Page 24 of Deviant Knight (Knight's Ridge Empire 4)

THEO

“Sorry, son. He’s busy,” Galen says from his position at a computer in my father's security room.

“Well, he’s going to have to un-busy himself. I need to discuss something with him. Now.”

Ignoring Stella's dad, I barge through the room. Stefanos, Alex and Daemon’s dad, also turns to me, but all the other soldiers working in here wisely keep their attention on the job at hand.

“Theo,” Stefanos greets, although I can see the concern glittering in his eyes.

I push it all aside. I don’t give a shit what Dad is in the middle of right now.

I knock once out of courtesy before pushing the door open.

There are only a very small handful of men who have the balls to walk in on the boss like this, but I’m one of them. Each time, I have this lingering hope that I might be greeted by my dad and not the boss. So far, I’ve always been disappointed.

I think any memory of the few times my dad put his role as father above this Family are just that—a distant memory.

It makes me sad for Rhea, Atlas, and Larissa.

When I was their age, our granddad was still at the helm. But when he passed away, Dad took over and his life became work.

I get it. Running this Family, the businesses, it’s a lot. Something that I’m fully prepared to take over one day, but I’ll be fucked if it’s at the expense of the kids that have been left at home.

I’m aware that leaves me with two very obvious choices. Don’t have kids. Throw myself into this life from the get-go and forget that having a family of my own is even an option. Or have them young enough that I won’t have to turn my back on them when the time comes.

Dad’s still relatively young. Hopefully, he’s still got a few years left. But the lives we live… they’re dangerous, and knowing his health is good isn’t really a sign that I might have a while before that high-backed chair behind his dark desk becomes free.

Hell, it could be tomorrow for any of us that we know.

But can I be seen to not have kids? Not really.

I’m the heir to all of this. Of course I want to hand that down to my own son. If I don’t, then it’ll fall to Altas.

I think of the sweet smile of my little brother, and my stomach knots painfully that soon he’s going to start getting inducted to this life. He’s ten. When I was his age, I was already shooting a gun with more precision than most adults, and I was only a few short years away from the first time I directed that barrel at a human body.

Granted, it was only to maim, not kill. That came about a year later. But still, memories of it used to wake me up in a cold sweat at night.

I told Dad about it the first time I woke up terrified as this mutilated monster chased me, claiming to get his revenge as he wielded a knife in my face. but he just waved it off.

“It was just a dream. It should be the monsters in real life you should be afraid of, soldier,” I remember him telling me.

From that day, he upped my training, making it his sole mission for a few years to make sure I was as dangerous and as mentally fucking screwed up as possible.

He turned me from a kid who was scared of the dark to a ruthless killer to do his bidding.

I’ve literally followed him to hell and back on his orders. I’ve trusted him to know what he’s doing, but this time… this time, he’s gone too far.

“I told you I wasn’t to be interrupted,” Dad’s angry voice booms as I push the door wider and step inside. “Theo,” he snaps the second his eyes land on mine.

Thankfully, he’s not in here with one of our underground dancers. I guess I should be grateful that it’s just him and Evan.

“Had a fun afternoon?” I ask my uncle, who’s damn near covered head to toe in someone’s blood.

It could belong to one of a million people, but I have a suspicion I know exactly who he’s beat it out of.

“You could say that,” he says, pushing from the chair in front of Dad’s desk and slipping into the adjoining bathroom, I assume to clean up.

Dad sits back in his chair and stares at me.