Dark Captor (Dark Syndicate 2)
Chapter Forty-One
Isabella
My head…
Jesus my head feels like it’s going to explode and my whole body is on fire.
That nausea has only escalated and I feel so much worse than I did earlier.
My eyes open slowly one at a time and I find myself staring up at a white ceiling with swirling patterns that look like tiny whirlpools spiraling into the sky.
As I blink and try to process where I am I remember what happened to me and a flush of ice, races down my body.
Oh my God, oh my God. I remember exactly what happened.
The terror moves me but as I try to get up restraints hold me in place. I shuffle and realize I’m lying on a hospital type bed. My wrists are bound and so are my feet. Both tied down like I’m stuck in a horror film. Frantically I try to free myself but I know it’s to no avail. There’s no point. The person who tied me down wouldn’t exactly make it possible for me to escape. Not again.
The door swings open and in comes the man I fear the most.
My father.
I still when I see him. I go completely still, so still that my heart slows in beat and I worry that it will stop in my chest from the sight of him.
That look of death still lurks in his eyes, lingering there as a reminder of who he is.
“Isabella… I never knew we would come to this. Not you and me. Definitely not you and me. The child I took such care of,” he states.
I want to argue and tell him that his version of care is not the human way. I doubt that animals treat their young the way he treated me. I hold my tongue though. I know him. He hasn’t tied me up to prevent me from escaping. That’s not why. Whips is more his style or something with immediate pain.
I don’t know what this is. It’s something else. Something I can’t guess because I’ve never seen him do this before. If it’s one thing I know about my father it’s that the extent of his evil heart has no bounds. No limit.
“You are the worse kind of traitor. I know everything you did. Everything you did with the enemy. Thank God for my alliances.”
“God… you thank God? How can you even talk about God?” I argue. The words fall from my lips uncontrollably.
He answers with a laugh. A cruel laugh that echoes across the room.
“I suppose you’re right. That was a slip of the tongue I guess. In any event some higher power had to have been on my side, guiding the way to the one person who could have overthrown everything I worked so hard for. You.”
“What are you going to do to me?” I want to cut to the chase. I want to cut the bull shit speech. I know what I did and I would do it all over again if I had to.
“We’ll come to that. I’m not finished talking to you yet. Think of it as my last act in this life as your father. The scolding before the punishment.”
“I’d rather you just punish me. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. You’re evil,” I throw back finding my voice. For years I existed as this spineless shell of a person who did what she was told. I was a thing he thought he could treat like nothing. Having the weeks of freedom fueled me with the power to speak up.
“I am evil. Of course I am, but you will hear me. I’m so furious with you. While I had men looking everywhere for you, you were busy helping the enemy in a plot to destroy me. They kidnapped you and instead of finding a way to contact me to save you, you saw your route to escape me. You saw a chance to be free of me and then you helped them plan to destroy me.”
“You talk like you haven’t destroyed me,” I reply. “You killed my mother and you killed Eric. You killed anyone who ever got close to me or tried to help me. You thought it was a good idea for me to marry Dmitri.”
“Such insolence. There is no reasoning here. I do not care what you feel. I’m disgusted with you. Truly and utterly disgusted with you. how dare you question my actions. I do what I do for reasons. Dmitri will lead this group and will see to it that my plans are fulfilled and my mission achieved.”
“You speak so highly of your mission, why don’t you do it yourself? Why the hell are you retiring?”
“Because I’m dying.” He throws back stunning me to silence. “I’m dying. That will be the only reason why I won’t be doing it myself.”
“What’s wrong with you?” I want to know. He stares back at me and I think back to when I was a child. I used to be terrified that something would happen to him. Now I’m being told it is and I feel nothing but curiosity to know what it is that will take him from this world.
“Brain tumors,” he says tapping the side of his head. “I look good now but in eight months I doubt I’ll look anything close to this. I wanted to sort everything out while I still had the capacity.”