Page 91 of Seduce & Destroy

He looked pale with sunken features and dried spit on his jaw. It was hard to imagine him in the position that he used to be. Right now, he looked anything other than fearsome.

“Oh my god, Father.” She fussed with his hands, squeezing them softly over and over. It was hard to tell what their relationship looked like. Half the time she hated him, other times she was desperate for his presence. It was toxic at best, parental at worst.

The whistle in his breath indicated that he was still alive. But barely. He laid on the ground in the same funeral garb he’d worn when he was shot. The hole of the bullet provided a clear window to inspect his wound. It was gnarly, and browned.

A doctor had stemmed the bleeding quite efficiently before he was pulled off him by Karstein guards and dragged away. Richard had been here ever since. I hoped he was drowning in his own self-pity, but in the back of my mind, I already knew he had the mercy of ignorance in his sickened mind.

After her goodbyes, he’d be gone quick.

Laney pulled a chair from the guard station just outside the room, the metal dragged on the floor, and it echoed.

His eyes began to flutter open at the sound. He still had that blank stare on his face that I’d grown accustomed to in his state. It took a while for him to notice there were people in the room, but when he did his eyes widened and stuck on me.

“Can you hear me?” Laney said with gravel in her voice but alert. “Squeeze my hand, if yes.”

No movement came. Her hope faded.

She leaned over him, towering over his field of vision from where he laid on the floor. I couldn’t decipher the next words, only his expression. It went from surprise to anger, though, the cardiac arrest had muted these shifts to be subtle. I moved closer to hear, but I only caught the latter end of the sentence.

“...everything, Father. There’s no one left.”

His eyes remained on me. And he mouthed one word. Karstein.

Laney looked up at me, at a loss, but I knew. I was his worst fear.

I shrugged her, while I tightened my grip on the gun in my hand. “Say goodbye.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Father, I…”

Galen. He mouthed again. To me.

“What?” Laney said. “No, it’s me.”

I shook my head. Galen Karstein. My dead uncle perished in the fire.

“Fuck you.” Richard suddenly said. He lifted his head off the floor, but he didn’t get far.

“What? Father, calm down. It’s over. I told you.”

He cleared his throat, lifting his hand from Laney’s grip. “Get out.”

Look who had a brain after all. “No can do, Richie.”

“Kilina, stop agitating him. He’s already weak.”

“He can speak for himself.”

“I need a moment alone with my daughter. Leave.” He said with such confidence that my eyebrows shot up. Was he faking this entire time?

“I don’t answer to you.” I responded.

Laney scooted closer, “I opened Mother’s letter.”

His eyes flit toward her, eyebrows raised, expectant.

“She told me to get far away from you.”

“That bitch. I loved her! Protected her, coveted her, as I did you, Sunshine. You made the storm clouds go away.”