Page 144 of Cruel Delights
I snap as quickly as I had that night, coming to the conclusion I have to do what I have to do. A waiter passes by with a tray of silverware and cutlery, and that’s when I seize the opportunity. I snatch a knife off the tray, and I rush forward, driving it into his groin area.
The other man at his side leaps back in utter shock and alarm.
Klein drops to his knees, hands clutching the front of his pants where I jammed the knife into him. The panicked scream he releases catches the attention of everyone else in the ballroom.
Kaden grabs me by the wrist and drags me onward, breaking out into a sprint. I hold onto the bloody knife with a laugh bubbling out of me. A sense of exhilaration runs through me.
This is the moment I’ve been living for. The night I’ve always dreamed of.
I know it as we flee from the ballroom and make it into another hall. We race up the curving staircase two at a time, my long dress almost slowing us down.
“You really are fucking insane, little lamb!” Kaden grits out. He shoots me a lopsided grin as we reach the top of the stairs. “But, damn if it isn’t making me even more obsessed with you. You just might have me beat. Come quickly. We only have a few minutes before security catches up.”
I’m grateful Kaden knows exactly where to find him.
We make quick work of the hall. The doors on either side serve as mysterious barriers to the things happening behind them—more than once I hear what sounds like a moan or the lash of what can only be something like a leather crop.
Kaden pulls me along until we reach the last door, then bursts inside. It takes me another second to digest our surroundings and understand where he’s taken me.
We’re in a parlor of some kind. A fireplace roars to our left. The entire wall on the far end is comprised of a wide window that offers a scenic view of the hotel courtyard below. My gaze swings to the armchair nearby, finally spotting the man in… anowlmask?!
I take half of an uncertain step back. Kaden does the opposite. He moves forward, letting go of my hand, his glare set on the man.
The man sits up straighter in his chair. Though his mask disguises his face, just the subtlest change in his body language tells me he’s surprised. He wasn’t expecting us.
“What are you doing here?” he asks in a slow monotone.
“Tonight’s the night, father. Tonight’s the night I finally do what I should’ve done many years ago,” he says.
“You have her with you.”
“You knew all along, didn’t you?That’swhy you were so insistent that I eliminate her. You wanted revenge… for how she disfigured you.”
His posture tenses up even more. I can’t tell for certain due to his steel mask, but I can feel it—his gaze landing on me. Mr. Raskova,Androski, stares straight at me.
His contempt fills the room.
“I should’ve done it myself,” he says. “The girl disappeared. I assumed into whatever low-rate child care system they have set up for vile little girls like her. I confess I didn’t expect her to come back in this way. Right into my club where she’s proceeded to do what she’s always done—cause nothing but trouble. I should’ve had her eliminated myself.
“You’ve always been too weak. Even when you’ve claimed not to be. You took the fall for the girl’s attack. Had you not been my son, your life would’ve been ruined. Perhaps I should’ve let you suffer rather than dispose of the dead body and pay off the authorities. I could’ve forgotten I ever had a disappointment of a son.”
Kaden’s jaw clenches. The rest of his face goes eerily blank. His eyes darken ’til they’re almost black. “You speak of weakness, father. But I’m not sure there’s anything weaker than brutalizing a defenseless little girl for sport.”
“Rich that my son with an unending appetite to kill people would believe he has the room to criticize me for violence.”
“I may be a monster,” Kaden admits. “I’ve done terrible things and offer no apologies for any of it. That’s true. And yet you’re still infinitely worse. You deserve the fate you escaped that night. I’m here to ensure that this time, it happens.”
He sits up straighter in his seat, his deformed face hidden behind his mask, but his anger emanates off him. “You believe you’re going to get away with this? My security’s right outside the door.”
“Lyra,” Kaden says in a calm voice. “Hand me your knife. Then lock the door. No one leaves until this is handled once and for all.”
I rush to do as Kaden says, his accomplice. I hand over the knife smeared with Klein’s blood before scurrying over to lock the door. We’re guaranteed the privacy we need in this moment.
No one will be interfering anytime soon.
Kaden clenches the knife within his hand and then advances toward his father.
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