I stood in the center of the training ground, the silence of my men ringing in my ears like a physical blow. The air where Chloe had stood only moments ago was still charged with her scent—vanilla and soft like the morning dew—and the lingering heat of her rage. No traces of hospitals or antiseptic. She smells so nice that if you hadn't seen her carrying out surgeries before, you wouldn't know she cuts and stitches people's hearts every day. I was literally fuming with anger; if a bird neared me, it would be burned to death by the heat of my fury.
My jaw ached. Not from the slap she'd delivered the night before, but from the sheer force of holding back the roar that wanted to tear out of my throat.
"Boss?" Jupiter stepped forward, his eyes wary. He was playing the part of the loyal right hand, but he didn't have the history Marcus had. He didn't know how close he was to the edge. "Do you want us to handle the disruption?"
I turned a look on him so cold he actually took a step back. "If you so much as breathe in her direction without my permission, Jupiter, I'll have your tongue. Clear?"
"Clear, Boss."
I waved them away. I needed the space. I needed to breathe. No one spoke to me that way. No one. I had built an empire on the bones of men who had offered me less disrespect than Chloe had just spat in my face. In the underworld, I was the Architect—the man who designed the demise of Kings. I was a myth, a shadow, a ghost that killed. Yet, a five-foot-something woman with tear-streaked eyes had just brought my entire operation to a grinding halt with nothing but a mother's scream.
I walked to the stone ledge where Leo had been standing. I picked up the small armored dinosaur he'd left behind.
I should have been furious. I should have been asserting my dominance. But as I looked at the toy, a memory I had spent years burying clawed its way to the surface. I remembered my own father—a man who didn't believe in pampering. Who believed in "discipline." Who believed in blood. I was five when he first handed me a loaded Beretta and told me to aim at a target that was screaming for mercy.
I had wanted to be protected. I had wanted a mother to storm in and snatch me away. But no one came—not because my mother wasn't there, and not because she didn't care enough, but because she was too scared of my father to even cough.
Chloe was doing for Leo what no one had ever done for me. She was the shield I never had.
A dark, twisted part of me envied my son. He had a lioness. I just had a legacy of ash. But the world wasn't a playground. Silas had proven that.
I felt a presence behind me. Julian. He and Miller were effective, efficient, and currently the only reason Silas wasn't able to take the lives of the two most important people in my life. The only reason he is still breathing right now is because I needed him to spit out what he knows—but I hadn't forgotten they weren't mine originally. They are very loyal individuals who wouldn't sell their souls to the devil for money. This is the reason why I had added them to my team. It wasn't so hard to get them to agree to come work for me; they were already in love with me as their leader before I even asked.
"The car is ready, Boss," Julian reported, his voice devoid of emotion. "Miller is already at the perimeter."
I gripped the plastic dinosaur so hard it creaked. "Is he talking yet?"
"He's being stubborn, Boss," Julian replied. "But he'll break."
"Get Chloe," I commanded. "She needs to hear what he has to say."
"I've already told her," Julian replied. "She's coming down."
I looked up at the window of the West Wing, where the curtain flickered. She was watching me. I had tolerated her outburst because, for the first time in my life, I wasn't looking at an enemy. I was looking at the only person in the world who wasn't afraid of the Architect. And that made her the most dangerous weapon I possessed—not because she could kill, but because she was the only one who could save my son from becoming like me.
"Let's go," I muttered, pocketing Leo's toy. "It's time Silas learned that the only thing more dangerous than my wrath is a mother who has been betrayed."
******