Page 127 of Chad's Chase
“Because I thought you were dead!” I yelled at the gun pointing at me. “I never fucked him!”
“Because you think I’m dead you just let him take you and own you without a fight?”
“Yes!” I hissed, getting really, really pissed off. “Just like you made me believe you were doing with your father!”
Chad bit his lip, chewed it, chomped it, hand still shaking, eyes on mine. Then slowly, unhurriedly, he set the gun back down on the table. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t risk getting you hurt, and I couldn’t deal with Sambo and Rafail at the same time. So I chose to fry the bigger fish first. I just never knew Org had planned to fuck me around.”
Hot, stinging tears sprang to my eyes. For nearly a month I’d suppressed my grief, and now I couldn’t believe the man I was so madly in love with was sitting right across from me. Living, breathing, still hating me.
He reached out across the table and took my hands in his. “Hey, don’t break now. You’ve been doing well so far. Not a tear. Don’t break. I’m here, baby. Right here.”
With a nod, I beat back the tears, sniffling. “What happened with Rafail?”
Chad filled me in on everything. On how he’d planned it all from the get-go, but things got a little screwed when Rafail showed up at Ricardo’s place a day early. On how Org showed up and helped him with Rafail’s men, then shockingly revealed that he wanted Chad to be the inheritor of his seat in The Organization.
“But the gavel is yours, Jhay,” Chad said, “It belongs to you.”
I laughed, thinking he was messing around. “Ridiculous. Me? Lead The Organization?” I guffawed now. “I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with so much power in my hands. I’m unqualified, Chad. It won’t work. Not to mention The Organization is pureevil.”
“The Organization does not work on qualifications. I told you, high seats are inherited. Once your predecessor steps down or dies, youhave toclaim your seat. And you have to learn your role and do what is expected of you. You only have two options if you’re an inheritor: you assume your role, or you die. The Organization, they wear both the white hat, and the red horns. They play God but they also dirty dance with the Devil.”
“But I’m not the inheritor of the gavel anymore, Chad.Youare.”
He just stared.
I sat back in my seat, mulling this craziness over. After a few quiet minutes, I asked him, “Why do you want me to take the gavel so badly?”
Letting go of my hands, he rubbed his eyes. “My father said something to me in Portola Valley: ‘Make new rules. Get rid of the ugly. Save the world from people like me’. Although this came from the most depraved man I’ve ever known, it’s unquestionably something good, Jhay. Something good coming from something really, really bad.”
“So why don’t you lead and make new rules?”
“Because I don’t trust that I can do it,” he said bluntly. “I’m not good, in any way, and I don’t want that kind of power to turn me into something worse.”
“And me?”
“You’re more humane than I am.”
I wasn’t sure about all that. But I was sure I could never be like Rafail or Org. I could play God more, and dance less with the devil. I could end the kidnappings, and stealing innocent lives.
With all that power, there was much I could change and make The Organization for the better, more like The Altrus. Butholy wow, being the Pinnacle scared the bejesus out of me. Would all those members from around the world, representing their country, listen to some impulsive, hot-headed amateur?
As if hearing my thoughts, Chad took hold of my hands again. “You will get used to all the power. You will learn to control it and not let it get to your head. You will rule wisely. You will be an excellent leader. You will get your respect without working for it. You will be light, but will be stark darkness when crossed. You will have mercy, but you will not hesitate to order the kill when it is essential. You will be loved. You will be feared. You will be the best Pinnacle they’ve ever seen. You will be The Organization.”
My heart thudded in my chest, intimidated by the mere idea… “How are you so sure of this?”
Piercing those confident dark eyes into my timid green ones, Chad gave me a half-saint, half-satanic grin. “Because I will be right there next to you.”
