Page 74 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

Before I could think some more about the probability that I’d gotten this wrong, Mina hit an icon, and Father’s face appeared on the screen. My breath caught. He sat like a king, peering at the camera from behind his desk in his cavernous study, inside this very house.

Kai’s hold tightened around me.

I hadn’t seen my father for so long that his image hit me like a blow to the stomach, and so did the force powering his familiar expressions. He was dead, but here he was, looking very much alive and pissed, as usual.

Although he retained the classic good looks that always impressed high society, the wrinkles around his eyes, mouth, and forehead etched deeper into his pale skin.

Swept high above his brow, his white mane curled over his suit’s collar, elegant as ever, and yet a single strand fell over his forehead and out of place.

It was a minor detail, but it wasn’t like him.

I recognized the photo box that stood on his desk and the blue veins raised on the top of the hand he held protectively over my box. Rage twisted his mouth and sparkled in his gray glare. I’d seen that wrath before. In his eyes, and … in mine.

Without thinking, I called on his aura. It didn’t appear. I was so grateful to be spared the sight. He was dead. Dead people didn’t emit energy.

“By the time you get my message, I’ll be gone on a pleasure cruise.

You girls can join me at any time,” he started in a commanding voice.

“It also means that you, Cersi, will receive this message. I could say I called because I knew your brilliant mind could understand, but no matter where you are right now, you’re still a goddamn hellion, and you won’t believe me. ”

I gritted my teeth.

Kai nuzzled my shoulder, soothing some of the tension stiffening my body.

My brain homed in on Father’s words like a magnet on metal.

I couldn’t help it. “Pleasure cruise” was his code for his murder.

When he recorded this message, he was already a prisoner, sentenced to death, and waiting for his executioner.

Why?

I wasn’t sure. That we could “join him” meant we were next. He’d displayed the photo box to confirm he’d hidden the message there.

“If you hope I’m reaching out to take back all the shit I said, get down from your high horse.

” He curled his upper lip with familiar cruelty.

“I’ve never been a sentimental fool, and I’m short on time.

What would be the point, anyway? You hate me.

Your sisters hate me. I earned your loathing fair and square.

The damage’s done and the devil won’t care. ”

“Son of a bitch,” Mina muttered angrily before she winced. “Oops. Did I say that aloud?”

“You did,” Javier said through clenched teeth. “We’re all thinking it.”

Resignation deepened the lines on Thena’s face, and Missy’s eyes darkened, dry, brave, and steely as we faced our sperm donor. A weird numbness settled over me. Everything Father said felt staged, rehearsed, calculated. I knew that tone. He wanted something from us.

From me.

“Blame your mother for the decomposition of your piss-poor father,” he continued in his brisk staccato. “She died. She left me. When she did, if there was ever any good in me, it went with her. So, you got a rotten piece of shit for a father. So what? Get the fuck over it.”

“Even from the grave, he keeps trying to boss us around,” Thena murmured.

“He can’t.” Dash rubbed Thena’s flat belly distractedly. “Not anymore.”

“When I’m done here, I’ll return this ugly trinket.

” Father tapped on the photo box. “If you’re as smart as you think you are, Cersi, you’ll figure it out.

If I told you all about my trip, my cruise would begin sooner than expected.

I’m leaving you this message in case I don’t have time to rearrange my trip.

This is my only chance to get through your thick head. Are we clear?”

He was being monitored. Some sort of spying system intercepted his communications and flagged certain words.

He refused to accept death just yet. That’s why he talks about “rearranging” his trip.

He thought this could be his only chance to sneak out his message.

To do that, he’d tricked his captors into thinking he was dealing with troublemaker me, as usual.

So far, he was doing a bang-up job at it.

“Why did I bother making new friends, you’re wondering,” Father continued. “I had enough dough not to care. But it wasn’t the dough my friends wanted. It was my cooperation they required in exchange for something precious.”

Something precious . What could that be?

“So, he did join the NWO,” Dash muttered, his face hard. “The bastard betrayed his country.”

“They got the leverage needed to secure a solid business association.” Father’s fury tightened his jaw, and yet he kept his tone even. “I gave them money, influence, access. I needed time to decide on an itinerary, but once I settled on it, the whole damn thing went sideways.”

I rubbed my eyes. What did he mean by that?

“No forgiveness for me,” he said. “But if I go on the cruise, and the boy does his job, my travels will buy you a little time.”

I traded a knowing look with Dash. He was the “boy.” Father had called him that whenever he wanted to rile him, which was most of his life. My father had tasked Dash with our protection and, so far, he’d done an amazing job.

“Do you understand, Cece?” Father demanded. “I sail on, so that my dream can live.”

His dream?

“The yacht leaves soon. You’re thinking.

Why you?” Father shook his head and took a breath.

“Your sisters are too weak. I tried to make them strong, hard, unbreakable, like me. But I failed. Thena can run the Astor conglomerate, but her integrity gets in the way. She’s too honest and eager to please to be of use to me. ”

“His loss,” Dash whispered to Thena. “He never got to know the steel in you.”

“His criticism is a compliment to my choices,” Thena said.

“Affie’s got the goods,” Father went on.

“But she’s a party animal. She’ll never amount to anything.

As for Missy, well, poor, pitiful girl. Nothing there but kindness and goodness.

She faints at boo! ” He made a show of waving his hands in the air.

“She’ll be the first to go. They’re gonna eat her alive. ”

“Angel, you’ve proved him wrong already,” Javier said, even before I could. “You are quiet strength, and you’ve survived your father’s enemies when he didn’t.”

“I don’t faint anymore, and ‘they’ didn’t eat me alive.” Missy’s gaze remained dry. “What a shame. Father never learned there’s nothing weak about kindness.”

My heart ached for her, for all of my siblings, but it also soared. My sisters? They were strong, and nothing Father could say would destroy them now.

“But you, Cersi, you’re different.” Father’s words pummeled me like a bat to the head. “I succeeded with you. You don’t take shit from anybody, and that includes me. You’re vicious, and you stand up for yourself. You’ve got a solid brain, and vengeance sings in your veins. You’re my work of art.”

The air whooshed out of me. Was he right? Had he hardened me into his own likeness?

“You are not like him.” Kai’s murmur carried a rare edge of fury. “You’ll never be like him.”

I’d been close, but my path had crossed Kai’s, and I’d taken charge of the chisel. I wasn’t Father’s work of art anymore. I was my very own work in progress.

“So, Cersi, I dare you.” The intensity in his stare iced my guts. “Why am I going on a pleasure cruise? Hate me, yes, but avenge me. Redeem me, and above all, keep my dream alive.”

The recording cut off. A spectral silence fell upon the room. The things Father had said were awful, and yet, this wasn’t new. What had changed?

The only deviation from the norm was that he’d asked for help.

My help.

“What is this dream he keeps talking about?” Missy’s features scrunched as she frowned. “He had only one goal. To be the richest man in the world.”

The others muttered in agreement, but Dash traded a curious look with Kai. The gleam in their eyes told me that, like me, they were both pondering every word Father had said.

I asked myself: what was Father’s ultimate dream?

And suddenly I knew. His dream had never included me or my sisters, not directly, anyway, but he did have a dream. He’d done everything in his power—including lying, cheating, and stealing—to achieve his dream.

“Sorceress?” Kai rubbed my arms, working some heat into me. “Are you okay?”

“No.” I was far from okay.

“Talk to us,” Kai said. “Maybe we can help.”

“Okay.” I filled my lungs with a breath. “Father had a dream. This dream was important to him. Somehow, the NWO caught wind of this. Someone who knew Father, who was close to him, told Li.”

“Probably his brother, Uncle Arthur,” Thena offered. “He joined the NWO and murdered Father.”

“He’s dead,” Missy pointed out. “So, we can’t corroborate Cece’s conclusions.”

“Let’s assume it’s true for now.” I rolled with my instincts. “Knowing that Father’s dream was his weakness, Li leveraged the dream and blackmailed him into joining the NWO.”

“So far, so good.” Dash inclined his head. “Go on.”

“Father gave them what they wanted, but he was no fool. In the clip, he said he needed time to decide on an ‘itinerary.’” I replayed his exact words in my head.

“Behind Li’s back, he made a plan to remove the leverage that tied him to the NWO and ‘restore’ his dream.

He also said that once he settled on this plan, ‘the whole damn thing went sideways.’ I think Father fought back.

He never shied away from a fight. He always fought back and won. ”

“But he didn’t win this time.” Missy deepened her frown. “He lost. His plan ‘went sideways.’”

“Exactly.” The numbness spread to my toes and fingers, but it spared my brain.

“Father failed in whatever action he tried to take. They caught him and identified him as a traitor. This is why he was a captive in his own house. This is also how he knew his time was short. He knew they were going to kill him first, and then us.”

“But why kill us?” Thena asked.

“Because Li knew that whatever leverage he held over Father would be important to us,” I theorized. “Li suspected Father had gotten a message out to us telling us the secrets Father learned from the NWO.”

“That would be an existential threat to Li,” Kai pointed out.

“Precisely.” I agreed. “This is why Li wanted the photo box, and also the reason he sent Levine and his crew to search for it. When he didn’t find it, he came after us.”

“That all makes sense.” Dash gestured for me to continue.

“Condemned to death, Father faked a call to me, ostensibly to yell at me, as usual.” I reconstructed the scenario in my head.

“To anyone aware of our family’s dynamics and my terrible relationship with him, the message would sound normal.

Father took great care not to activate Li’s surveillance system with his words.

Did you all notice he avoided names, places, and any mention of Li and his NWO? ”

A look around showed me everyone nodding in agreement.

“Sometime after Father recorded his message and returned the photo box to my room, Li or his minions took him to his New York City office, where his own brother killed him, most likely in a show of loyalty to Li,” I reminded everyone.

“But Father’s goal in recording that video was not to warn us of the danger. ”

“Then what was it?” Javier asked.

“He wanted to protect whatever ‘leverage’ Li had on him.”

“Why?”

“Because he believed Li would keep this ‘leverage’ in place until we were all dead, just in case he needed it to get to us.”

“Very Machiavellian,” Kai observed.

“Father in a nutshell.” I shrugged. “He also had a second reason to keep us alive. This is why he engaged Dash to protect us.”

“What was the second reason?” Missy asked.

“He wanted us to ‘restore’ his dream.”

“Back to Father’s precious but mysterious dream.” Thena sighed.

“He worked all his life to create the Astor conglomerate.” My thoughts unraveled like a spool, leading me somewhere, and fast. “His dream was for the Astor empire to go on forever…” My voice ebbed. My stomach got colder and colder.

God, I hoped I was wrong. No! I hoped I was right. But if I was right…

Horror washed over me, terror so consuming I couldn’t draw breath. I didn’t know what was worse, to hope or not to hope.

“She figured it out,” Missy realized.

“She knows something.” Thena studied my face.

Were my conclusions madness? Wishful thinking? Torture? Stupidity?

“Cece?” Kai shook me gently. “You’re safe. Whatever it is, you can say it.”

“Father wanted his empire to survive him,” I ventured. “For that reason, he had an heir, a male heir he tried to groom, manhandling him to be his successor.”

“But his heir died in battle.” Javier furrowed his brow. “I was there.”

“And yet, by your own admission, you were unconscious when Nix died,” I reminded him. “Am I right?”

Javier’s Adam’s apple bounced on his throat. “Yes.”

“Father asked me to restore his dream.”

“Oh, fuck.” The realization hit Dash.

Confusion swam in my sisters’ gazes. Questions sparkled in the eyes of everyone around me. The silence in the room was absolute. I swallowed with a gulp. I could be wrong. Very wrong. But… what if I wasn’t?

“I… I have no proof,” I murmured. “This is just a theory.”

“Trust yourself,” Kai said. “Trust your intuition.”

Pain and hope tore me apart. Despair and courage battled for my soul. My chest ached, and tears burned in my eyes. I should’ve trusted my intuition and my gift long before now.

As it was, I’d ignored all the signals—Li’s vitriolic determination to kill my sisters and me; my inability to accept my brother’s death; my stubborn sense he still walked this earth; the recent knowledge that Thena and Missy had connected with him through their gifts; the conversation I’d had with him when I was drowning.

Hell, even the mountains’ SOS made sense now, if that was even possible.

But one fact gave me hope above all others and sealed my conclusion.

I’d spotted Nix’s life energy. Only the living emitted auras.

“The NWO got a hold of Father’s dream, his greatest hope.” I forced the cruel, shocking truth through my lips. “His name is Phoenix Astor. Somehow, somewhere, Nix is still alive.”

The End