Nearly an hour had gone by with nothing having happened yet, except for more mingling and the fact that I helped myself to another cocktail because the cold metal of the knife pressing up against my chest where I had slid it into my dress for safekeeping was making me so nervous that the insides of my thighs were sweating.
Finally, the crowd seemed to quiet, and people started to take their seats at the tables. I found the table that I was closest to and sat down. I was far enough from Marta and the other Deans that I was pretty confident I wouldn’t get spotted.
Marta started in on some speech about the rich history of Lineage Academy, and then she superfluously thanked the board members sitting at the table with her. The seat next to her remained empty. Then she mentioned the school's “successful operations,” which I assumed was code terminology for the illegal drug transactions going on under the watchful eye of the school leadership, and she made some rather bunt comments about moving the books around, which sounded an awful lot like embezzlement.
I wondered what the aquarium staff thought of all of this. When I looked around at them, they seemed to be more occupied talking with each other and looking on their phones than paying attention to the event. I let Marta’s words drone out a bit in my ears as I imagined what the wait staff would say the next day after they had worked an event that someone ended up being murdered at.
But when Marta started talking about Goldshire, my attention honed back in on her.
“Goldshire Academy has long been our ally,” she said.
What? Goldshire and Lineage had been rivals since before I was born. What was she even talking about?
Maybe Marta had already had one too many cocktails and was losing track of what she was saying. But she didn’t sound like she was slurring at all and no one else in the crowd seemed shocked by what she was saying. Which seemed very odd to me.
“Had it not been for our long alliance,” she continued, “we would not be here today. And we certainly would not be able to plan for what our future holds without Goldshire Academy’s cooperation. I know that most of you aren’t aware of what was sacrificed in order for us to have this solid foundation with which our business stands upon and that most of you have no idea how the relationship had been strong enough to continue all these years, even after the unfortunate death of my husband. But it is thanks to our new Headmaster, a genius man who had orchestrated all of our powerful financial gains and relationships, a man who had kept the image of our school-front pristine, and a man who was once one of Goldshire Academy’s most prominent members…”
What?
“It is thanks to this man that we owe both our fortunes and our futures, and I am very pleased to welcome him to the position of Headmaster of Lineage.”
Marta started to clap her hands together, and within moments, the rest of the crowd had joined her. Everyone seemed to be turning their heads around to see who and where this man was. A disturbing silence fell over the tables as the clapping ceased, and whispers started to emerge. I saw someone start to walk in from the back of the room but couldn’t make out who it was.
These damn glasses that I had stolen were making everything too blurry to see clearly. I pulled them down onto the bridge of my nose a little and tried to look over the edge. A large older man, maybe in his early sixties, was walking toward the front of the crowd. Marta seemed to be absolutely gushing over him, while several of the board members at her table looked on with nothing short of sheer shock on their faces.
Apparently, none of them knew about that before that night either, but some of them sure seemed to recognize the man walking toward them.
The man gave Marta a huge hug and whispered something in her ear. Then he walked along the front of the table with his back to the audience and shook each one of the board member’s hands in turn. Some of them had expressions of awe on their face. One lady turned pale white and looked like she was going to throw up right in her salad plate.
Turn around, I whispered to myself. Come on, turn around so we can see who you are.
As the man started to walk around to the opposite side of the long table to take his seat next to Marta, I began to think of what the best way would be for me to get close enough to plunge this knife into his throat. Or maybe his chest. Whichever I could reach the fastest. I knew I’d only have one chance before I got caught, and it was all over.
But as long as I made that chance count, it will have been worth it.
Damn it, I left my phone in the greenhouse.
I knew I’d have to find a way to go back and get it. I must have set it down on the ground as I was trying to get the knife concealed into my dress. The mysterious man made the turn around the corner of the table and walked up to his seat, looking out at everyone there and smiling with the evilest, most recognizable, and unmistakable smile that I had ever seen. I mean, it may have been years since I’d seen it, and I may have only been four years old, but some images are etched into your memory forever no matter how hard you try to scrub them out of your head. Now, I understood why people looked as if they wanted to vomit. Now, I understood the secrecy. Now, I understood why my presence here was so risky and so volatile and making so many people frustrated.
Because that wicked grin belonged to my father.
A man I thought had died.
23
I sat in a paralyzed fear as I stared ahead at the face looking out over the crowd. Not only was my father alive, but he was the new Headmaster of Lineage Academy?
How was that even possible?
I started to panic. I should have listened to the guys. I shouldn’t have come in here alone. Not only wasn’t I going to be able to get close enough to kill him, but I likely wasn’t even strong enough to deliver a fatal blow with a freaking steak knife. And even if I could mortally wound him, there was zero way I was making it out of here alive.
What in the hell was I thinking? I needed to get out of there but getting up now while everyone else was seated and quiet would only draw attention to me. I was trapped, and I all I could do was sit glued to this seat and try to hold it together long enough to wait for an escape.
Marta spoke again. “Some of you remember Jack, I’m sure.”
I haven’t heard that name mentioned since I was a child.
Marta’s voice pierced through my shock. “I’m going to hand the floor over to him now so that he can fill you in on his great and silent accomplishments that have led us all here to this day.” She sat down, and all eyes turned toward my father.
“Good evening, everyone,” he said.
That voice….
Dad—I mean, Jack—paused. “I think I should begin by dismissing the aquarium staff for a couple of hours.”
The wait staff looked up at him in surprise. They whispered to each other, and within a few moments, a catering manager had gone up to the front table to speak with the board members and my father directly. The manager looked flustered as he talked with my father, and then he turned around and waved his waitstaff away with him to leave.
Then, he plastered on that crooked little smile of his. “A big thanks to the staff for providing us with such a cooperative and vastly adequate venue,” he said as the service staff left the rooftop, leaving the bars unmanned and the tables of food uncleared.
“Now,” he said as he cleared his throat. “We can get down to business.”
I looked around nervously. Now there was no one there that I could even signal for help.
“As some of you may have known, and as many of you did not know, I staged my own death many years ago in order to allow me to disappear for all essential purposes. When I disappeared from public view, many of you had known me as a high-ranking board member of our rival college, Goldshire Academy.”
He took a pause for drama’s sake before continuing.
Guess some things don’t even change with death.
“That assumption, on the surface, of course, was true. My family had been long vested in the pockets of Goldshire an
d had long served as one of the prominent faces of our rival school. I worked tirelessly to line the pockets of Goldshire members and to secure the college’s place as a formidable opponent to Lineage. What all of you did not know, with the exception of my dear friend Marta, is that during my time at Goldshire, I was also furthering the interests of Lineage.”
I jumped as the man sitting next to me tapped me on the shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was just going to offer you some more wine.”
I looked at the wine bottle he was holding half-tilted in his hand and realized that he wasn’t a threat.
“Sure,” I said. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” he smiled as he refilled my glass. “Pretty shocking stuff, huh?”
I looked at him in confusion, and he just continued talking.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, though. Everyone knew he was behind his wife’s killing. It was only a matter of time before he resurfaced again.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Oh, I assumed everyone here already knew that,” he looked a bit taken aback. “Pauline, his wife…everyone knows he put out the kill order on her. Of course, it was the right thing to do, being that she was about to rat him out and all. I just felt bad for their kid, you know?”
I put the wine glass to my lips to avoid having to respond. In the back of my mind, I heard my father continue to speak, just as I heard the man sitting next to me continue to speak. But all the words just sounded like nothing.
My father had pretended to be dead all these years. He had pretended to have allegiance to Goldshire while he was alive. Hell, he even pretended to love me and my mother while he was still around. None of it was true, though. And it seemed not even the rumors were true as well. He hadn’t embezzled money from the college. He had merely shifted hands with it and given it to Lineage while he was working behind the scenes to use both schools as a cover for a much more sinister and illegal operation.
No wonder my mother was glad when he left us and probably even more glad when she thought he was dead.
But she must have stumbled upon something that clued her in on what was really going on and to the fact that he was still alive. And when she did, she became his next target. He killed my mother, not Michael. Michael may have been put up to the task, but it was my father who commanded her murder. Looking at him now, so cozy alongside Marta, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had been behind the murder of Michael’s father as well.
I listened as he finished his speech to a round of roaring applause. He had just promised more money, more swift transactions of illegal drug trades behind the guise of Academy finances, than any of the people here could have dreamed of. I had no idea how he would manage to explain away the fact that he was supposed to be dead to the public, but now that he was “back,” he said he had no intention of hiding again. He would expand his reach by combining both schools for a singular, wicked purpose, and he would not hesitate to hunt down anyone that dared to expose him or slow him down.
That solidified my decision. I needed to be sure that he died tonight.
After his speech, Marta left momentarily to fetch and recall the aquarium waitstaff. Apparently, it was okay for them to come back now that all the blatant talk about illegal activity and murderous intent was done for the night. People murmured in low voices at their tables and ate and drank as if it was a grand celebration. After they had finished eating, I saw my father and Marta get up from the table and begin to make their rounds to talk to all their guests. That couldn’t happen; I couldn’t be at this table when they got here.
Even though it had been years, I knew that my father would recognize me, and Marta certainly would as well. I needed to leave for just long enough that I avoided his table visit and perhaps come up with a plan to attack him on the way to his car or something. I also needed something bigger to use than just a single steak knife. I got up and started to walk toward the stairwell. I would take a minute or two in the restroom to gather my thoughts and formulate an amended plan.
“Beautiful dress,” a voice said from behind me.
It was my father’s voice, and I tried to bury the utter fear that rose up into my gut.
“Thank you,” I said without turning around.
He chuckled. “Your mother always admired the color garnet.”
I reached into the bodice of my dress to grab the knife. I may not be able to kill him, but at least maybe I could hurt him badly enough to escape.
“I wouldn’t,” he said as I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder.
I could try to run, I thought as I eyed the stairwell. I would have another chance to kill him another time.
But, Dad spoke as if he could read my mind. “I’m sure you’re thinking about how fast you can make it to that stairwell and maybe even how quickly you might be able to make it out of town,” he said as I struggled to hear anything over the pounding in my own ears. “But your boyfriends won’t make it out at all if you choose to do that.”
I turned around slowly to look at him. I tried to channel my mother’s strength and call his bluff. However, I had to bury a moment of laughter as I looked up into his slimy little face.
He was every bit as leathery and pungent-looking as I remembered him to be.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
He eyed me with determination. “Yes, you do. I’m talking about those three young men that you seem to be so fond of: Julian, Adam, and Michael. I believe those are their names?”
“They’re in jail,” I answered back with great satisfaction knowing that he couldn’t touch them in there. “They’re safe from you.”
My father laughed. “No one is safe from me, Lisette. Surely your mother’s death should have taught you something. Come,” he said as he held his arm out for me to take. “I think there’s an exhibit in the aquarium that you might be interested in seeing.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I hissed.
He clicked his tongue. “Pity. I’m not sure how much longer those boys will last.”
I felt sheer dread overtake me as I suddenly realized what he was talking about. Somehow, he had gotten hold of them. Somehow, he had been able to get Michael, Adam, and Julian out of prison and into his clutches. His arm was still extended, and as much as I would have rather stabbed myself with the steak knife than touched this man, I put my arm in his and let him lead me off of the rooftop and down the stairs.
“I’ve missed you,” he said as we walked alone together.
I was surprised that he didn’t have his own personal security guards, but then again, I guess he didn’t see me as that much of a threat.
“No, you haven’t,” I said.
He laughed. “I guess that means you haven’t missed me?”
“I’ve missed my mother,” I said with as much hatred and bitterness as I could muster. “I’ve always been happy to think that you were dead.”
“And now tonight, you’ve come here to try to kill me.”
“The night isn’t over yet,” I said, knowing that any chance I had of being able to kill him was now long gone.
“I like your spunk. You must get that trait from me.”
I scoffed. “I don’t get anything from you.”
“Oh, I think you get a lot more from me than you know,” he sneered. “Now, here we are.”
I hadn’t been paying attention to where we had been walking in the halls. We were standing in front of a giant jellyfish exhibit with a large round tank in the center of the room. When I looked into the tank, I thought I could make out faces coming from behind the other side of the glass. I dropped my father’s arm and ran around the giant cylindrical aquaria. When I got to the other side of it, I stopped and put my hand over my mouth.
All three guys were there, each one held by one of the Lineage guards.
Michael had two guards holding him, one on each arm, which made me think he must have put up one hell of a fight. They were all shirtless,
and their chests were so covered with cuts that they looked as though they’d been used as target practice. Adam was the nearest to me, and I ran up and dropped to my knees in front of him. I put my hands against his bloodied chest and winced when I saw how much it hurt him.
“I told you guys to leave,” I cried.
“Yeah,” Adam said as he strained to speak without choking on the blood in his mouth. “I guess we didn’t listen.”
I held his face in my hands and kissed his cheek. Then I went to Julian and then to Michael, holding each of them for a moment and kissing them on the cheek or forehead, or anywhere that there was an unwounded section of flesh.
I was so enraged that I pulled the knife out of my bodice and ran toward my father before I lunged toward his throat. The guards didn’t even try to stop me, either. They just held fast to the guys and watched as if my feeble attempt was entertaining to them. My father laughed so loud that the sound seemed to bellow against the glass and make the sea creatures agitated. He easily grabbed my wrist as it flew toward him and plucked the knife from my hand.
Then he slapped me across the face with the back of his hand so hard that I slid several feet across the floor.
“Just wait, old man,” Michael growled from behind me. “I’m going to cut that hand from your arm and shove it down your throat until you choke on your own fingers.”
I watched as my father stepped closer to Michael and leaned down so that he could look him in the eyes. “Your father always thought he could do more than what he was actually capable of, too,” he taunted. “One of the best things I ever did was put that man down. Obviously, your mother wasn’t too happy about it at first, but she came around.”
My father grinned, and his discolored teeth popped over the top of his lip. “Or didn’t she ever tell you about that? Did Marta forget to mention that I was the one who killed your father? It was a great little arrangement we made back then, for you and Lisette.”
Ruined: A Dark Bully Reverse Harem Romance (Beautiful Tyrants Book 1) Page 15