Midnight Legacy

“It’s about an accident,” I replied. “Do you remember your business partner Frank Jenkins?”

He reared back in his chair and stared at me as if I was the devil. “What’s going on here? I need to go home.”

Ignoring him, I continued. “He died in a car crash with his wife and youngest daughter. The surviving daughter was taken from the accident and subsequently put into the care system with nothing more than a teddy bear and a new name.”

He swallowed, his eyes searching the room for an exit.

“That daughter is all grown up now with a family of her own.”

His tongue darted over his lips. “What do you want from me?”

I leaned forward in my chair, my arms braced across the back. A dark smile tugged at my lips. “My name is Xavier Bartholomew and I’m married to Cassandra.”

All the colour left his face, his expression blank. If he knew anything about the Council, which I guessed he did, he would know exactly who I was. He pursed his lips together before his eyes closed.

“What do you want from me?” he asked in a hushed whisper.

“I want to go back in time and save my wife from the asshole who left her alone and broken. But since I can’t have that, I’ll take the answers to a list of questions, and then perhaps some retribution for a man who trusted you and who you betrayed.”

It was the only scenario that made sense. There was nothing in the Council archives, yet this man turned up at the scene of the accident. He knew it was his business partner, but let authorities believe it was the bodies of someone else as they had the details of their new identities on them.

His sins had finally caught up with him.

“I don’t have any answers for you. I was merely following instructions, as I still am to this day.”

“Malcolm is dead,” I informed him. His intake of breath made me smile. “I’m sure you can discuss the details with him when you join him in hell.”

He gripped the edges of his seat. “Then there is little point in speaking to you.”

I got up abruptly and he flinched back. “There are a thousand different ways to die,” I informed him. “Ultimately, I can make this easy on you, or you can spend the next several months if not years enduring torture while we keep you barely alive so you can experience it.”

“There are scarier men than you out there,” he hissed, folding his arms.

My lips flashed a smile that showed my white teeth. “Have you met my friend Jay already?” His face turned serious in a heartbeat. “Who ordered the hit on Frank?”

“Fuck you!”

“No thanks, you’re not my type. I had an interesting conversation with Frank’s brother Dante. He believed his little brother was safe and well all these years. It finally made sense to me that he didn’t look for him because he was going into hiding. Dante thought mutual friends were keeping him safe and communicated messages back to him about his brother.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” I enquired. “He tried to track you down to have a chat, but Jordan already brought you here as our guest.”

“Dan never steps foot in this country.”

Everyone appeared to be terrified of Cassandra’s uncle. I wondered if scary genes were hereditary. “But that was until his business partner Malcom died and we sent the police on a bread crumb trail to his door. Then, as if by magic, he appeared with a business offer. Imagine his surprise to find his niece and discover that the rest of his family were dead.”

“I demand to speak to the chairman of the Council. All my actions were sanctioned, and I have their assurance—”

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “Do I look like I give a fuck what assurances you were given? The old empire is crumbling, and new fiefdoms are forming. You’ll disappear like Malcolm and the gaze of the Council will fall on all those you love.”

He blanched at my words.

“Your wife and children are lovely, by the way. Worried sick about where you are, but I’m sure they’ll come to terms with your disappearance eventually. Your youngest daughter is about Cassandra’s age when you put her into the foster system.”

I knew that I was being an evil fucker, but I was long past caring. The contents of that box had the potential to blow all our worlds apart. Those property deeds were making me incredibly nervous.

He eyed me with disdain. “My wife is still alive.”

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