Chapter 9 - Brothers
They found Julian half a mile from the chapel.
He was leaning against an oak tree.
Blood soaked his side.
Cassian approached carefully.
Julian laughed weakly.
“You always did have terrible timing.”
“Where’s Viktor?”
“Gone.”
Cassian lowered his gun.
Elena checked Julian’s wound.
“He needs help.”
Julian looked at her.
“Still saving people who don’t deserve it?”
Elena pressed cloth against the wound.
“I never said you deserved it.”
Cassian knelt.
“Why did you help Viktor?”
Julian stared into the fog.
“At first, revenge.”
“And later?”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Fear.”
Cassian looked surprised.
Julian gave a bitter laugh.
“You think you’re the only Thorne allowed to be afraid?”
Cassian said nothing.
“I spent years building a new life. Then Viktor found me. He knew father had paid for my death. He showed me proof. He fed my anger until I couldn’t remember who I hated anymore.”
“You could’ve come to me.”
“You became father.”
Cassian flinched.
Julian looked at him.
“At least that’s what I thought.”
Cassian looked back toward Blackwood Manor.
His fortress.
His empire.
People had feared him for years.
Maybe Julian wasn’t entirely wrong.
Elena’s radio crackled.
Marcus’s voice.
“Elena?”
She grabbed it.
“Marcus.”
“We got communications back.”
Cassian exhaled.
Marcus continued.
“State police are twelve minutes away.”
Cassian frowned.
“Who called them?”
Elena answered.
“I did.”
Cassian stared.
“When?”
“Before I entered the chapel.”
“You called the police to my house?”
“You needed help.”
“I run a criminal syndicate.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you thought police were helpful?”
“You can complain after surviving.”
Julian started laughing despite the pain.
“I like her.”
Cassian glared at him.
Then the radio crackled again.
Marcus sounded different.
“Cassian.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
Gunshots thundered through the radio.
Marcus shouted orders.
Then:
“Viktor came back.”
Cassian stood.
“Where?”
A pause.
Marcus’s voice dropped.
“The main house.”
Elena’s face tightened.
“What does he want?”
Marcus coughed.
“He’s heading to your office.”
Cassian and Elena looked at each other.
The ledger.
Cassian whispered, “You hid it in my office.”
Elena said nothing.
His eyes widened.
“You hid Viktor Volkov’s ledger in my office for eight months?”
“It seemed safe.”
Cassian stared at his burning compound.
“You and I have very different definitions of safe.”
Then Elena started running.
Because inside Cassian’s office was something even more dangerous than the ledger.
May you like
A message she had never intended him to read.
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