tricks of time ― grayson hawthorne [the inheritance games]

013. SUGARPEACH

GRAYSON'S POV

I've barely began regaining my breath before I hear a thump. I immediately jolt up, seeing Leah collapsed on the floor.

Her dad was nearing her, also collapsed on the floor, but he was still vaguely conscious. I pin him to the ground again, holding the knife above his face threateningly.

"Please don't kill me," he begged.

"I won't," I tell him, and I feel his eyes widen slightly. "If you tell me one thing."

He nods, breathing heavily from the pain that's probably taken over his shoulder. "Anything. Anything."

"Who put you up to this?" I ask.

He's still gasping for air, and he's silent.

"Answer me!" I exclaim, grabbing him by the collar.

"Skye! Skye Hawthorne!"

I freeze as he speaks. He grins, almost sheepishly at me.

"Wasn't what you were expecting, huh?"

"She's your daughter," I say almost softly.

"No she's not. She is not anything to me. Hell, she's not my daughter, and I'm not her father. I don't give a damn about her. She was an accident, anyway, you know? I..."

He pauses, just momentarily. "I saw no problem in taking up your mothers offer."

His snarky remark sets off the ticking time bomb in me.

"You're sick, you know?"

He scoffs. "Oh, come on, I know you don't like her either. She's a bitch. Women, you know?"

His tone seems like we're having a friendly conversation in the park. I furrow my brows.

"So what if I don't like her?" I stab him in the other shoulder, grinning almost psychopathically as he cries out in pain. He sputters out blood again.

His eyes froze and I saw his pupils dilating. His breathing stopped just shortly after as he went limp. I scoffed, looking back at the man, now dead on the floor.

I watch the man for several seconds. I don't know if I've killed him or not, but I drop the knife and run over to Leah.

Her hair is all over the floor, and her features are soft. It almost looks like she's sleeping. Except there's a chance, a high probability, that she's dead. That this inheritance is all going to me, considering the fact that Skye's actions have effectively forfeited any share of the inheritance she had earlier. The thought doesn't stop me from helping her, because Oren's words were clear in my brain.

You protect her first.

So I bend over to pick her up, bridal style. One arm under her legs and the other supporting her back. She was light, and I begin to jog back to the house, my feat thumping like Leah's existent— or non-existent heartbeat.

__

As I reached the house, I was panting.

According to the Grandfather clock in front of the house, it was 6:30, and the last streaks of dawn were on the horizon. As I ran through the gates, servants, bellboys, chauffeurs, anyone employed by our family, were wide eyed, shocked, some even crying in fear.

I ran through a hallway not caring about the carpet worth hundreds of thousands that I was smearing with dirt and mud.

I raced into the Great Hall, where I was met by the entire family eating dinner. They all turned to look at me, surprise wide on their faces. They all turned to look at me, surprise wide on their faces.  She dropped her fork with a clang that echoed through the room as she covered her lips with her hand.