Chapter Seven: The Man Behind the Messages

“Give me the phone, Zaire.”

Dorian’s voice was calm, but something in his expression told me he was anything but. I tightened my grip on the phone instead of handing it over. “No. Tell me who is sending these messages first.”

My father stood near the doorway, looking like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole. Dorian glanced at him. “Did you tell him everything?”

My father shook his head. “Not yet.”

I laughed without a trace of humor in it. “Of course. Another secret.” I turned to leave, but Dorian stepped in front of me before I could reach the door.

“Move.”

“Someone is watching this apartment.”

“And you think keeping me here will stop them?”

“No. But walking out alone will make their job easier.”

I stared at him. “Since when do you care about my safety?”

His expression tightened. “Since before you knew my name.”

Those words should have meant something to me. Instead they hurt.

“You don’t get to say things like that after lying to me.”

“I know.”

“Then stop acting like you own me.”

For a moment neither of us spoke, and then Dorian stepped aside. “You’re right. I don’t.”

I hadn’t expected him to agree so easily. He reached into his jacket and placed a small device on the table between us. “This is a security tracker. Your apartment has been compromised. If you leave, take this with you.”

I looked at it without touching it. “Why should I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t trust anyone blindly.” His eyes held mine. “Not even me.”

Before I could respond, my phone rang, unknown number flashing on the screen, and everyone in the room went silent at once. I answered and put it on speaker.

“Hello?”

A man’s voice came through, smooth and unhurried. “Hello, Zaire. It’s been a long time.”

My father stumbled backward like the voice had physically struck him. I turned to him. “You know this person?”

He couldn’t answer me. The caller chuckled on the other end. “Your father has always been good at keeping quiet. It’s how he survived.”

Dorian moved closer to the phone. “Identify yourself.”

“Still playing the hero, Dorian? How sweet.”

Dorian’s face changed into something I had never seen on him before, not even when my father walked through that door back from the dead. “You’re supposed to be dead,” he said.

My stomach dropped. The caller laughed again, low and almost fond. “People keep saying that about me. Your father said the same thing.”

Dorian’s hand curled into a fist at his side. “Don’t involve Zaire.”

“Oh, but he’s already involved. His father made sure of that.”

I looked at my father. “What did you do?”

He lowered his head and said nothing while the caller kept talking. “Ask your father why he traded his freedom for your future. Ask him what he promised the Veyls in return.”

My throat went completely dry, and then the call ended without another word. For several seconds nobody moved at all.

Finally I faced my father. “Who was that?”

He rubbed both hands over his face like he could wipe the last sixteen years away. “His name is Adrian Veyl.”

Dorian went completely still beside me. I looked between the two of them. “Who is Adrian Veyl?”

Dorian answered this time, his voice flat. “My uncle.”

“Your uncle is dead?”

“He was declared dead twelve years ago.”

I looked at the phone again like it might start ringing a second time. “And apparently he’s not.”

“No,” Dorian said quietly. “He’s not.”

My father sank onto the sofa like his legs had finally given out. “Adrian was the one who made the original agreement. He wanted control of the Laurent family, and your birth gave him the opportunity he needed.”

I felt sick. “What does my birth have to do with anything?”

My father looked at me, tears gathering in his eyes. “Your mother and I discovered something about the Veyls. Something that could have destroyed them. Adrian offered us a choice. Give him what he wanted, or lose everything.”

“And you chose to promise me to his family?”

“I thought I could protect you.”

“You thought?” My voice broke apart in the middle of the sentence. “You let me grow up believing you were dead.”

My father covered his face completely, and I couldn’t look at him anymore. I turned to Dorian instead. “Did you know your uncle was alive?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

I searched his face looking for a lie and found fear instead, real fear, and Dorian Veyl being afraid of anything was somehow more terrifying than everything that had happened all night. Whatever Adrian wanted, it was powerful enough to frighten a man who had seemed to control everything around him from the moment I’d met him.

My phone vibrated again, and this time it wasn’t a message. It was a photograph. I opened it and my blood turned to ice.

The picture showed me standing outside Velvet Room earlier that evening with Dorian beside me, but that wasn’t what made my hands start shaking. Someone had drawn a red circle around my face, and beneath the picture sat seven words that rearranged my entire night.

MIDNIGHT TOMORROW. COME ALONE OR HE DIES.

A second image landed a breath later. It showed Dorian’s younger sister, Selene, tied to a chair with her head bowed.

I looked up so fast the whole room spun around me. “Dorian.”

He took the phone out of my hand, and his expression turned murderous in a way I’d never seen on him before. “Elias!” he shouted toward the hallway.

The security chief appeared almost instantly. Dorian shoved the photographs in front of him. “Find her. Now.”

Elias stared at the screen before looking up at Dorian with something grim settling over his face. “There’s something else you need to know.”

“What?”

He hesitated just long enough to make my chest tighten. “Selene disappeared two hours ago.”

I stared down at the photograph again, and another message lit up the screen beneath it.

YOU HAVE TWENTY FOUR HOURS, ZAIRE.

My heart pounded against my ribs so hard it hurt. They didn’t want Dorian. They wanted me. And somehow, whoever was behind all of this knew exactly how to make sure I would come.