I blinked at him. “No.”

  “Yes. If I didn’t leave, that’s what they were going to do. Make an example of her. It was a ‘self-centered marriage’ as he called it. My duty was to the Elite."

  “They made you leave us."

  “The Van Linsteds were in power for a long time. Every Director Prime holds the seat for 10 years. The Van Linsteds had a chokehold on power for so long they didn’t want to lose it. To get there, they needed other Elite’s support. Powerful members. One of those members wanted something. Me as a husband for his daughter. So your mother was sacrificed.”

  "You didn’t have to agree to that.”

  “I wanted to save her. To make sure you and Toby had a good life.”

  “But…” The sob started before I could stop it. Tears were stinging my eyes, and I tried to blink them away, but they wouldn’t scatter. Instead, they just kept welling and welling until one drop leaked. And then it was too late to stop the others. I swiped the annoying offenders away with the back of my hand. “I don’t understand. Why?”

  “For his own power and greed he sacrificed me. If I saw you, if I talked to you, there was hell to pay. So I sat on the outskirts. I went to Toby’s football matches from a distance. Every time you graduated, or had a dance recital or a Taekwondo exhibition, I was there.”

  “Little creepy, don't you think, Dad?”

  He grinned at that. “You’re calling me dad now?”

  I shook my head. “Don’t get carried away, Winthrop."

  “I want you to know that if I could’ve been with you, I would’ve been. I would’ve given anything to be with you and your brother. Anything. As it was, I gave my life for years.”

  I swiped away at the free falling tears. “Knowing what they could do, knowing how they could fuck with your life, you gave them Toby.”

  He shook his head. "I didn’t want that life for him. Back then, I thought I could insulate him. Protect him. I was wrong. It cost him his life."

  "And now there’s a psychopath on the loose who wants to kill me.”

  He scrubbed his hand down his face. “We can talk more about my relationship with your mother later. But you have to know this; there were some of us in the Elite who wanted the Van Linsteds gone. So we formed a pact. A group within the Elite. Those who were anti-Van Linsted. Obviously, me because I hated them for what they had done to my family. Edgerton. Wilcox. But Wilcox eventually dropped out and wanted to put Bram on the seat. Everything changed when Ben and the lads disrupted the plan. No one saw them coming. So it became everyone for themselves. Our alliances quickly turned into little more than background noise."

  “Yeah, we figured that much out.”

  “There is Lord Knoxx and Lord Kingston from the original group. Priorities have shifted. The truth is coming to light, and people have their own agendas.”

  I nodded. “Edgerton.”

  He nodded. “While we were all aligned for getting Van Linsted out, we had our own plan. I didn’t think I could make it happen. It took over a decade, and in that time, my own son died as a sacrifice. And I didn’t know it until much later.”

  My stomach roiled. “When did you find out?”

  "When the lads started going after Bram, we wanted to know why Ben had such a hard-on for him. Would you believe Edgerton told us? Toby had been murdered as a sacrificial lamb. My son! With no thought to how that was going to affect me. They buried his murder to protect his son who had killed a girl on campus, and Toby was a witness. And he had to be silenced, point-blank."

  The tears were flowing freely now. With every word, it felt like he was rubbing me raw with sandpaper. “Knoxx and Kingston, where do they stand now?”

  “Edgerton has them under his thumb. Kingston is making waves because of his own son. Everyone knows he despises Bridge, but he could be an ally."

  “Why are you telling me this now?”

  He stared at me, bewildered. “You think I’m really going to let them take my daughter too? I’ve made a lot of mistakes. None I am proud of. But to protect you? I can do that. It is my right to do that. But I have to warn you. You have my support, and I will give you everything I have. But these men mean business.”

  They had killed my brother. They would pay. “Well, they should be worried because so do I.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Emma

  When I returned to London Lords I felt numb. Like I was walking through a fog with no light in sight.

  This whole time my father had been protecting us? At least that’s what he wanted me to believe. And I wanted to believe him, but how much of that was the truth, and how much was that little girl desperate to believe that her father had always loved her?

  His secretary knew your name. She was the one who told you that he’d watched you watch him all this time.

  I needed to talk to my mother. But I needed to process first. I needed Bridge.

  The lift opened and sure enough, there was my quarry. Leaning back against the bar looking bored. But the moment the doors parted ways and he saw me, his grin was effortless, showcasing that rare dimple. He had taken to leaving some of the stubble on his jaw these days. It made him look even sexier. Rakish. Wasn’t sure I liked other women seeing him like that all the time, but whatever.

  “There’s my beautiful wife. I’ve been looking for you. Did you get something to eat?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not yet,” and the doors closed around us.

  He reached for me automatically. "Meetings this morning?"

  I cleared my throat. “I went to see my father.”

  Bridge froze. Not a single muscle in his body moved. I rushed to finish before he could jump to conclusions like usual. “Before you freak out, I had security with me, Ryan and Jacob. I was careful. Just in and out. Nothing happened.”

  He pulled back, his eyes full of concern. I thought he was going to start checking me over for wounds. Instead, he tucked my head into his chest and hugged me tighter.

  “That’s not why I was worried. We’re past that now. I was worried because, well, he’s your father. And you two basically have no relationship. And you look gutted. I’m worried about your emotional wellbeing, not that you left without telling me. You’re not a prisoner, Ems.”

  Despite my furious attempts to blink back the tears and to ward off the stinging in my nose, a few traitorous ones slipped past the defensive line.

  He held me like that, tight. Letting me cry. Letting my body mold against his. As my insides turned to mush in their constant turmoil. All these years had I misinterpreted my father’s actions? Was he telling the truth? Had he always loved us? He stayed away to keep us safe. Who did that?

  All the while, Bridge shushed me and held me against him, letting me just cry it out. Finally, I pushed away, using the backs of my hands to try to wipe my tears. But of course, my husband was there with a handkerchief and wiped them away for me. “Here, use this.”

  All I could do was sniffle. “God, I’m a fucking mess now.”

  He shook his head. “You are still as beautiful as the day I married you.”

  My lips trembled as a smile threatened to crack through. “You’re lying. But I appreciate the effort.”

  He shrugged. “You don’t know if I’m lying. You are beautiful. To me, always.”

  “I just don’t know what to believe.”

  The lift stopped, leaving us on the top floor. Bridge used his key on the lift to make the other set of doors open. It was more of a service entrance that would take us in the back way and not through the main office. He did that so I wouldn’t have to face all the people wondering why the hell I looked like a drunk raccoon.

  We didn’t encounter anyone as we navigated the less opulent passageways around the back of the offices and finally arrived in his office with the box of tissues close by. He sat on the desk. "What did he say?”

  "He said a lot."

  “I’m going to need you to be clearer, love.”

  I laughed. “Okay, he said he’d always loved us. And he stayed away to keep us safe. He said that the Elite forced him to divorce my mother. Used him as a pawn, a bargaining chip for another Elite member who wanted their daughter to marry well. And he was the bargaining chip offered.”

  Bridge frowned at that, and his brows knitted together as if he was thinking it through. "That does make sense. His wife’s parents, Lord and Lady Ambrose, have been known for stealing gold and precious minerals from countries all over the world. Not quite the level of the Van Linsteds, but the Van Linsteds would’ve seen them as an ally. He would’ve wanted to make them happy. If their daughter Alysia wanted someone wealthy and handsome, your father fit the bill. Problem was he got married without notifying anyone. So he was lost as a bargaining chip. I could see them making him leave her.”

  “But that’s wrong. Could someone make you leave me?”

  Bridge shook his head. “Nothing could make me leave you. If Ben ordered it, I would just leave.” And then he made this face.

  “What is that face?”

  “The only way I would leave you would be if it was to protect you in some way.”

  I glowered at him. “We don’t do that. You don’t leave me.”

  He held up his hands. “Easy does it. I’m not going anywhere. I will not leave you. But I’m letting you know that it’s a viable reason if you’re worried about someone and their safety. That’s the kind of crazy shit you do, usually without discussing it with them. And then, well, it bites you in the arse.”

  “He abandoned her just like that.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t just like that, Ems. Have you talked to your mum?”

  I shook my head. “No. I was too broken. I’ll have to talk to her later. I just couldn’t believe it.”

  “I’m not saying what he told you is the truth or that it was right. All I’m saying is there’s a possibility he’s not making it up.”

  I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse. “So what you’re telling me is that if what he’s saying is accurate, that all this time I’ve hated him, he loved me. That’s what you’re saying.”

  I really, really didn’t want it to be true. But I knew it was probable.

  “If it is true, then that means the other things he told me are probably true as well.”

  He nodded. “What else did he say?”

  “Well, he told me that he’d kept tabs on us, from afar, and if we approached him, he was allowed to interact with us. Not for long, obviously, but it couldn’t be helped if we found him. And of course, I never approached him. I just stubbornly glared at him from across the street and across a rooftop. Fuck, I could’ve talked to him sooner.”

  Bridge leaned forward and took my hands. “Hey, we’re not doing that. We’re not blaming ourselves for some shit we have no control over, right?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, all right. But it is bullshit.”

  He laughed. “No one’s arguing that, love.”

  “He said that Toby approached him a couple of weeks before he died and told him about something he’d seen.”

  Bridge’s gaze narrowed. “Something he’d seen?”

  I nodded, trying to hold the tears back again. “Toby had seen Middleton standing over the body of that dead teacher. And Middleton told him that if he opened his mouth he was dead and he would kill all of us. Even though he was worried, he was hoping my father would do something about it. So he went to see him when he was doing the evaluations for your class.”

  Bridge let out a long exhale and then changed positions until he sat on the club chair next to me. “Jesus fuck.”

  I nodded. “According to Dad, Toby said he was the only one he could go to. Toby told him what he’d seen, and dad was furious and worried because he knew that Middleton was protected. He knew the secrets that Toby didn’t know, but he still tried to do something about it. He knew Middleton was your brother. He knew the lengths to which your father would cover it up. But he still took it to their group to have him removed. And everyone agreed. Even your father. But instead of that happening, on the night of initiation, Toby died. And your father told mine that if he didn’t want the same thing happening to me and mum, he would never talk about it, never whisper it. And so Dad has been stuck for the past ten years. At least that’s what he says. He also said that he’s been working with someone inside the Elite to try to do something about them. I think maybe our mysterious note sender.”

  Bridge's gaze met mine. "Did he say who it was?"

  “I tried to get it out of him, but he wouldn’t tell me. He said that this man had put his life at risk to give us the information we needed, and he needed to stay hidden for as long as possible.”

  Bridge ran his hand through his hair. Then he leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and scrubbing his hands over his face. The agitation was clear. His horror, his confusion. I was feeling all the same things. When he lifted his head, he met my gaze, and I could see the tears there. “I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I know I didn’t do anything. But my father… Fuck.”

  “You’re not him. You are not responsible for his actions.”

  “They killed your brother because of what he knew, and for ten years we did nothing about it.”

  “You didn’t know. Now that we know, we’re doing something. And my father knew, but he was trying to protect us. There are other men who knew and were not protecting anyone but themselves. They all go down, but I’m not losing you in this process. I’ve already lost enough.”

  “You’re not losing me, Ems. I’m right here. We’ll burn it all down. Every last one of them.”

  "I have zero interest in preserving their humanity and their lives anymore. Everyone has to go.”

  He nodded. “Everyone has to go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Bridge

  I was nervous for today. We were meeting with Lord Wilcox. Drew had kept his word and set up a meeting with his father. He thought the old man could be swayed. I certainly hoped so because we were about to pull the power play of all power plays, and if he couldn’t be, we were showing our cards.

  The good news was, Drew’s father and Lord Kingston had a known weakness. Both of them were royalists at heart. They loved anything royal. Not just Britain’s royals, but any royal they could get their hands on. Lord Kingston had been at the last Swedish royal family’s wedding. Front and center. Eating that shit right the hell up. Which suited us. Because we so happened to have a royal available to us.

  Emma leaned forward on my desk with her hands planted, and all I could think about was standing behind her and lifting her skirt. “Earth to Bridge.”

  I nodded. “Yes, I’m here.”

  “Are you? You were tossing all night. You almost whacked me once or twice.”

  “Sorry. I had a lot on my mind.”

  “You don’t say. Are we going to talk about it?”

  I shook my head. “Not now. Just know that yes, I’m worried. But it will work out.”

  She nodded. “I know. I also know that you blame yourself. So maybe stop doing that. It’s not helpful.”

  “Oh, you think?”

  She narrowed her gaze at me, licking her bottom lip, which of course made me think of other things I wanted to do to Emma.

  I shook my head. “Woman, we don’t have time for that.”

  “You look like you need to relax.”

  I laughed. “Yes, I do, but goddammit, we really don’t have time for that. But I’ll take a rain check.”

  She sighed with a small pout. “Fine, I have work to do anyway. The media outreach for the Dubai project has had some push back, so I need to go and make it prettier, talking about greener initiatives and some shit.”

  I frowned. “Is there a problem? We do have green initiatives. Are the emission offsets not enough?”

  She laughed. And then as I stood, grabbing my suit jacket, she smoothed her hand over my chest, heating my skin where her palm touched. “Relax. This is press stuff. They want to talk big and flashy and are forgetting our selling points. Yes, we are big and flashy. But we are also doing something important for the environment, which is a key selling factor. So you let me worry about media and publicity and how we look. You go deal with, I don’t know, what do you even call them? Titans of industry?”

  “They wish they were.”

  She laughed. “Well they are. You might mock Lord Wilcox, but he’s still one of the most powerful men in England.”

  “I know.”

  “Remember that. They want to feel like they’re important. They want to feel that you see that they’re important. They feel shoved aside, their old ways of doing things ignored. That's the button to press.”

  I watched her as she perfectly dissected men she’d never met before. “You have that a hundred percent right.”

  “I know. I am pretty brilliant, aren’t I?”

  I laughed because she was. “Yes, but you know that.”

  "It never hurts for you to tell me over and over again. You can also tell me how beautiful I am because I like to hear it.”

  My grin flashed and the tension in my body eased. Why could she always do that? I brushed her lips with mine but pulled back quickly before she could sink in to me.

  She gave me another pout. “You can’t tease a girl.”

  I laughed. “That same girl teases me all the time.”

  “Well you know, I’m trying to build your character.”

  I shook my head. “You are trying to get me in trouble. Wish me luck.”

  “You don’t need luck. You have your mates, and you have me.”

  “I’ll just call you my lucky charm.”

  “If you like. But I don’t believe in that. We are making our own luck now.”

  “That we are.” I gave her another brief kiss then I was out the door. Completely attuned, East and Ben met me at the elevators. The three of us rode down together, ready for whatever the hell was going to rear its ugly head. Drew was coming with his father. Lord Kingston would be on his own. And then Sebastian and Lucas were going to walk through with Jessa. Everyone was well aware that we knew the royal family.