Page 54 of Dominion

They wouldn’t have trusted the wrong person if they had planned to stay in Winworth.

All this time, I’d been directing all my anger and all my pain at the wrong person, all the while living with the snake that started it all. Judah Blackwood may have held the knife that killed my father, but Neal Cartwith was the one who set it all in motion.

Casimir walked toward him, his head slightly tilted, as he dragged his eyes over Neal’s body. Judging by the tiny smirk on his face when he looked back at us, he found him lacking.

“Remember what we talked about, Ash,” he said. “I need to?—”

“Interrogate him first,” I added. “I know. But after that…” I trailed off. After that, he was all mine.

Realization dawned in Neal’s eyes, his face scrunching in pain when Hunter walked behind him, untying the gag from his mouth. The ball was ripped out of his mouth, courtesy of Casimir who was now crouching in front of him.

I could see the wheels turning in Neal’s mind. I could see him trying to come up with a thousand excuses, because he knew. He fucking knew that he couldn’t lie anymore.

“Ash,” he rasped. “I?—”

“Don’t look at him, Neal,” Casimir said. “Don’t fucking talk to him. Hell, imagine he’s not in this room.”

Neal slowly turned his head toward Casimir, confusion marring his face, but he listened. He held his gaze on the dark-haired giant, his lower lip trembling, waiting like a good fucking puppy for Casimir to start talking again.

“That’s a good boy,” Casimir mocked, straightening in front of him. “Do you know who I am?”

A moment passed and Neal’s eyes flickered toward me again, his lips pinched, but he simply answered, “Yes.” That one simple word held more weight than anything else he could’ve said, andI didn’t need another confirmation that Neal knew a lot more about the Order in Winworth and Dominion than he ever let on. “You’re a fucking devil,” he spat out, anger taking over his body.

I would’ve been angry as well, had somebody destroyed all my carefully curated plans, finally bringing me to justice. Looking around the living room of this apartment, it was obvious that he’d been enjoying his life over the past couple of weeks since he abandoned us, running away from Winworth, while we were barely keeping it together.

Did he ever even care about Sebastian and me, or was it all just an illusion he created?

My heart and my mind were at war over what was true and what was a lie. How could I go on without knowing if the man in front of me actually meant all those words of wisdom he bestowed upon us, or if he ever truly meant that he loved us?

It wasn’t even that he betrayed us like this that shook me to my core. It was the fact that I couldn’t separate the man who cared for us for so many years from the monster glaring at Casimir with so much anger that I worried the vein on his forehead would burst.

“Good, then you know why I’m here.”

“I’m not telling you anything!” Neal blasted, turning his head toward me. “And you.” If looks could kill, I would be a dead man. “This is how you repay me for all those years, huh? Is this a thank you for taking you and that brat in?—”

And I lost it.

Red clouded my vision, and within seconds, I was in front of him, with my hands wrapped around his fat throat, squeezing the life out of him. His eyes widened, his complexion paled even more, but I couldn’t care less if I killed him now or later.

“Say that again,” I gritted out, feeling the blood rushing through my ears. “You took everything from us!” The roar tore through me, from the center of my core, rushing through myesophagus and through my mouth, mixed with all the anger and all the pain I’d endured over the years. “And all that time,” I breathed out, my chest heaving. “All that fucking time, you hid the real truth from us, preparing us for that monster. Why, Neal? Why? Fucking why?”

“Ash.” Casimir pressed his hand to my shoulder, trying to pull me off of Neal. “Calm down.” But I wasn’t listening to him. I couldn’t fucking listen to him.

“Where is he?” I asked calmly, too fucking calmly when there was a storm creating havoc in my gut. “Where is Judah?” I untangled my hands from his throat and took a step backward. “Where is he?”

“I-I don’t know,” he wheezed, coughing. “He didn’t tell me.”

Hunter stood behind, watching with interest. He thrust a small knife toward me, nodding for me to take it.

I wrapped my hand around the handle, feeling the lightness of the weapon, and without a second to spare, I pressed the tip of the blade to Neal’s cheek.

“I’m not gonna ask again.”

“You’re a fucking psychopath.”

“No.” I smiled. “I am the monster you created. I am a child who didn’t want to be a part of this fucked-up war, but you did nothing to stop me from becoming so entangled in it that I stopped caring about what was wrong and what was right.” And then it dawned on me. “You were planning to use me to take down Judah, weren’t you?”

He closed his eyes, swallowing slowly, before he looked at me again. Remorse swirled in those dark depths, but I couldn’t care less for his feelings.

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