Violent Ends
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“Let me die, you piece of shit. You don’t get to decide this. This is my life, and if I want to end it, I fucking will.”
While he continued to strangle his father, he didn’t see Gabriel coming up behind him, and in the next second, the needle went into his skin and whatever they’d pumped him with worked.
Landon slumped, and Gideon was the one to catch him.
Jacob shook his head. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“We’ve lost him,” Gideon said. “You all just don’t see it.”
“He’ll get through this,” Maddox said. “He has to.”
“Why, already got a plan in place there, Daddy-o?” Gideon asked.
“He doesn’t have to kill himself to make a point. Sarah’s gone, but there are other women out there.”
Emma watched as all the brothers turned to the father, the look of shock on their faces clear for her to see.
“You’re being serious right now?” Jacob asked. “He just lost the only woman that will ever mean anything to him, and you think it’s going to be easy making him marry someone else?”
Emma didn’t have a clue how he’d been able to make that leap, but one glance at Maddox, and she knew Jacob was right.
Maddox shrugged. “There’s nothing for him to lose now and everything for the Dentons to gain. Marriage is the only solution here. He’ll find focus in doing what is right for the Denton name. We all know this legacy is for us, and Landon has lost his woman. It’s only fitting that he’ll help the name in some way, just like his sister.”
Emma looked toward Tamsin, and she saw the rage inside the young girl. Slowly, she backed away and closed the door. She wondered if Maddox even knew his little girl had seen him.
“Put him in his room,” Maddox said. “I’ll get the cuffs.”
“You’re making a big mistake if you think you’re going to get Landon to marry off to one of your colleagues or potential associates. That shit isn’t happening,” Gideon said.
“You’re not the head of the family. You don’t get to decide these things, I do.”
“If none of us had been here tonight, Landon would be dead, and so would you. He overpowered you. Landon is too strong. He’s too unpredictable. How do you expect to tame that kind of beast?” Gabriel asked.
“All men are easily tamed. You just got to find what it is that will hold them in place. I’ll grab the restraints. When that tranq runs out, I want him secured and not doing anything stupid.”
Moving away from the door, she stayed out of the way, not wanting to alert them to her presence.
Maddox had always seemed the more … caring out of the two Denton parents, but now, after listening to him, she wasn’t so sure. How could he talk about his kids as if they were mere commodities?
She didn’t get it. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she stayed there.
Gideon returned within half an hour, and he looked so tired.
“You saw all of that?”
“It was kind of hard to miss.”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Your dad is just going to sell Landon and Tamsin as if they mean nothing.”
Gideon closed the door. “I don’t know.”
“Is this why you’re always careful? Is he really that big of a monster?”
“Dad will do whatever is possible for the Denton name. He’s not always been a bad father, and we’ve never suffered in any way for fun. He does what he has to in order to make his sons the kind of men that need to take over the family business.”
“Still, he sounded so cold. Is he always like that?”
“This is a new idea for him. Up until tonight he only had his daughter to use as a pawn. Now he has a son who could take care of another’s daughter. It could bring about the perfect allegiance.” Gideon shrugged.
“What if Sarah wasn’t his one though? What if she was just someone special that he liked?”
“That’s not possible,” he said.
“Why not? He’s young. Surely he can have hope.”
“I honestly don’t know. I know what I feel for you.” He took the seat beside her. “How I can’t go a day without hearing your voice, so I’d call you just to hear you say hello, only to put the phone down.”
“That was you?”
“Surprise. You mad?”
“I don’t think I’m mad, just shocked. You knew all this time, and I even went on dates and you didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah, those dates, I controlled,” he said. He held his hands up. “I don’t want you to find out any other way, but I was the one who organized your dates. I was the one that made sure I knew what was going on. I paid those men to date you.”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
“Nope.”
“It’s all true.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“What is so hard to believe?” he asked.