Page 27 of Where We Began

- Chapter 11 -

Dominic

When I get to my father's study there are multiple guards outside of the room. He's inside, sitting at his desk, but when he sees me he jumps up, throwing his arms at the men in uniform. “Go!” he shouts, “Get out of here. Annie, close the door.”

I didn't see my mother in the corner when I walked in. She slams the door, leaving us three alone. His study smells like stale dust and uncomfortable memories. I hate this room. I hate everything about it

“You,” he says, pointing at me. “Sit. Talk.”

I don't sit, but I move over to the circular chair like I'm going to. “I don't know what happened,” I say. “When I left the complex he was still inside.”

My mother barks a laugh. “I don't know why I'm shocked that you managed to mess everything up just by coming home.”

I'm used to her insults, my wounds are covered by layers of scar tissue. I keep my eyes fixed on my father. “If you want to yell at someone, yell at your idiotic security team. Not just the ones at the complex—the ones here were loitering in the front of the house, not paying attention to where or what was going on around them. Laiken got all the way to the gates before I caught her.”

“You should've let her go,” he says. “She could have led us right to her dad.”

I frown mildly. “You think she knows where he is.”

“Of course she does!” my mother shouts. She strides around the room, her legs cutting like shears. “Letting Joseph have so much privacy was a mistake. We rewarded him, and this is how he thanks us, by siphoning our accounts?” Her hair is tied back in the same bun it always is. It makes her forehead gleam like an egg. “Feeding his plan to Laiken would have been simple. They met, what, twice a month?”

My father clutches at his skull, his face glowing an awful red color. “If she knows anything, we need to find out.”

A wriggling, sickening hunk of unease sticks in my throat. If my parents think Laiken has any information, they won't show any mercy to get it from her.Why do you care?I ask myself.Let them do what they need to. You should be thinking the same way.

Success at all costs.

And yet... “Her escape seemed desperate,” I say slowly. “Not well planned. I don't think she knows anything.”

“Your instincts have already failed us,” Annie says. Her heels click over the floor, reminding me of the chattering of bugs at night. She passes by me on her way to the exit; a woman on a mission. “Laiken can help us find Joseph. That's a fact.”

A worthless, dangerous,painfulspike of protectiveness that I want nothing to do with spreads through my whole body. I clench my fists, trying to end this desire to intervene. My mother is right. Interviewing Laiken is the logical next step.

“Who will you get to interrogate her?” I blurt the question.

Annie grabs the doorknob, not gracing me with a glance. “I'll do it myself. If she knows even a lick of info, I'll slice it from her body.”

Ice travels the length of my spine at the wordslice.I'm worried she plans to literally cut Laiken into pieces.

“Dominic?” Silas asks.

I'm crushing the tops of my thighs with my own hands. Forcing my tendons to relax, I fold my palms together. Thinking about that girl with her easy smile and quick tongue being assaulted by whatever horrors my mother can come up with makes my stomach turn. Part of me wants to block it out. If I focus on our goals, what my family needs and wants, I can forget about her.

I dare to look at my mother's face.

There's a gleam in her pupils, a hint of eagerness. This isn't about getting information, not entirely. She's ready to hurt Laiken, not out of obligation, but because she lusts for it.

“No,” I say. My mouth is parched, my words gritty. “I'll do it.”

Annie lets go of the door, flustered by my offer. “What, you?”

My father's pointed glare shuts her up. I suspect he's trying to prove to her that it wasn't a mistake to let me back into their fold. “Fine. She's all yours,” he says seriously. “Drain her of everything she knows.”

Two emotions tug me apart—relief and regret. I start for the door, dreading what I've agreed to do. As I come level with my mother by the exit, she speaks to me. Her voice is crisp as a frozen pond. “Don't go easy on her. If you do, I'll know. It's important you don't disappoint us.”

When I arrived today, I had every intention of never disappointing my parents again.

I was sure I could do it.

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