A/N: This story was co-written with Sweetwaterspice. Thanks, girl!
My father and I are standing in front of the board room table in my office, strategizing. My chest tightens automatically when he is near, on edge and ready to defend myself.
"Have your men capture the guards patrolling tomorrow night. It shouldn't take us long to extract the information we need out of them." He looks at me, reiterating his point, "By any means necessary. If those methods don't work, leave a ransom note. Demand a meeting in exchange for their lives. Once we have the location, we destroy every last one of them. I have bombers on standby.""
"Why would they respond to a demand?"
"As you should know, they value their friends," he adds, with disdain. "People are so easy to manipulate once you know where to hit them where it hurts the most," he smiles.
I freeze. Juliette is in there. I have to tread carefully, "Perhaps we should take a more tactical approach? If we could gauge their abilities, we might be able to use some of them for our own benefit."
My father smiles contemptuously. "Worried about your pet?"
"I believe she has the unbridled potential to crush our enemies. It would be wasteful to destroy her without further study," I manage to say almost void of emotion.
"I told you, you've already wasted enough of your time and my time with your personal project. We move ahead as planned." He paused for a split second. "Unless…" His eyes narrow. "You love her."
"No, I-"
"Say it," he demands.
Every pore of my body is screaming with fear. "Say what?"
"Admit that you love her. That your fascination with her is nothing more than a schoolboy crush."
"She's important to me," I choke out. Yes, she is important to me. I just couldn't let him see just how much. I couldn't let him see he could kill me by killing her. I try to hide it. Try to sound logical. I raise my voice, attempting to fortify the last wall I have standing. "I've devoted hours of research…"
But he saw straight through me. He storms through my last defense, exposing me for the fraud I am. He cackled, "You think you are going to have a normal life? Marry a girl who cannot touch you? Pursue a girl who thinks you are a monster? Tell me, boy. Does she return your love?"
I look down to the floor. I stood there fully exposed, naked, castrated once again. I could feel the pressure of my clenched jaw shooting rage, anger, hate into the depths of my brain. Why didn't I have the courage to just kill him myself? I was still a young boy standing at his bedside, holding a damn gun but unable to shoot.
He looked disgusted. "No, I didn't think so. You have forgotten your purpose. Men fear you. You have murdered entire families without a second thought. You are willing to give up your power, the control you so desperately sought only a year ago, for a pretty face?"
His words recalibrate me. The mask on my face did not falter. He could not know the real reason for my insistence on becoming commander.
"I own you. You owe me everything. Every day you breathe this air is because I allow you to. I allow you to remain alive to follow my every command, not to entertain your pitiful fantasies." He steps towards me and I do not back away. His hot breath is suffocating me but I do not give him the satisfaction of seeing my derision.
"Look at you. Pathetic. You've allowed your heart to control your sense of direction and look what it's gotten you. You've become unfocused, weak. I've tried son, I've tried to make you untouchable and this is the thanks I get! You would throw everything away for a girl?" He walks away, rubbing his face.
"You cannot allow yourself the weakness of emotion. A single woman is enough to destroy the empire I have built." He pauses before turning back to the papers in front of us, "She will die along with all of the others."
"I will not allow you to do that," I meet his eyes with stern defiance. I know this can lead to my instant death but I don't back down. "I need her. She lives."
He leans against the table, considering. "You dare defy me? You ungrateful son of a bitch." We are at an impasse. "Perhaps I should make you watch. As I kill her slowly. Allow you to hear her screams as she begs you to let her die. Teach you a lesson about allowing another person to control you, to make you weak."
The air in the room has become thin, poisonous, and breathing is becoming difficult. I attempt to compose myself, "Destroy the others, I don't care. Juliette lives." My defenses are a pile of dust on the floor. I've used her name and now he knows. I've condemned us both to death. "Please. As a favor...to me."
In one motion he grabs my neck and slams me into the wall, cutting off my oxygen. I stay still, not allowing myself to panic, not allowing myself to react at all. "A favor?" He is saying. I'm attempting to tune out his words, building walls in my mind, trying to calm myself and not expend any additional oxygen. "Humiliating… an embarrassment… wretched creature… kill you," a few of his words slip through my defenses.
He lets go and I sink to the floor, coughing and gasping for air. "Please, sir," I manage.
He stops, turning to me slowly, enjoying my desperation.
He smiles in a way that makes me want to vomit. Turns back to his papers.
"Capture the men as planned. Leave a letter in their place calling for a meeting tomorrow. Ask for your pet to come negotiate with us." I choke back relief. "I must see this girl myself, learn how she managed to turn my son into such a fool." I open my mouth to again emphasize her worth but my blood runs cold as he continues, "If she disappoints me, you will watch as I put not one, or two but three bullets through her brain."
A/N: Let me know if you are reading this! To be continued from Warner's POV, such a complicated man.