Chapter 9 - Two SonsDamien Sloane arrived at the estate the following afternoon.
Alone.
That frightened Levi more than an army would have.
The gates opened.
A black sedan entered.
Damien stepped out.
Caprice watched from the study window.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Broad shoulders.
Thirty years old, perhaps.
And unmistakably related to Diamond.
Same eyes.
Same jaw.
Same controlled way of looking at a room before entering it.
But Damien walked.
Diamond watched beside her.
Caprice did not look at his legs.
She knew better.
“Don’t,” Diamond said.
She turned.
“Don’t what?”
“Feel sorry for me.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You looked at him.”
“I generally look at people when they arrive.”
Diamond’s mouth tightened.
Caprice touched his shoulder.
“He isn’t you.”
“No.”
Diamond watched Damien climb the steps.
“He has the parts I lost.”
Caprice crouched beside him.
“Your legs are not your identity.”
“That sounds wonderful on inspirational posters.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
His voice lowered.
“You didn’t know me before.”
“No.”
“I was different.”
“I’m sure.”
“I could walk into a room and everyone moved.”
Caprice smiled faintly.
“They still do.”
Diamond looked at her.
“Now they move because they’re afraid of the chair.”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“They move because you’re Diamond Kelly.”
A knock.
Levi entered.
“He’s clean.”
Diamond looked toward the door.
“No weapons?”
“None.”
“Bring him.”
Damien entered.
The resemblance became stronger up close.
He looked at Diamond.
Diamond looked at him.
Neither spoke.
Then Damien smiled.
“So.”
Diamond’s expression remained flat.
“So.”
“Our father has terrible taste in family reunions.”
Caprice almost laughed.
Diamond did not.
“Victor is not my father.”
“Biology disagrees.”
“Biology doesn’t impress me.”
Damien looked toward the wheelchair.
His gaze remained there one second too long.
Diamond noticed.
“So you’ve seen it.”
Damien looked up.
“Seen what?”
“The chair.”
“Hard to miss.”
Diamond’s voice became dangerous.
“Say what you’re thinking.”
Damien shrugged.
“I’m thinking Victor lied.”
“About?”
“He said you were broken.”
Silence.
Damien looked around the room.
“I don’t see broken.”
Diamond studied him.
“Why are you here?”
“To kill Victor.”
Levi moved slightly.
Damien noticed.
“Relax.”
He looked at Diamond.
“I’ve been trying for eleven years.”
“Why?”
“Because he murdered my mother.”
Evelyn entered.
Damien froze.
His expression changed.
“Aunt Evelyn.”
Diamond turned.
“You know him?”
Evelyn nodded.
“I met him when he was a child.”
Damien looked at her.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Many people did.”
Caprice watched the family stare at one another.
Secrets stacked on secrets.
Damien sat.
Victor had fathered him with another woman after Evelyn disappeared.
A woman named Celeste.
Victor raised Damien himself.
Not lovingly.
As an experiment.
Combat.
Languages.
Finance.
Weapons.
Strategy.
Pain tolerance.
Victor did not raise a son.
He manufactured an heir.
“At sixteen,” Damien said, “I learned my mother hadn’t died in an accident.”
His voice remained calm.
“Victor killed her because she tried to take me away.”
Diamond’s expression hardened.
“And you stayed?”
“I was sixteen.”
Damien smiled bitterly.
“Where would I go?”
Caprice thought of Diamond at seventeen.
Two sons.
Different cages.
Same father.
“What does Victor want?” Diamond asked.
Damien looked at him.
“You.”
“Why?”
“He watched you for years.”
Damien leaned back.
“He thought Patrick ruined you.”
Diamond’s jaw tightened.
“Then you took the empire.”
Damien continued.
“You became everything Victor wanted.”
“Until I got shot.”
“No.”
Damien looked at Caprice.
“Until her.”
The room became cold.
Diamond’s hand moved toward his gun.
Damien raised both hands.
“I’m not threatening her.”
“You said her name without saying it.”
“I’m explaining.”
Damien looked at Caprice.
“Victor believes attachment is the final weakness.”
Caprice folded her arms.
“And you?”
“I think Victor is insane.”
“Good answer.”
“It’s also true.”
Diamond leaned forward.
“Where is he?”
Damien smiled.
“That is complicated.”
“Make it simple.”
“He moves every forty-eight hours.”
“Where next?”
“I don’t know.”
Diamond’s patience broke.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I know what he’s planning.”
Damien looked at the brothers’ faces reflected in the dark window.
“He wants us to fight.”
Silence.
“The survivor inherits everything.”
Caprice frowned.
“Everything what?”
Damien looked at her.
“Victor’s organization.”
Diamond laughed.
“I don’t want it.”
“He doesn’t care.”
Damien continued.
“He believes power belongs to whoever can take it.”
“And if neither fights?”
“He’ll create a reason.”
Diamond’s face changed.
Caprice felt it.
“He’ll target me.”
Damien nodded.
“And Evelyn.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“And Levi.”
Damien looked toward him.
“Anyone Diamond loves.”
Diamond went still.
Then he smiled.
Caprice hated that smile.
It meant violence.
“Then we don’t fight each other.”
Damien raised an eyebrow.
“We fight him.”
For forty-eight hours, the Kelly estate became something unprecedented.
Two rival heirs planned together.
Damien knew Victor’s methods.
Diamond knew the city.
Levi knew logistics.
Caprice knew people.
The plan emerged slowly.
Victor expected jealousy.
So they gave him jealousy.
Rumors leaked.
Diamond refused to recognize Damien.
Damien challenged Diamond’s authority.
A fight supposedly occurred.
One guard was paid to tell contacts that Damien had threatened Caprice.
Victor responded.
A message arrived.
PROVE YOU ARE THE STRONGER SON.
Coordinates.
An abandoned steel mill.
Midnight.
Diamond smiled.
“He bought it.”
Damien shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“He wants us to think he bought it.”
Caprice sighed.
“I hate your family.”
Diamond looked at her.
“You chose it.”
“Worst decision of my life.”
“You tore up the escape papers.”
“I was emotional.”
Diamond pulled her closer.
Damien looked away.
“Could you two postpone this?”
“No,” Diamond said.
“Yes,” Caprice said simultaneously.
Levi rubbed his forehead.
At 11:40 p.m., they approached the steel mill.
Diamond and Damien entered alone.
At least, Victor believed they did.
Caprice remained in a hidden surveillance vehicle with Levi.
Teams surrounded the property beyond thermal range.
Inside, Victor waited.
Diamond saw him clearly for the first time.
His biological father.
Victor looked older than the photograph.
But powerful.
Elegant.
Calm.
He looked at Diamond.
Then Damien.
“My sons.”
Diamond raised his pistol.
“Don’t call me that.”
Victor smiled.
“You came.”
“To kill you.”
“Both of you?”
Damien raised his weapon.
“That’s the idea.”
Victor laughed.
“You disappoint me.”
Diamond moved closer.
“Where is the sniper?”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“Still obsessed with the bullet.”
“It put me in this chair.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice became cold.
“The bullet revealed you.”
Diamond froze.
“You became stronger afterward.”
Victor gestured toward the wheelchair.
“Before, you were Patrick’s spoiled prince.”
Diamond’s gun rose.
“Careful.”
Victor continued.
“Afterward, you became a king.”
Caprice listened through Diamond’s microphone.
Her stomach turned.
Victor believed it.
Every word.
Diamond asked, “Did you order it?”
Victor looked at him.
“No.”
“Who did?”
Victor smiled.
“Someone you trust.”
Diamond’s expression hardened.
“Name.”
Victor looked directly toward the hidden microphone beneath Diamond’s collar.
“Hello, Caprice.”
Her blood froze.
Diamond ripped the microphone away.
Victor laughed.
“You think I didn’t know?”
Caprice grabbed the radio.
“Abort.”
Levi stopped her.
“Wait.”
Onscreen, Victor moved.
Diamond’s gun followed.
Victor said, “The sniper is in the vehicle with her.”
Caprice slowly turned.
Levi stared at her.
Silence.
Diamond’s voice exploded through the radio.
“CAPRICE, GET OUT!”
Levi raised his hands.
“Caprice.”
She reached for the door.
It locked.
Her heart stopped.
Levi looked toward the control panel.
“I didn’t lock it.”
Smoke began entering the vehicle.
Gas.
Caprice coughed.
Levi smashed the window.
Too late.
Her vision blurred.
May you like
The last thing she heard was Diamond screaming her name.
Then darkness.
