Mine To Protect (Mine #6)(61)

Zoe shivered. “And he wasn’t going to promote you in the organization because you weren’t family.” Not unless you married me.

“Screw that old family mob nonsense. I have the brains. I know this operation inside and out.”

You don’t know me.

“I want to hear the words because it will make me f*cking happy to hear them. Consider it my final payback against him. He was always so sure you’d keep choosing him. That you’d never do anything against him.” Tom laughed. “Even when you were screwing the FBI agent, Luther was adamant that you could be trusted. That you wouldn’t reveal anything that would hurt him. And the damn thing is…you haven’t. You were in FBI custody for months and you still didn’t talk. No new charges came against Luther, and every day, he just got cockier and cockier.”

There was still no one storming the penthouse. There was only silence, all around her.

“You’ve got so many damn weird daddy issues,” Tom spat at her.

And she had to laugh. “Yes, I do.” A cold smile curved her lips. “But you want to know why I never talked? Why I didn’t go to the FBI?” She lifted her hand to her right ear. Pressed on that little earring. To him, it would probably just look like another nervous gesture. To her…

I’m turning off the feed.

She thrust back her shoulders. “I didn’t talk because I’m not some innocent girl. I never have been.”

He was watching her with curiosity gleaming in his eyes.

“I saw him kill my mother, but that wasn’t the only time I saw who Luther truly was. He made it his mission for me to see everything. To know everything.” All of the pain she’d held in check bubbled out now. “He planned for me to take over his operation, you see. So he forced me to watch the blood and the pain and the hell he wrecked. I didn’t get sent to boarding school right away. I stayed with him. He made sure of it. And sometimes…” Her voice grew raspy. “He made me help him.”

Tom’s eyes had widened.

“One day, he brought in a drug dealer who’d tried to betray him. Luther wanted me to take care of the guy. Me. A teenager. When I told him that he was crazy, Luther put a gun in my hand.” She was shaking as she remembered this. “He put a gun in my hand and then…then he put his gun to my head.” She lifted her left hand, made it into a pretend gun, and put it right next to her temple.

Shock covered Tom’s face. I guess Luther didn’t tell you this secret.

“Luther said either I would kill that guy or I would be the one dying.”

Tom took a few fast steps toward her. “You killed the dealer. That’s why Luther was so certain of you. He had that man’s death on you. So if you betrayed him, then he’d turn you over to the cops—”

“I didn’t kill him.”

He stilled.

“The guy was crying, begging in front of me. Saying he’d made a mistake. That he’d never do it again. Luther was yelling for me to shoot. And I—I yanked the gun up. I turned it on Luther and I shot.”

Tom blinked. “You…shot Luther?”

“And he shot me.” Her breath sawed out. She moved her hand, brushed back the heavy mane of her hair, and showed him the faint white scar on the side of her head. She worked to constantly hide that scar. Even Victor had never seen it. “Because I’d moved, the bullet…it didn’t do much damage to me. Just grazed me. My bullet tore into Luther’s stomach, but he had doctors at his beck and call. They fixed him right up.”

“What happened to the drug dealer?”

Her gaze lowered to the floor. “When Luther was better, he brought me to see the man again. And he made me watch while the guy was slowly tortured. It took five days before he died. By that point, I wanted to kill the guy just to stop his pain.”

“Luther has always been good at getting what he wants.” There was admiration in his tone.

There was only hate in her voice as she said, “When it was over, Luther told me that it was all my fault. Every cry. Every scream. Because things could have ended quickly for the guy. But they didn’t. Because I did that. I made him hurt more. And Luther told me that if I ever tried to stop him again, he would make sure everyone I cared about went through that same hell.” She let her hair fall. “Once you see someone die that way…while you are helpless to stop their pain…it changes you.”

He came toward her. Lifted her hair again and traced that faint scar. His touch revolted her, but she didn’t move as he said, “Luther shot his own daughter.”

That was the part that she thought Luther might have regretted. Because when their guns had exploded that faithful day, and blood had poured down the side of her head, Luther had screamed. Not with fury. Not with pain.

With fear.

And he’d screamed her name.

Tom was silent a moment, then he shrugged as he dropped his hand. “I still want to hear you say that you’ll kill Luther Bates.”

“Fine.” She bit off the word. “I will kill Luther Bates. Are you happy now?”

“I’m—”

The doors to the penthouse flew open. No, they’d been kicked open. Chunks of wood flew through the air. Victor stood there, chest heaving, a gun in his hand and fury on his face. “Guess what, *?” he shouted at Tom. “I decided I didn’t f*cking like your deal.” He reached into his pocket and yanked out the keycard he’d used in the elevator earlier. He tossed it onto the floor at Tom’s feet. “So I’m making a new deal. One that involves me, walking out of here with Zoe. And you—you spending the rest of your life behind bars.”