Page 82 of Midnight Torment

“On it!” he replied.

A few seconds later the sound of detonations echoed from outside. Our drones were packed with a few surprises since we’d been testing them in different scenarios. This was their primary trial out in the field.

For the first time, Dante looked unsure of himself. The lasers on those drones could tear this place apart if they hit the right targets.

“You’re nothing like I expected,” he said randomly. “I thought you played at being the enforcer on the Council but were a spoilt brat who Horatio gave what he wanted.”

“I don’t know who the fuck you are, or why you have a bug up your ass about Grampa but let me assure you I am not a spoilt brat. He took a terrified, lonely three-year-old boy and turned him into a fighter. You don’t like the Council—great. I’ll light the fuse for you, as one of those fuckers killed my parents. All their days are already numbered because of their sins. What you don’t get to do is touch anyone I care about.”

“Horatio Berkeley is an evil fucker who will be presented with your head,” Dante snapped.

More blasts sounded from outside as Xavier and Ash started to target energy signatures out there. Drones allowed wars to be fought from the other side of the world while sitting in bed in your pyjamas.

“And yet my head is still firmly attached to my shoulders,” I taunted. “Last chance. Your numbers are seriously dwindled on this island right now.”

His jaw tightened and I watched the emotions flash in his eyes. He went to retrieve his weapon, but I fired in that direction, making him snatch his hand back.

“I will never give in to a fucking Berkeley,” he hissed, his top lip curling.

My gun moved up until it was pointed at his head. “Have it your way. Goodbye.”

A gasp sounded from behind me, and Megan’s hand grabbed my wrist. “I don’t think you can kill him, Jordan.”

What the fuck?

***

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Megan

Those drugs had made my brain go down paths that were filled with pain and anguish, but I was starting to remember the time I had been under the influence of them. The voice of a man talking to me since I was so far out of it that I had been unable to reply or understand what he was saying.

The final gunshot bang ricocheted through my head and reawakened the last of those memories.

“I will never give in to a fucking Berkeley,” Dante growled in a low, dangerous voice.

Jordan aimed his gun at Dante’s head. “Have it your way. Goodbye.”

I knew I had to stop this, do something, because Jordan would never forgive himself when he discovered the truth. I grabbed his wrist, hoping he’d listen to me. “I don’t think you can kill him, Jordan.” That crystal and the message finally made sense.

“My gun is pointed at his head, I think you’ll find I can,” Jordan replied. “He deserves to die for every single bruise on your body, every cut marring your skin.”

“He isn’t who you think he is,” I said, and Dante’s gaze cut to where I stood behind Jordan. “I remember him talking in the darkness when he thought I was unconscious. You can’t do this.”

“Just fucking shoot me and let’s get this over with,” Dante almost pleaded.

My fingers tightened and I stood on my tiptoes, my mouth beside Jordan’s ear. “He’s your dad.”

I should have realised it the moment the man seated behind that huge wooden desk stared at me with grey eyes. Jordan looked like his father, but since they belonged to different worlds, no one had ever made the connection before. I would never have guessed, only he explained to me why everyone had to die, almost as if he was trying to absolve his soul.

“What the fuck?” Jordan demanded. “Megan, no. My dad died protecting me twenty-five years ago. I stood and watched as two coffins were lowered into the ground. I saw Mum staring at the ceiling with dead eyes, Dad lying face-down in a pool of his own blood.”

Jordan reared back, hurt and confusion in his eyes, his head shaking from side to side.

I held my hands out, one to each man. “Jordan, he looks like you, he even has the same grey eyes. I don’t know what happened in the past, but that man is your father.”

Dante slumped against the wall. “I stopped being his father the day Horatio had Rose and me killed to get his hands on the heir he always wanted. Rose wasn’t supposed to die, but she tried to stop them killing me…” His voice trailed off. “One of his clean-up crew realised I was alive and had my body bag taken to a private hospital.”

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