104.1
Cassian is alive?! Orion didn’t kill him?
“Don’t look so hopeful, my dear,” Imro remarks. “I’m sure Cassian hates you too.”
Maybe, I decide. But he’s alive.
“You honestly do not know your value?” Imro leans back in his chair and the wood creaks in protest. Then he lifts his cane and presses the end to my abdomen with a hand much steadier than I would expect from a man his age. I shrink back against the chair, pressing as flat as I can against the back, but he increases the pressure until he’s pinning me there. Pain gradually blooms out from the point of contact and I scarcely dare to breathe.
“You are not valuable. But that is.”
My baby?
“Your child, whoever the father is, carries the legacy of a Bratva family. Whichever one, I do not care.”
“Not if Orion is the father,” I grind out, gripping the armrests with both hands.
Imro increases the pressure of his cane and chuckles dryly. “It doesn’t matter who because each of them will believe and hope it is theirs. And I can use that.”
“Why?” I hiss softly. “I’ve heard the stories. You slaughter people at whim, torture them for pleasure. If you want the power so bad, why don’t you just go and take it?”
“Oh, you silly girl.” Imro tsks and finally removes his cane.
I gasp softly, sliding a hand over my abdomen and sagging down in the chair.
“I have killed to stay on top, yes. People always seem to get in the way and there are those, like Cassian for example, that just do not break. I was surprised he had the gall to kill his own father, but when I killed his mother and placed the blame for her suicide on him, he still did not back down.”
My blood runs cold. Cassian killed his own father? Knowing Cassian, he must have had a good reason. But then to live with thinking his mother took her own life when really it was Imro all along?
His cruelty is limitless.
“You’re wrong.” My voice trembles. “This baby doesn’t have the power you think it does.”
“Why?” Imro lifts a brow, then picks up his gold-rimmed wine glass. The crimson liquid sloshes up the sides as he slurps. “They won’t come for you, but they will come for their child. I tested this with Lucian by placing his child, Selene, in danger. He saved her with no care for his own life. He will do the same to ensure his other child is not lost to me.”
Poor Selene. Even unconscious, she’s a pawn in Imro’s game. But the more I dwell on it, the more I’m certain Lucian will not care about me.
“You don’t know Lucian like I do. I broke his heart. He sees me as nothing but a snake. If he learns I’m pregnant, he won’t care. He’d rather see me dead.” The words are poison from my own lips, dripping in truth.
“How far along are you?” Imro’s eyes drift south. “I will get a doctor to check. You see, even if Lucian and Orion and Cassian decide to leave you here to rot, that child will be mine. If that’s the case, then all I need to do is keep you alive and then cut the brat out of you when I’m ready.”
If I had the energy, I’d be shocked, but that’s the least terrifying thing he’s said so far. My fingertips press into my abdomen and I slide my tongue against my wounded cheek as a distraction.
“Then I’ll kill Lucian and that other brat, then use DNA to make all those loyal to Lucian fall in line.”
“You could never kill Lucian,” I snap. “He’s too smart for you.”
“On the contrary, my dear.” Imro leans forward and a droplet of red wine rolls slowly down from the corner of his mouth. “Vincent wants him dead too. When Orion is out of the way, Lucian will be child’s play. Start burning down a few homes with families inside, and Lucian will crawl here to maintain his bloodless reputation.”
I balk at the thought, and nothing stops the acid sweeping up my throat. Threatening his child and his carefully crafted reputation?
Maybe Imro is right. Maybe Lucian really will come here to save those two things.
But me? Either by Imro’s hand or Lucian’s, I’m dead in the water.
