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That got a smile from Micah. A quick glance at him told me his lips were twitching. When we finally sat, we could see Lucian’s hands cuffed to the table. Micah sat forward and said, "How this goes is we ask the questions, and you answer. No bargaining, and you're not to insult Gwen any more than you already have. We're not here for chitchat. You've already made your bed, and you're going to lie in it."
"You think your charges will stick?"
Micah glowered at him, and I placed a hand over his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “We’re not here for a fight. We’re here to get questions answered and go,” I reminded him.
"Boy, tell the bitch to stop talking to me."
Well, we were off to a great start. "Oh, you will talk to me, whether it's now or later. You see, I'm merely the thing standing between you and your other son doing something drastic. He wanted to pull every string he could to get you locked up in the biggest super max he could find. Atticus will do anything to protect the people he loves. And you are not one of them. After what you did to his mother, he doesn't care what he has to do, because to him there are no rules. Not to mention, the government has questions about tax evasion, fraud, you know how it goes. It would be a shame if they found every single property you had. Not that you're ever going to leave here. But if you did eventually manage to make some kind of appeal and get things overturned, you would have nothing. And I would have everything that you own. I mean, we don't want to go that far. We just want you to pay for what you did to Brian Riley and Atticus's mother. So answer our questions, and we keep Atticus from doing a whole revenge tour."
"You think you can control that boy? He's defective. Just like his brother here."
Again, his insults didn't even faze Micah.
"That's interesting that you would say that, Mr. Price. They're your flesh and blood, but it was both of their mothers who made them strong men who managed to escape your evil influence. So there's that."
He rattled his handcuffs in frustration. "I'm bored. Let's get this over with."
"At last, cooperation. Look, it's no mystery that you will do anything to get back at your sons. You clearly have issues. But my question is, what's your problem with me? Up until Atticus gave me control of the company, you didn't have any beef with me. I've done nothing to you."
His brow furrowed. "I don't understand your line of questioning."
I studied him, unable to tell if he was lying.
Micah sat forward. "Enough bullshit. With what you did to Jessica, you’re looking at fifteen years at least, but you’ll eventually have a chance at getting out and enjoying whatever is left of your miserable little existence. But if you also hired an assassin to kill her, you're never going to see the light of day. And bad things happen to prison inmates all the time,” he said threateningly.
The old man's eyes went wide. "I never fucking hired an assassin to kill Jessica. I didn't want her dead. If she died, all of her shares went straight to Atticus, and that's not what I needed. I needed control of my company."
Micah rolled his eyes. "You mean grandfather’s company. Technically, Atticus’s, because you were just a seat warmer until Atticus came of age."
"I had no reason to fucking kill his mother."
Micah sighed. "We're not talking about Jessica, anyway. We're talking about Gwen. Did you hire an assassin to kill her?"
Lucian's gaze flickered from his son, to me, and back again. "Someone’s trying to kill you? Oh God, this is too brilliant. If you die, my son becomes very, very upset. Tortured even. God, I love that idea. Ahh, this is a fucking delight. Best news I've had all day."
Micah sat back. "He doesn't know anything."
Lucian laughed. "Oh, you think you know me so well. You've come and given me this gift. Maybe I should have hired someone to kill this bitch. It would have saved me a lot of headaches, that's for fucking sure."
For some reason, out of everything he’d said, this was the thing that shook Micah's cool. "You are such a hateful fuck."
"And you are a useless, spineless, son of a whore. All my attempts to shape you and mold you did nothing. You still turned out useless. You didn't understand the importance of power. You chose your brother over me. And now what are you, his lackey?"
Micah pushed to his feet. "We're done here."
I nodded. Seeing the effect that this crazy man had on Micah lit a spark of rage inside me. "You know, I've been trying to figure it out, understand why you are the way that you are, and I finally see it. Clear as day. You are jealous of Atticus, of Micah, of the ease of the relationship that they have. The fact that they thrived without you has only made you more envious. The fact that they have more than survived… You can't take it, can you? And now you're sitting in here, and they're out there, running the company that was theirs, given to them by someone better than you. The company you tried to swipe from under their noses. You failed on all accounts, so all you have in here, old man, are your regrets, your envy, and your hatred. And even those are a gift from your sons, because you are still alive."
I turned to Micah. "Maybe we should have just let Atticus do whatever he wanted with him. It would put an end to all of this misery."
As we were about to leave, I turned a level gaze on the man that had hurt the men I cared very much about. "You know, I have a wish for you. That someone shows you the same kind of malice and toxic energy that you reserved for the world. I hope you find that person in here with nothing but hatred and loathing in their heart for you. Matter of fact, I feel like whispering to a guard about some of the women who’ve filed claims against you and how they were perhaps underage. That should take care of it. I hear they don’t like pedophiles in prison."
His brows furrowed. "You lying bitch."
I gave him a sweet smile. "Nope. Who said anything about lying? One of the girls who was an intern at Pendragon is barely eighteen, and when I had a look through the records, since I knew we were coming here and would need some leverage, I discovered she was underage when she filed her complaint. And I will make sure every single person in here knows about it. Have a nice rest of your life, Lucian."
25
Gwen
