Claiming His Secret Son(39)

But she’d lied. Her defenses were nonexistent where he was concerned. Anything with or from Richard devastated her. He was the only one who could destroy her.

Then he started.

“My father was in the Special Forces in the British army before he was dishonorably discharged. Bitter and suffering from severe financial problems after many failed investments, he joined a crime syndicate when I was six. He’d trained me in all lethal disciplines since I can remember, and I was so good that he involved me in his work. Not that I realized what we were doing for a couple of years. Then one day five years later, when Rose turned one, his partners came to tell us he’d been killed. Shortly thereafter, one of those partners started coming to our home. Then one day soon after that, my mother told me she and he just got married and the man—Burton—would now live with us.”

Isabella sat forward, poured herself a drink, having no idea what it was. He’d already knocked her over with the disclosure that Rose was family and Burton had been his stepfather, too. She had a feeling she’d need anything to bolster her for the rest of his revelations.

“I knew Burton had killed my father because he wanted my mother. He’d been fixated on her as he had been with you. But because my mother was nowhere in your caliber, he soon began to mistreat her. And I could do nothing about it.

“Like you, I had a home filled with vulnerable targets, and though already a formidable fighter, I wasn’t fully grown. Even if I could have killed him, that would have destroyed my family. I would have been put in a juvenile prison and my mother wouldn’t have been able to carry on without me. So I did as you did. I played the part of the obedient boy who looked up to him, kept him placated every way I could. I tried to curb my younger brother, too, but Robert couldn’t understand why I was being so nice to him. Rose soon took Robert’s side, and it became Burton’s favorite pastime to abuse them verbally, mentally and then, finally, physically. I hid my murderous hatred, channeled the perfect disciple, knowing it was the only thing that kept him in check, that he could easily kill them as he had our father.”

She gulped down the horrible liquid in her glass, her eyes filling. His gaze showed no indication of his thoughts as he continued recounting his atrocious past like a nuance-less automaton.

“When I was around sixteen, Burton started displaying signs of big money. I sucked up to him even more to find out its source, until he said he was now working for a major cartel just called The Organization, who turned abducted or sold children into mercenaries. He said he could make a bundle if he gave them Robert and Rose, that it would serve the two brats right.

“Knowing he’d do just that, I said surely their price would be a one-time thing, but if I became one of their ‘handlers,’ they’d pay me big money continuously, and he could have it all. Burton didn’t like that it seemed I was protecting my siblings when I always said I could barely tolerate them. He also thought it fishy that I’d offer to give him the money I worked for. I allayed his suspicions, saying I considered it a benefit on all sides. I’d get out of the dump we called home, get rid of my clinging family, and get the best on-the-job experience. The money was in return for giving me this opportunity, as I wouldn’t be doing anything with it for years, with all my needs paid for by my new employers.”

Isabella had heard of The Organization many times during her marriage to Burton. The magnitude of evil they perpetrated was mind-numbing. To learn that Richard had volunteered to basically be sold to them to save his siblings, to save Rose, was...too much to contemplate, to bear.

“Buying my rationalization, and knowing how much The Organization would pay for my skill level, Burton jumped on my offer. I knew I’d leave my family behind, but the alternative was incomparably worse. The last time I saw them was the day I left to join The Organization. Robert was ten and Rose was six.

“I intended to amass enough power to one day assassinate Burton untraceably and disappear with my family. But he kept guarding against any counterstrikes. I know I never let my loathing show, but Burton, being the self-preserving parasite that he was, moved my family to places unknown, kept obliquely threatening me with their safety, providing me with evidence they were all well. As long as the monthly flow of cash continued.”

She had the overwhelming urge to throw herself at him and hug the helplessness he must have felt out of him. But Richard wasn’t one for human compassion, giving or receiving it. And if he ever were, she wouldn’t be the one he’d seek that from.

Oblivious to her condition, he went on, clearly bent on giving her the whole story in one go, as she had been.