Page 76 of Dark Encounter
"Liar." I dropped the call and drove back to the library to find that Grace hadn't come in still. The older woman at the front desk appeared worried. It would seem that Grace hadn't been late to work but twice in three years, and hadnevermissed a shift.
"Where are you?" I walked around at the base of the stairs that led to the library and tried to call Cole again. It went straight to voice mail. "Fuck." I did the one thing I didn't want to do. I called my father.
"Erik."
"Dad. Where's Cole? I need to talk with him."
"He's here, son." My father's voice was cold, detached.
"Alright. I'll be there shortly."
"Fredrick Carrington has a daughter that we'll be holding as collateral for his missing payment." He cleared his throat. "I don't want you taking the girl though."
"Alright. Then why are you telling me about it?" I sounded a little more asinine than I should have.
He chuckled. "Because this will be your syndicate soon, Erik. You need to know the inner-workings of what's going on. Thomas Adams owes us a chunk of his flesh but seeing that you let him live, we're going take our payback in a different manner."
"Thomas is a pussy. He's not going to take the girl if that's what you're thinking."
"Sure he is, Erik. Every man has something that matters to him. You just have to find what it is, capture it and threaten him with its vitality. If he fucks up or doesn't do every last thing I ask him to do, then his college career will be ruined."
I let out a long exhale. "Thomas cares about his degree more than anything else?"
"Yes."
"Above his sister?"
"Yes, son. She's not his greatest weakness. She's yours."
Something in his voice made my blood run cold. "What have you done?"
"Nothing that you won't one day do too. Come home. Let's talk about our next steps." His voice almost held a chuckle to it.
"I'll kill you if you touch her!" I screamed into the phone as any semblance of hope drained out of me.
"No son. That's not the way the game is played. Leverage is the best weapon for battle, and you don't have it on me. Everything I love was taken from me years ago, you included." He cleared his throat. "This syndicate is all I have, and you will honor it, grow it and make it your own when I'm dead."
"I hate you."
"And I hated my father too. Come home and let's figure out where we go from here."
"Do you have Grace?" I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose and prayed to whoever might be listening above.
"You know I do, Erik. Come get her." The phone went dead, and a scream ripped from me that left my vision dimming. He had my woman. And my baby. There was no plan other than to massacre him.
The man who raised me. Who held me during my mother's death? Who tucked me in at night and promised to always take care of me.
The man I loved and in some way always would.
* * *
I drove out to my father's place with every possible situation running through my head. I would have to play the villain once again. There was no getting around it. I couldn't help but wonder if Cole was involved. If he were working with my father to make all of this shit fall into place.
After turning the corner a little too fast and almost losing control of the bike, I pulled into my father's driveway and got off of the bike, putting a bullet in the heads of three of his guys as I walked through the house without a care for my own safety.
I'd never run the syndicate. Once my father was dead, so was his precious mafia family. I'd kill anyone who disagreed and let the rest roam free. There had to be peace somewhere at the end of the long road before me. I refused to think anything different.
"Dad?" I called out and pressed my back against the wall just outside of his office.
