People are starting to gather at the commotion, coming from different areas of the park and the surrounding apartments.
Mac coughs again and reaches up to grab my collar, pulling me down. “I love you, cousin. I’m sorry I couldn’t…” he trails off, his mouth opening and closing. Blood gurgles in his throat. He exhales one last, strained breath, and goes still. His hand falls away from me.
“Mac?” I shake him. “Mac?”
Damien puts his fingers to Mac’s throat, checking for a pulse, then shakes his head at me. “We have to get out of here. Now.” He pulls me to my feet, letting Mac’s body fall to the concrete with a thunk. “You can’t take the fall for this. We need to get somewhere safe and figure out what to do.”
Rain starts to fall, big drops darkening the concrete, washing away Mac’s blood. I reluctantly turn away from him and follow Damien to his car like I’m in a waking nightmare. People are whispering, talking behind their hands, but no one has mustered up the nerve yet to stop us. He shoves me into the back and then gets into the driver’s seat. I don’t know where Mac’s friends have gone, but they’re nowhere to be seen. There’s only Mac’s body lying lifeless on the ground amid a crowd of stunned strangers. I stare at it as Damien puts the car in reverse and speeds out of the parking lot.
My mind is blank, and my heart that just this morning was bursting with joy, now aches with the pain of loss.
Mac.
Daphne.
Everything, gone in the blink of an eye.
In the firing of a gun.
Chapter Nine
Daphne
“What did you do?” I shriek, my voice echoing through the foyer of my parents’ house. I swing my fists wildly, my eyes blinded by tears and rage. All I can see is Theo’s body, his cousin on top of him, blood leaking onto the concrete. “What did you do?”
Ty gives up trying to drag me and instead lifts me over his shoulder, carrying me through the doorway. One of his lackeys closes it behind us with a slam. When Ty puts my feet back on the ground, I throw myself at him again. I feel my nails scrape skin just before Ty completely loses his shit and wraps a hand in my hair, swinging me around until my face slams against the wood-paneled wall. My forehead stings, and something warm slides down toward my eye.
“Hit me again,” he hisses in my ear, “and you can join your husband in hell.”
My father emerges from the hallway to his office, his eyes wide as he takes in the scene. “What is the meaning of this?” he barks. “Release my daughter immediately.”
With one last jerk of my hair, Ty lets me go. I take a quick step away from him and turn, scowling, ready to defend myself if necessary. The man who glares back at me with such unfettered hatred in his eyes is not the cousin I grew up with. It’s inconceivable that the little boy who used to secretly play Barbie dolls with me is the same one who just killed my husband in cold blood.
My husband.
I only got him for one night, and then he was ripped away from me. A scream bubbles up in my throat, and I’m about to launch myself at Ty again, when my mother hurries in, placing herself between us.
“What’s going on?” she asks. My dad joins her at the bottom of the stairs. “Are you bleeding?” She reaches up to touch my forehead.
“He killed him,” I hiss, moving out of my mother’s reach. I don’t want comfort. I want revenge. If I stop to think about anything else, I’ll collapse, I know I will.
“Killed who?” my mother asks.
“Theo.”
“Theodore Latsis?” my father clarifies, looking between Ty and me before settling on Ty. His voice is low and dangerous when he speaks. “Did you kill him?”
Ty shrugs. “My aim was true, but his cousin may have interfered. Could be they’re both dead. To cover our tracks, we reported a fight between the Latsis cousins and told the police Theo had a gun. If he’s not dead, he’ll be headed to death row for murder.”
“You liar!” I shout. “I saw it all.”
My dad turns his stare on me then. His mouth is set in a stern, unforgiving line. “Is it true, then? You married this boy in secret?”
“I love him,” I say. My mom reaches out and grabs my hand, a look of horror on her face. I look at her, unable to hold back the tears. “I love him, Mom.”
“Love has made you a widow, then, foolish child.” My father pulls my mother away from me. He’s red-faced and furious. “You selfish, foolish idiot.”
“Selfish? Me?” I scowl around the room. Ty is standing by the door, his hands in his pockets, a self-important smirk on his face. He’s done nothing all these years but egg my father on in my absence. “The two of you have carried on this feud for decades all for stupid, selfish reasons that no one understands, not even you. You hate the Latsises because of what? Their name? Their success?”
“Yes,” Ty interrupts, “and if you were loyal to your family, you would, too.”
“I’ve been nothing but loyal,” I object. “Years and years of doing what I’m told. Go to this school, run this office, be docile, be kind, be pretty. Well, I’m done.”
My father’s grin is not kind. “No, you’re not.”
“You don’t own me.”
“That’s just it. I do. And you’ll do exactly as I say, or you’ll find yourself on the streets. If you hate your name so much, then it won’t be yours anymore.”
“I will never forgive you,” I spit at him.
“I don’t need your forgiveness, just your cooperation. Tomorrow, you will marry Philip Pemberton, and then you’ll go live on the Pemberton estate until you learn how to behave yourself. I wash my hands of you.”
I gape at him. “I will not. What about the company?”
“Not your concern. I’ll be promoting Ty in your absence.”
It’s almost laughable. Ty is nothing more than my father’s goon, hired muscle. He can’t run Jordan Marine. I’ve been learning the ins and outs of our business my entire life. I’m not going to quit my job and I’m sure as hell not going to marry Philip Pemberton.
Squaring my shoulders, I say, “You can’t make me do anything.”
Both Ty and my father laugh at my bravado.
“You’re wrong,” my father finally says.
Tears prick at my eyes again and I hate myself for it. “Why are you even doing this?”
My dad braces himself on the banister. Even though he’s up and about, I can tell he isn’t feeling well. There are dark circles under his eyes and his face is gaunt and gray. But any sympathy I had for him is gone.
“The Latsis family has always thought themselves better than us,” he says. “Smarter. Wealthier. More successful. They’ve done everything they can to put us in our place. Well, it’s my turn to put an end to it. With Theo and Mac gone, the line ends there, and we win, once and for all.”
I shake my head. “You’re wrong. Theo and I have already put an end to it with our marriage. Our families are one now, can’t you see? There could have been peace.”
“Peace!” my father scoffs. “I hate the word.” He flicks a wrist at Ty. “Take her to her room. And make sure she stays there.”