Chapter 87 Chapter Eighty-six
ARA
The room went dead silent. Utterly silent. But Thayne didn’t hesitate before saying the words that impaled me in the chest.
“Break them,” he said.
The words landed like a gunshot.
“No!” I screamed at the same time, disbelief, anger, fear and exhaustion clawing at my chest.
“No, Thayne, don’t—!”
He turned his head just enough to look at me.
His eyes were wild, blazing, but underneath it all was something terrifyingly calm.
“I won’t let him hurt either of you,” he said quietly. “This ends with me.”
The first log came down. The sound…. God.
It wasn’t just the crack of wood against bone. It was the scream.
Thayne’s body jerked violently, chains clanging as pain ripped through him. His jaw locked, teeth gritting so hard I thought they’d shatter.
“Stop it!” I sobbed, thrashing against my restraints. “Stop, stop, stop!”
Another blow.
I screamed until my throat burned, until my chest hurt, until tears blinded me completely.
Sasha sobbed on the floor, crawling toward him despite the men holding her back. “Please,” she cried. “Please, stop—”
“Again,” my father said coolly.
“No more!” I screamed. “Take me! I’ll go with you! I’ll do whatever you want, just stop!”
That got his attention. He turned slowly, his wicked eyes locking onto mine.
“Now you’re negotiating,” he said softly. “Good.”
Another blow landed.
Thayne cried out this time. He couldn’t stop it.
Something inside me snapped.
“I’ll go,” I said, my voice suddenly deadly calm.
“You win. Let him go. Let Sasha go. I’ll go with you.”
No one spoke or moved after that.
My father studied my face, weighing my words like currency.
Then he smiled.
“See?” he said mildly. “Things are so much easier when you stop pretending you have leverage.”
He raised a hand, and the men froze.
Thayne lifted his head, blood at the corner of his mouth, eyes burning into mine. “Ara,” he rasped. “Please, don’t.”
I met his gaze, tears streaming down my face.
“I love you,” I whispered. “And I’m not letting him break you.”
My father clapped once.
“Unchain him,” he ordered. “Carefully.”
The men stepped back.
With sadness, I realized I hadn’t saved us.
I had just walked straight into the heart of his trap.
Either my father had grossly overestimated his men, or he had underestimated Thayne. It was possibly both.
Anyway, Thayne moved. I didn't think it was possible for anyone in his condition to be able to move effortlessly.
I'd watched them beat him up, but it seemed his pain tolerance level was the highest on planet Earth.
One second he was on his knees, battered and bloodied. The next, he surged upright with terrifying force, muscles bunching as he flung his arms wide.
The chains went taut. Two men didn’t even have time to scream.
The metal looped viciously around their necks as Thayne twisted, using his entire body as leverage.
There was a sickening crack, sharp and final, and their bodies went limp, collapsing to the floor like discarded dolls.
Chaos erupted after that.
There were shouts. Scrambling boots. Guns lifting too late.
My breath hitched in my throat, then hands were on me. Around my waist, dragging me up with strong and brutal force.
Munroe.
He moved fast, faster than anyone else in the room, as if he’d anticipated this exact moment.
His arm locked around my throat, dragging me upright, crushing my back against his chest.
Air left my lungs in a startled gasp. A cold barrel pressed to my temple, and I went utterly still.
“Drop the chains,” Munroe snarled, his voice low and shaking with adrenaline. “Or I hurt her.”
“You better do as he says, Thayne, or I'll end her right here and still get what I want in the end.” My father said dryly.
The room froze, and Thayne stopped.
.
His chest heaved, his eyes blazing, wild and feral as they locked onto mine.
Blood streaked his jaw, and his hands still clenched the chains, knuckles white, ready to kill again.
“Munroe,” he warned.
I didn’t struggle. I didn’t scream or try to, because in that moment, clarity sliced through my fear like ice.
Munroe wasn’t bluffing. I could feel it in the way his grip tightened just slightly, in the way his breathing stayed steady, controlled.
This wasn’t hesitation. This was resolve. He would hurt me. And I was sure he would do it without flinching.
So I stayed still, my heart pounding so hard it hurt, tears burning behind my eyes as I met Thayne’s gaze.
Don’t do it, I tried to tell him without words.
“Call your father, now. Tell him she's carrying twins, and that I need him to lay down everything he stole from me. Only then will I let her go.” My father's voice was merciless and void of emotions.
“And what exactly did he steal from you?” Thayne thundered. The veins at his temples bulged, pulsing like they might burst. “What could possibly justify turning you into this…. this monster?”
My father's nostrils flared, and his expression turned stony.
“Slade Corps,” he spat. “It was my idea. My blueprint. My vision.”
The room seemed to tighten around us.
“Your father took it,” he went on, fury cracking through the edges of his voice now. “He ripped it out of my hands and kicked me out like trash. He stole my funding, my connections, my future. Everything I built, he claimed as his own.”
His eyes burned as they locked onto Thayne.
“He took the only thing that ever mattered to me.”
Silence followed, thick and suffocating.
“The Slade family owes me. And I’ve come to collect. With interest. So when we call that bastard, you'll tell him that Ara is carrying his grandkids. We'll lure him out and finish him off.”
This has been all about revenge.
But if Thayne gave in to my father's demands, that meant he wouldn't just lose his father, he would lose everything he'd been suffering for all his life.
“Call him.” He told my father who gestured to Munroe to shift closer.
The moment stretched out slowly, and I just wished that Thayne would look at me so I could tell him that I was sorry for not showing him the note earlier. If I had, perhaps he wouldn't be bleeding all over and making the greatest choice of his life.
Slade Senior's voice floated through the air. “You better be fast about whatever bullshit you have to say.”
“My fiancée is carrying your grandkids.’ Thayne sounded absolutely normal despite the fact that he had to be in indescribable pains.
“If you're lying, just forget about trying to deceive —”
Thayne cut him short. “She's carrying twins, which means you have grandchildren on the way.”
I felt nauseated by the way his father laughed over the phone. I felt even more nauseated when he called Thayne a sharp shooter.
“Good, good. Now, I'm going to send a convoy to come pick her up. It's about time we announced things officially to New York. Send me your location.”
When the line went dead, my father broke into derisive laughter.
“Now, I have the Slades exactly where I want them.”
I thought Slade Senior was a monster, it suddenly occurred to me that my own father was the king of monsters.