Chapter 7 - The Rule She Broke to Save Him
Penelope did not scream.
She wanted to.
Instead, she became terrifyingly calm.
Marcus mobilized security.
Police were notified.
Federal agents were contacted.
Road cameras were searched.
Cassian’s phone was dead.
His vehicle sat abandoned beneath an overpass.
Blood on the driver’s seat matched his type.
Marcus tried to keep Penelope at the estate.
She refused.
Then a message arrived.
One line.
COME HOME, PENELOPE.
No sender.
Attached was a photograph of Cassian.
Alive.
Blood on his shirt.
Hands tied behind a chair.
Penelope’s entire body went cold.
Marcus reached for the phone.
She pulled it back.
“There’s more.”
A second message.
BRING DORIAN.
Penelope looked across the room.
Dorian stood near the fireplace.
His face changed.
“No.”
Marcus agreed.
“It’s bait.”
“Obviously,” Penelope said.
Dorian approached.
“My father wants me.”
“Voss wants you.”
“He is not my father.”
Penelope looked at him.
Dorian’s jaw tightened.
“He contributed DNA. That is all.”
Marcus began issuing orders.
Penelope looked again at Cassian’s photograph.
Something bothered her.
The room.
Dark wood.
Bookshelves.
A green lamp.
She had seen it before.
“Dorian.”
He looked at her.
“Your library.”
Silence.
“What?”
“The room behind Cassian.”
Dorian took the phone.
His face drained.
“That’s not my library.”
“It looks exactly like it.”
“It’s our father’s old study.”
“Where?”
Dorian stared toward the hallway.
“Mercer House.”
Marcus immediately called his team.
Nobody had checked the mansion.
It was supposedly empty.
Penelope grabbed her coat.
Marcus blocked her.
“No.”
“Move.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Cassian is there.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do.”
Dorian looked at Penelope.
“I’m going.”
Marcus swore.
Penelope faced him.
“Then stop us.”
Marcus looked between them.
He knew he could.
He also knew they would find another way.
Finally he said, “We go together.”
Mercer House was dark when they arrived.
Security found no movement.
No vehicles.
No broken locks.
Penelope remembered something Cassian had once told her.
My father built rooms inside rooms.
Hidden passages.
Emergency exits.
Places nobody knew.
Dorian knew some.
Not all.
They entered.
Marcus’s men searched downstairs.
Penelope followed Dorian toward the library.
“Stay behind me.”
“You sound like your brother.”
“That is deeply insulting.”
The library door stood open.
Inside, the room was empty.
No Cassian.
No Voss.
Penelope’s stomach dropped.
Then she noticed something.
The rug.
It had moved.
A faint line appeared beneath the bookcase.
“Dorian.”
He followed her gaze.
Together they pushed.
Nothing.
Dorian searched the shelves.
He pulled a bronze statue.
A click sounded.
The bookcase opened.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Marcus arrived.
“No one moves.”
They descended.
The passage ended at another door.
Behind it, voices.
Graham Voss.
And Cassian.
Penelope’s heart stopped.
Marcus signaled his men.
Then Voss’s voice carried through the wall.
“You always protected him.”
Cassian answered.
“Yes.”
“Even when you pretended to hate him.”
“Yes.”
Dorian froze.
Voss laughed.
“Michael knew.”
“Michael knew nothing.”
“He knew Dorian was mine.”
Silence.
“He knew you discovered it at seventeen.”
Penelope looked at Dorian.
Shock spread across his face.
Cassian had known.
For nearly twenty years.
Voss continued.
“That was why Michael cut your face.”
Penelope felt sick.
“He punished you for protecting another man’s son.”
Cassian’s voice was cold.
“He punished me because he was weak.”
“And you continued protecting Dorian.”
“Yes.”
Dorian’s eyes filled.
Penelope suddenly understood.
The rule.
Never go to Dorian for help.
Not because Cassian feared Dorian.
Because Cassian feared what he might do to anyone who used Dorian as leverage.
Voss continued.
“Bring him to me and Penelope walks away.”
Cassian laughed.
“No.”
“Then perhaps she dies too.”
Something in Cassian’s voice changed.
“If you touch her, there will not be enough earth to bury what remains of you.”
Dorian closed his eyes.
Marcus signaled.
But before they moved, a gunshot sounded.
Penelope gasped.
They burst through.
The room was empty.
Another hidden passage.
Blood marked the floor.
Cassian’s.
Penelope ran.
“Penelope!”
She ignored Marcus.
The passage opened into the old library upstairs through another hidden panel.
Penelope stumbled into darkness.
A figure stood near the windows.
Dorian followed.
“Cassian?”
No answer.
Penelope turned.
Only Dorian was there.
Marcus and the others had taken another corridor.
Her heart raced.
Then Dorian’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Voss.
“You came.”
Dorian’s face hardened.
“Where is he?”
“Ask the woman.”
Penelope’s stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”
Voss laughed through the speaker.
“Cassian always knew she would break the rule.”
The call disconnected.
Penelope stared at Dorian.
“What rule?”
Dorian looked at her.
Understanding dawned.
“No.”
“What?”
“He told you not to come to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He never explained.”
Dorian looked devastated.
“Because if anything happened to him, he knew you would.”
Penelope’s breathing changed.
“What are you saying?”
“Cassian believed Voss would eventually use me.”
“To get to him?”
“No.”
Dorian looked toward the doorway.
“To get Cassian to kill.”
Penelope stared.
Dorian continued.
“Cassian has spent his entire life protecting me from our father’s world. He knew if Voss threatened me, he would lose control.”
The pieces clicked together.
The rule was never about Penelope trusting Dorian.
It was about keeping Dorian outside the line of fire.
Then footsteps sounded.
Cassian stepped from the darkness.
Alive.
Blood on his shirt.
Gun in hand.
Penelope stopped breathing.
“Cassian.”
Dorian turned.
Cassian looked at Penelope.
Then Dorian.
“What did I tell you?”
Penelope nearly cried with relief.
“You’re alive.”
“What did I tell you?”
His voice was terrifyingly quiet.
Penelope crossed the room.
“You were kidnapped.”
“No.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“I allowed Voss to take me.”
Dorian swore.
Penelope stared.
Cassian looked exhausted.
“I needed him to believe he had control.”
“You let us think you were dying?”
“I left Marcus instructions.”
Penelope turned.
Marcus entered behind Cassian.
Guilt crossed his face.
Penelope’s anger exploded.
“You knew?”
“Not everything.”
Cassian stepped closer.
“Penelope.”
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the library.
Everyone froze.
Cassian did not move.
Penelope’s hand shook.
“You made me think you were dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. You don’t get to say that quietly.”
“I needed Voss exposed.”
“You needed to trust me.”
Cassian’s face tightened.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“There it is.”
Penelope laughed through tears.
“The Mercer family motto.”
Dorian looked away.
Penelope pointed at him.
“And you. You knew pieces and said nothing.”
“I didn’t know Cassian planned this.”
“You all keep deciding which truths other people can survive.”
Cassian stepped closer.
“Voss threatened you.”
“And?”
“And I would burn Chicago before letting him touch you.”
“That is not romantic.”
“I know.”
“It is terrifying.”
“I know.”
Penelope’s tears spilled.
“And I love you anyway, which makes me furious.”
Cassian’s expression broke.
He reached for her.
She backed away.
“Not yet.”
He stopped.
A shot shattered the window.
Marcus shouted.
Everyone dropped.
Another shot.
Dorian cried out.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Cassian changed.
Penelope saw it happen.
The controlled man disappeared.
He grabbed his weapon and moved toward the window.
“Cassian!”
No response.
Dorian gripped Penelope’s arm.
“Stop him.”
“How?”
Dorian grimaced.
“Tell him I’m alive.”
Penelope ran.
She caught Cassian near the hallway.
“Dorian is alive.”
Cassian kept moving.
“Cassian!”
He stopped.
Barely.
“Dorian is alive. He needs you here.”
Cassian’s chest heaved.
He looked toward the front doors.
Toward the shooter.
Then back toward the library.
For one second, the man his father created battled the man Cassian wanted to be.
Cassian lowered the gun.
He returned to his brother.
That choice saved him.
Because police captured Graham Voss three blocks away.
Alive.
With the rifle.
With Michael Mercer’s stolen archive.
With enough evidence in his vehicle to destroy the network permanently.
Cassian sat beside Dorian while paramedics treated him.
Penelope stood across the room.
Cassian looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
This time she believed him.
She still wasn’t ready to forgive him.
And when she removed the diamond ring that night and placed it in his hand, Cassian looked more frightened than he had while facing Graham Voss.
“Our contract ends in two months,” Penelope said.
Cassian stared at the ring.
“I know.”
“I think we should end it now.”
His face went completely still.
“Penelope.”
“I love you.”
Pain flashed in his eyes.
“But I cannot build a real life with a man who decides what I’m allowed to know.”
He closed his hand around the ring.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Learn the difference between protecting someone and controlling them.”
Cassian looked down.
Penelope kissed his cheek.
May you like
Then she walked out of Mercer House.
This time, he did not stop her.
