The little girl gave Michael a once up and down. “Hmph.”
He shook his head and grabbed her, swinging her up and over his shoulder again. “Let’s go!”
“Afraid I’ll get away again?” she griped.
We ran through the dark tunnel, this one concrete with rooms and doors. Racing up the stairs, we came into an old shop, long since closed down with the Cove, and ran outside into the park with the Ferris wheel looming in the distance.
“We’ll fight our way out of here,” Michael told me as we ran, “search for my father, and take care of both him and Scott.”
Take care of?
“You good with that?” he asked me.
I breathed hard, realizing I was going to have to take Alex up on her offer to train at Kai’s dojo at some point to get in shape. “Like murder him?”
He smiled. “I was thinking an island only accessible by train.”
Blackchurch. He wanted to send my brother and his father to Blackchurch.
I grinned back. “I can live with that.”
Damon, Winter, and everyone else jetted out from behind a game booth with a couple of other masked figures—extra security, I assumed—waiting for us, and I looked back to see both Damon and Banks holding Winter’s hands as she ran with them.
“I got you, baby,” he said.
“Where’s Will?” Misha asked, looking around.
Not here, I knew that. I dug out my phone and unlocked the screen, ready to dial him, but then I noticed people ahead and slowed, seeing Martin and a team of men and women walking into the park, their eyes already on us.
Oh, no.
We all stopped as they blocked our way out, and I scanned the area again, still not finding Will among us. How did Martin get here so fast? How did he know where we were going?
“Move,” I heard Michael tell him.
We were prepared to fight our way through Aydin and Taylor, but this?
Shit.
Michael stepped forward, everyone else behind him as he confronted Martin. I joined him, refusing to hide.
Martin gazed at me. “We never had to see each other again,” he said, stepping toward me, a shoulder holster strapped around him and everyone in his ranks armed and dressed to run.
Memories washed over me, hearing almost the same words he last said to me all those years ago at the police station.
It seemed like yesterday.
He reached down and took my hand, Michael jerking and ready to pounce if he hurt me.
I clenched my teeth, the slime of his skin seeping into mine.
The eye of the storm. I remembered Aydin’s words over and over.
Martin looked at my ring. “I wasn’t invited.”
I curled my fist and gently pulled away. “No, you weren’t.”
The eye of the storm…
“They know.” I tipped my chin up. “It’s too late.”
Everyone here knew about our lie and his involvement in sending them to prison.
But he just broke into a smile and chuckled, a chill rising up my spine. “You think that scares me?” he asked. “That was small potatoes compared to the decisions I’ve made since. And I’m not the only one with shit to lose if I go down.”
What did that mean? My gaze flashed behind him. The cops? I recognized a few of them.
“These officers know us,” I said. “You think they’ll really do this? All of them?”
Hurt Michael Crist, Kai Mori, Damon Torrance, and Will Grayson, not to mention Erika Fane?
He just tsked. “They’re not officers at this hour, Emmy.”
And I looked again, taking in the weapons and street clothes, not a badge in sight.
Footfalls hit the pavement behind us, and I whipped my head around, seeing Aydin coming through the park from where we entered. He looked at us, followed by a crew of people in devil masks, his black sweater zipped up to his chin, and his hair smooth and laying over his forehead.
Fire flashed in his gaze as he blocked us in from the back, and Martin blocked us in from the front.
“And I have so much more with me,” Martin cooed and then called out. “Evans?”
I jerked back around, my eyes shooting from Martin to the figure coming through his crowd, seeing Evans Crist step forward in a three-piece navy suit, with his gray hair styled to the side.
Evans. Martin used to call him Mr. Crist, but since he was coming into power himself, it seemed he fancied himself his equal.
“Son of a bitch,” Michael bit out.
Damon chimed in from behind. “We’re ready whenever you are,” he assured Michael.
Michael nodded, still facing his father, both men the same height.
Evans gazed at his oldest son, and I couldn’t imagine what was going through Michael’s head right now.
He’d killed Trevor. Was he going to kill his father, too?
“I didn’t tell Trevor to post those videos when he found that phone,” Evans told Michael. “But he told me after he did it. He knew it would serve me if Katsu, Gabriel, and the Graysons lost credibility with some orchestrated familial troubles.” He smiled to himself. “Some of it worked in my favor, other things didn’t.”
Katsu lost his positions on two bank boards for a time, and Gabriel lost deals. But Will’s grandfather remained senator, despite the bad press.
“But then we got powerful,” Michael added.
Evans nodded. “Rika became mayor, Kai’s been revitalizing Whitehall, Damon is Rika’s heir, not to mention he’s grooming Banks for national politics…” he listed off all of his concerns. “And Will discovered Coldfield, and now controls the underground transit system between Thunder Bay and Meridian City. I mean, if you had a playbook of how to make me sweat, that would be it.” He chuckled. “I bow to you. You’ve impressed me, Michael. I wish I had you at my side.”
“But that’s not what you and I were made for,” his son replied.
Evans shook his head. “No, you’re right. But you are in over your head.”
I took in the weapons and the sheer size of Aydin’s and Martin’s crew, knowing we were outmatched. We couldn’t fight them with a sword and our fists.
This couldn’t get that far.
I met Martin’s eyes. “He influenced your career and helped you fly up a few ladders, but he’s going down,” I told him. “Save yourself.”
“He had my father murdered,” Rika pleaded, stepping in.
He wasn’t getting away with it. Unless they killed us all, Martin was on the losing side.
But then Evans started laughing, looking to Martin, a knowing look passing between them both.
My stomach knotted.
“Who do you think cut the brake lines?” Evans asked Rika. “Altered the police report? Destroyed the vehicle before it could be inspected?”
She lunged for him, but Michael pulled her back, getting into his father’s face. One of the guards shifted behind them, ready to grab for his weapon.
“I promise you,” Michael said. “I won’t tell my mother any of this after you’re gone. She’ll never have to know.”
“It’s not for you to protect me, Michael,” someone spoke up.
Slowly, we turned around, the two masked figures I didn’t recognize standing on both sides of Kai as they pulled off their masks and pushed down their hoods.