Chapter 40: The Monster Behind the Mask

COOPER

I hired a car from some dodgy garage. I wouldn’t be using it for long—just until I could finish what I came here to do.

I could make my escape now and never look back, as free as a damn bird. But then I would regret not exacting my revenge.

I drove toward the place Rose was staying. I planned to wait outside, then follow Rose until I found an opening. After I shot her, I’d make my getaway and disappear.

I could see the building looming in the distance. I was so close to my end goal I could almost taste it.

KIANA

We met Kenzo on the sidewalk in front of the penthouse, as planned. It was close to evening, and the sun was already setting.

After so many years, he still looked the same as he did back then—back when everything happened…

^FOUR YEARS AGO^

~I woke up from my blackout. Hours must have passed because the blood that had pooled around my chest, the scrapes against my arms, and the other part of me that had been brutally assaulted was either dry and flaking or sticky and cold to the touch.~

~The sun was beginning to wake, meaning Cooper was long gone. He’d had a morning flight to catch, after all.~

~I whimpered, begging for this all to be some godawful nightmare. But feeling the sharp flashes of pain and throbbing aches coursing through my body, I knew what had happened was more than just a bad dream…~

~I was in shock as I began putting my torn clothes back on, unable to speak or shed any more tears. I was battered and bruised in more ways than one, and right now, I wanted my father. I knew he would know what to do. He always did.~

~I hissed in pain from the wound on my chest. I quickly patched myself up as best I could before sweeping up the glass still littering the floor. People would ask questions otherwise. And right now, I just wanted to forget everything that had happened.~

~I ran home. Being close neighbors with only acres of green separating the houses meant it should take fifteen minutes to cross the distance at a run.~

~I made it in ten.~

~I tore through the house, knowing it was probably too early for my father to be home, but I hurried toward his office anyway.~

~I was too torn up to realize that I was venturing into a place I was forbidden to tread—a place even my mother had never once been allowed to enter. I was here without permission, but he would understand when I told him. I knew he would, because above all else, my father was a man of honor and family image.~

~I took the steps two at a time, reaching the end of the hall in the blink of an eye. I expected to either find him working or that he’d be coming home any second now.~

~Only, when I reached his office, I froze.~

~The door was open a crack, and what I saw inside severed the last thread of safety that my father could have offered me.~

~A man was kneeling on the ground beside a woman and a boy about my age. They were all bound and gagged, beaten and bruised, sobbing and begging for forgiveness.~

~What was going on? Trying to make sense of the scene broke me in two.~

~My father was casually smoking a cigar as he stood before these three battered people. He was surrounded by two other men dressed all in black. They had guns in their hands, with nasty markings of ink all over the visible parts of their bodies.~

~“No more chances. I have already been far more generous than you deserve,” my father drawled, and the man’s eyes widened in terror. My father pulled out a gun and, without a moment of hesitation, shot the woman and the boy. Then he turned the weapon toward the hysterical man and pulled the trigger again.~

~I covered my mouth to stifle a gasp.~

~I always knew something was off with my father and his business. He liked to keep me and my mother separated as far as possible from the business side of things. He seemed to adhere to the old-fashioned belief that business was a “man’s world” and nowhere near suitable for a woman to venture.~

~But he’d always insisted that we attend all the parties and social gatherings with him. I’d always thought it was odd that I never heard him talk business or that he never introduced us to business associates like the other men did.~

~Understanding dawned. The long business trips, the excessive security, all the secrecy surrounding his job, the fear he naturally instilled in others of high society at all those events, and the late nights… It suddenly made sense.~

~My father—the one person I should have always been able to rely on to protect me—was a killer. He was the type of man who didn’t even bat an eyelid as that poor child took his last breath.~

~He wouldn’t care if I told him what Cooper had done.~

~A monster like that had no emotions.~

~I needed to get out, and fast.~

~I ran toward my bedroom and began packing a small bag—items my father would never notice were missing. My mother was already gone. There was nothing left to keep me here. Nothing holding me back from escape.~

~There was only one person I could think of who I could turn to for help—one person who had the means and the motive to do what I needed.~

~Uncle Jack would help get me out. He was the only person my mother ever truly trusted. He had treated me like a daughter should be treated and never gave me any reason to doubt the sincerity of his affection.~

~But because he was a family man through and through, I could never tell him what Cooper had done to me.~

~I’d have to wait.~

~Cooper was already out of the country, so he wasn’t a physical threat to me. First, I needed my wounds to heal, and then I’d go to Uncle Jack.~

^PRESENT DAY^

“This isn’t exactly the reunion I had in mind, but I suppose it’ll do.” Kenzo’s voice echoed against the pavement.

“What is it you want?” I demanded, balling my fists at my sides and glaring at him. This was the man I had run from—the man I was most afraid of. But right now, my fear was swiftly morphing into anger.

“That’s no way to speak to your father,” he said. “Here’s my proposal. You come home with me, and I’ll let your boyfriend live.”

He gestured toward Chase, and a red dot appeared in the center of his chest.