no immediate response. Jeremy finished tying him to the chair before stepping from the room to do God knows what. When we brought my father here, he’d sneered in disgust at the loving photos Wren and Lou had filled their home with. A home that was no longer because of him. Once Crow and Fox come up empty in their search for Wren at the hospital, they’d come here where they’d find my father gift wrapped and waiting.
“What exactly is your plan, son? You think my enemies will go quietly into the night once they kill me?”
“I know they won’t, which is why you’re here.”
With Wren’s help, I used the bait my father had ruthlessly dangled to set a different trap. If there was anyone Fox wanted dead more than Wren and Lou or that Crow hated enough to override concern for his son, it was Franklin Rees. My father would be the diversion we needed to end this once and for all. All I needed was to get the three of them in the same room for the first time in thirty years and let nature take its course. Fate would decide who was the last man standing and so would begin part two of my plan.
“And once I’m dead? Do you actually think there’s anywhere you can run? You’re a loose end. Crow and Fox won’t make the same mistake I did.” He paused, a twisted gleam in his eye. “Neither will Antonov.”
“I have no intention of running. Blackwood Keep is my home, my real birthright, and I’m going to make it my business to keep it safe from people like you.”
My father’s lips curled. “If I’d known how weak you’d be, I would have ripped you from your mother’s womb when I had the chance.”
His cruel words that would have normally left me feeling empty missed their mark. The place inside of me that had been hollow for so long was now overflowing. I wouldn’t dwell on the reasons why. Not until I knew they were safe.
Seeing this, my father’s sharp smile had me freezing. “Or maybe I should have done you a favor and put that sickly little bastard of yours out of his misery. You should have seen him when he was born,” my father continued with a disgusted shake of his head. “Frail and useless like his father.”
Before I could react and mete out proper justice, Antonov appeared, seemingly from thin air. Gripping my father’s face in a hold harsh enough to make him cry out, Jeremy rammed his head into the wall behind him. The blow had been hard enough to knock my father out cold. Only then did I feel my hands relax from the fists that had formed.
“Thanks.”
As expected, Antonov didn’t bother responding as he placed a piece of duct tape from the roll he’d found over my father’s mouth. Once he was done, Jeremy turned to face me, his visage black.
“They’re here. We need to move.”
I quickly ran through everything that could possibly go wrong as I followed Jeremy into the night. Crow and Fox were both in Blackwood Keep, and it was only a matter of time before their paths converged. The best-case scenario was that all three men ended up dead. The worst case was that we did. Me, Antonov, and everyone we cared about. It didn’t seem like much of an issue for Jeremy, though.
“They know your friend isn’t at the hospital,” he announced once he finished picking the lock on the house across the street. According to Lou, the residents were away on vacation for the next few days. Luckily, she hadn’t bothered to ask why I’d been curious since she wasn’t interested in speaking to me longer than necessary. “They should be here any minute.”
Wren had been discharged this morning and had been busy making sure part two went according to plan. We hadn’t told anyone else about our plan because too many moving parts meant too many chances for something to go wrong. This wasn’t a game of chess where lives lost meant resetting the board and starting over.
Once inside, I followed him upstairs and stood by quietly while Jeremy set up his sniper rifle in the open window. He made quick work of it despite the room and house being dark. We couldn’t risk turning on any lights and alerting Crow or Fox. It was well after midnight, and everyone in the neighborhood was out for the count.
I wasn’t sure how much time