Page 50 of Trial of Deceit (The Family’s Oath #1)

Chapter thirty

A s a mechanical whir rang out in the torture chamber, a loud scream erupted from the man tied to the table. Jediah pressed the stop button. The man stopped fighting against the restraints, exhaling a heavy, whimpering breath.

“What was that?” Jediah taunted.

The man sweated bullets as he rushed out, “Mek mi explain!”

Jediah’s brow raised. “Ashari already told me all that she overhead, and I trust her more than you.” He glanced at Dimitri, who stood beside the door with his arms behind his back. “More than any of you, at this point…” He looked back at Elias. “Talk fast.”

“They told me that the new site was going to get raided, too. I knew we weren’t going to be lucky again.”

“How you know ’bout this raid, but I didn’t?” Jediah hissed.

“Because the tip didn’t come from an inside man. It came from the Valcourts—” Elias screamed as Jediah turned the table saw on. It moved toward Elias’ dick, a whooshing sound coming in the room as it brushed the material of Elias’ trousers, seconds before Jediah turned it off.

“ Wa yu just seh, Eli?!”

Elias strained his neck to look down at his crotch. After his frantic eyes darted around, he released a long sigh and dropped his head backward. “I panicked!” he cried. “I didn’t want you to think I was incompetent to get caught three times in a row. I’m indebted to her, because she saved me.”

“ Indebted ? Saved you?”

“No one was supposed to get hurt,” Elias cried. “Did you realize that they only used tranquilizers?”

Jediah chuckled mockingly. He turned his head toward the ceiling, his shoulders shaking as he continued to laugh.

Looking back at Elias, shining from immense sweat, Jediah’s laughter died.

His eyes went cold. It’d been a long week of having fun with the old man, and Jediah had enough.

“Mi might caan’ stand yu sometime, but if yu neva capable, mi wouldn’ give such an important task to yu.

Afta wa yu do, mi only think yu weak ’cause yu conspire wid mi enemies instead of being man enough fi tell mi seh yu need help. ”

Elias squeezed his eyes shut. Tears pushed through the barrier, rolling down the sides of his face. “It won’t happen again. I did nothing else wrong,” he sobbed.

Jediah looked down at the older man. “Are you calling my wife a liar?”

“N-no! That’s not what I meant.”

“So, did you or did you not plant a bomb in my warehouse and allow Malia’s hitmen onto my estate?” he gritted out. He grinned while Elias fumbled for an answer. “That was your move, Elias, and you don’t have the honor of me killing you.”

Jediah withdrew a pawn from his pants’ pocket, then placed it beside Elias’ head. Stepping away from the table, Jediah ignored Elias’ pleas. Dimitri moved forward, his eyes narrowed and jaws clenched.

“Don’ do dis, Jed! Think ’bout Howie and Iyana!” Elias screamed.

Jediah paused at the door, one hand tucked inside his jacket. His finger grazed the cigar travel case. “You’re the man of their house, but you didn’t think about them.”

“No!” came a loud wail from behind Jediah.

Jediah rolled his eyes and moved the cigar to his mouth.

With his mind still processing the influx of information from his earlier meeting, he didn’t have time for anyone’s antics.

He took a long puff as the mixer truck reversed.

It stopped short of the building’s foundation, then emptied cement into it.

The sound of something falling made Jediah look over his shoulder. Iyana was kneeling on the rocky ground, her hands by her side and her shoulders drooping. Her mouth was agape, but no sound escaped as tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

Jediah removed the cigar from his mouth. He savored the taste of the tobacco on his tongue before exhaling the smoke. He stepped toward the woman. Not because he wanted to, but because he needed to walk by her to get to the entrance of the site.

Iyana’s eyes shifted to his. They lacked the shine he’d grown up seeing. “After all Elias did for you and y-your family, this is how you repay him? Us ?” she forced out, her voice cracking.

Jediah stooped before her, resting his arms atop his knees. He scowled at her tears. “He betrayed me first.”

“We did it because he got threatened!” Iyana cried, her hands shaking at her sides as they balled into a fist.

“We?” Jediah asked, and she sucked in a breath. Noting her slip up, a small smirk came on his face. He took a puff from his cigar, then blew the fumes toward her. He ignored how she glared at him through the fading cloud between them. “Out of my love for Howie, I’m making you live.”

Another loud sob ripped from her mouth. Dropping her head, she shook it. Her teeth clicked against each other while her lips trembled. “He d-didn’t want to let you down again.”

“He didn’t let me down the first two times.

It wasn’t his fault,” Jediah said. “But now he’s dead and can always look up at the place he loves so much.

” Jediah dug into his pocket, finding a coil of money to toss at Iyana’s feet.

“Tell Howie the tooth fairy visited early. I know you’re not going to want me around her for a while, and I won’t disappoint her like you and your husband did me.

” Jediah straightened himself and returned to the car, driving himself to Cedella’s hospital.

His heart raced as he entered an empty hospital room.

Where was Ashari?!

About to pull his gun out and demand answers from the first nurse he could find, Jediah halted when he remembered they were with Bryony.

Sitting on a chair on the balcony, Ashari looked over her shoulders as the door slid open. She sneered at Dimitri.

“Jed’s orders,” Dimitri said before she could demand he leave. “He says he’ll be home soon.”

Ashari huffed and looked away. “I’m alright, as you can see.”

Dimitri didn’t reply. Instead, he moved to the chair across from her. He stood behind it and crossed his arms behind his back. He allowed a moment of silence to pass before he asked, “How are you?”

Ashari stiffened. Her brows furrowed. To her knowledge, Dimitri wasn’t one to ask about children. But she wouldn’t allow that to bother her. For, he was asking something that no one else had asked her. Everyone else was concerned about the health of the baby.

Jediah had got a top notch NICU unit made in an empty wing of the house. Cedella and her team transferred into the wing and worked around the clock to ensure the baby survived these incredibly vulnerable weeks.

“I’m… not okay,” Ashari confessed.

Dimitri sat on the chair. He stretched his arms across the arm rest, stared at her, waiting for her to speak.

Ashari looked at the trees in the garden.

She understood why Kayon was fascinated by the property; it was beautiful from every angle.

“All my life, I’ve lived in my brother’s shadow.

No matter how hard I worked. No matter how much I tried.

I’ve never had my own spotlight, and it’s not a good way to live.

The case was supposed to take me out of it, and it did, but not in a good way. ”

“But you got what you wanted.”

“A child I’m scared to look at, and a husband who will kill me — for sure, this time — if I cross him again?”

“Then don’t.”

“I won’t.”

“And the baby?”

“It won’t bother you?”

He shook his head. “Not anymore.”

Ashari stared at him for a moment. Curiosity consumed her, but she directed the conversation elsewhere.

He was giving her an opportunity to be selfish, so she would take it.

“The next thing is that you killed the only friend I’ve ever had who wasn’t connected to my father in one way or the next,” she said.

The sorrow she’d work so hard to bury, forced its way up.

A sob almost ripped from her mouth, but she bit hard into her lip to stop it from coming out.

Her lips quivered. As Dimitri continued to watch her with a perplexed expression, she stopped fussing her lip. “Dimitri?”

“Charlie is alive,” Dimitri said.

Ashari’s eyes widened.

“ What ?” came a voice from the doorway.

Ashari and Dimitri looked in that direction. Jediah stood beside a woman, who was almost the same height as him and looked nervous. Dimitri’s eyes widened as he stared at her.

Ashari’s brows furrowed at the woman. “Who’s this?”

“Sashoy Angus, the best bodyguard I know because she’s actually trustworthy,” Jediah spat, his eyes narrowing on Dimitri.

“And his fiancée,” Sashoy added. Her hand raised, slowly waving at Dimitri, whose fingers dug deep into the armrest. “Hi, baby…”