Page 88 of Unleash Hades
I took it in my shaking hands.
“If you call someone else… if you call thatFrenchman…” His self-important, and selfish voice made prickles rise over my bare arms. Was there a cold draft that followed Richard around? Or was that just the stench of Hell on him? “I will kill you. And the boys.” Then he smirked, as if he had a secret to keep. As if he had one more thing on me that I didn’t know about. “I’ll take Chloe on the floor and make her bleed the same way I made you. Do you understand,darling?”
He let his voice fade away in a sound of chuckles.
But I said nothing. I did nothing. Because I was good at silence.
The boys stared at their father, and so did I. Like staring at a snake, ready to bite.
“Put it on speaker,” Richard added for good measure, his distrust of me clear.
And probably quite valid at this point, if I’m honest.
I dialed. And Chloe answered.
“Oui?” she asked, hesitating. “Yes?”
“Chloe, I need you to sign your shares of Laurent Media to Richard Davenport. Transfer immediately.”
There was silence on the other end. Silence that I couldn’t interpret.
“Why?” she asked.
“Please, just do it.” Then I added for emphasis, “For me. For the boys… for…”
I couldn’t go on. I couldn’t beg more. I had so little left to bargain with and now, I was giving it all away. I was asking my sister, the one I promised to protect, to give up her legacy. To give up herson’slegacy as well.
God, what was I thinking?
“There was a bouquet of sunflowers sent to my room when I graduated from medical school,” she said in a rush. “There was a gold ribbon, and the picture of the helpful caterpillar on the wrapping paper…”
Yes. I had sent them through a proxy because I hated the idea of not being there for her great achievement. But for fuck’s sake. What was she going on about?
Chapter 30
Hugo
This was where madnesslay. Right here, not knowing where she was. For ten years, I had watched, and known she was safe. But for several agonizing hours, when the threat was at its highest, she fucking disappeared from my sight.
So did the boys.
Chloe said that the boys had left with their father, and she had no way to stop them. Leo searched the grounds for them and tracked CCTV.
“What the Hell bullshit Security Company are we if we cannot even keep anyone safe?” I shouted, throwing the full coffee maker across the room.
They had evacuated me and Rose to a nearby building, taking us out of the custody of police and paramedics. The She-Bear had gone, but not before she told me that she would, indeed, point a finger at Richard.
How? I wasn’t quite sure, and I didn't care because I could not find Calissandra.
Rose got a call that Richard had her, and the hunt began. Alastair joined us, flying the helicopter from Strathlachlan, with Philippa and our other partners, Callum MacLachlan and Geordie Campbell in tow. Within an hour, we had scrambled a hasty headquarters, but it wasn’t fast enough.
I felt no satisfaction as the coffeemaker splintered against the far wall, the brown liquid crawling down the white wall like dark blood.
“Now that you got that out of the way,” Alastair was about to get a punch in the fucking face. “Chloe just paged me into a call. Would you care to listen?”
I didn’t answer before he put his phone on speaker.
“I remember how you used to read that book,” Chloe’s disembodied voice echoed in the room. “You used to tell me that I had to be good, always. And if that wasn’t possible, then I had to do the least harm.”
