Page 74 of Broken Discipline
I let out a breath, leveling my pulse. He was right, but I had no choice. Ineededto know where she was. I had made a promise to protect her and I intended to keep that promise, even if I had to kill everyone in the world to do it.
“Tell me,now,” I said in a low voice.
“She’s a Marked Bloom now.”
“The fuck does that mean?”
“You know the Marked Blooms Syndicate, that secret society we do contract work for?” he asked. I nodded. We eliminated contracts for them nationwide and had even taken a contract through them to erase the cabinet of a foreign ruling party, just so that a Syndicate member could have better trade negotiations with the new cabinet. “She’s married to a member of the Marked Blooms Syndicate, and goes by Ramona Astley now.”
“Ramona Astley?” Ramona was her middle name. My blood boiled. “Ramona fucking Astley? She’s married?”
“Do you want to lose her, Hyde?” he asked.
I froze in place. I hated that name, and my father knew it. He only used it when he was serious. He gripped my shoulder.
“I lost your mother, just like you lost Kylie. Your mother became a Marked Bloom, thinking it would protect you from a life of crime. But she died. They killed her, and you can’t let that happen to Kylie too.” He squeezed my shoulder again, digging his nails into my skin. “You can kill them, but the Marked Blooms Syndicate is powerful. We aren’t the only ones they contract to eliminate their rivals, and if they sniff you out—our company, our lives,everythingwill be ruined. We have to be smart about this.”
As much as I hated it, I knew he was right.
“What do you know?” I asked calmly.
“She’s living in Opulent Gates. It’s a private community in Fairview, run by the Marked Blooms Syndicate. She and Bruce Astley have two children—”
“Children?” I shouted. “Fuckingchildren?”
He lifted a finger to his lips. “Twins. But Bruce Astley is sterile.”
My stomach dropped. Had they gone to a sperm bank? Had she fucked another man on the side? Or was Bruce Astley raisingmytwins? My dad handed me his phone and I flipped through the pictures on the screen: two children, a boy and a girl, barely a few months old, with amber-brown eyes like their mother, and black hair, like me.
“The only way to purchase a house in Opulent Gates is to become an initiate or member of the Marked Blooms Syndicate,” my father said. “Become a member. Then, become Bruce’s neighbor. Become his friend, even. And one day, you’ll be close enough to her that you can steal her back.”
The words infuriated me:Steal her back.Like she was a possession.
“But you don’t trust the Marked Blooms Syndicate,” I said.
“I still don’t. And neither should you. But I understand, Hyde. I know what it’s like to watch the woman you love drift away and die. I stayed back because I thought that’s what your mother wanted. But then, they killed her.” He shook his head solemnly. “Killing everyone responsible never brought her back to me. I don’t want that life for you.”
My nostrils flared, my head pounding.
“If you need proof,” my father said. He opened the glove box and took out a plastic bag containing two turquoise pacifiers and a testing kit.
A paternity test.
My hands twitched. I didn’t know what to do. Life had always been simple. Work, kill, then go home, and love Kylie. But this? Knowing that Kylie was with another man, raising our children?
It killed me.
It was my fault for leaving her behind, and I knew it.
My father smacked my chest. I bared my teeth.
“For fuck’s sake, get your shit together. You can’t let her or your emotions control you. Youmustcontrol yourself. You must controlher,Hyde. That’s the only way you can regain your power. That’s the only way you can keep her forever.”
In the photos, Kylie held the little girl in her arms, and her gray-haired husband held the boy. He looked wealthy, like he had a personal trainer and a nutritionist and a full stock market portfolio. Like he could give Kylie anything she wanted.
My dad had officially left independent contract work a few years ago and started his own business—Carter Care—and because of that, we were finally becoming something. We had twenty guards now and were quickly growing. We were coming into money.
But not like Kylie’s husband.
