Tiny Dark Deeds: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Court Legacy Book 3)

Sloane

“Big?”

My voice startled Ares. Jumping, he’d been lingering outside of Ramses’s home office, the door cracked. He lifted a hand. “Little… Hey, you should be downstairs. The group will be here any minute. You should go meet them.”

And why wasn’t he? He’d been ahead of me after we both left Bru’s room following the pictures.

Ramses had actually been the first to leave. He’d gotten a call, and after looking at his phone, he’d said he had to go take care of something. He’d mentioned heading to his office and said he’d meet us downstairs after he handled whatever he had to handle. I assumed that meant his call.

That had left the three of us kids and Brielle, but Ares and I both had decided to give Bru and her the room. We wanted to give them some time since well… that was his mom.

It’d all been a really special moment, and I was still on the high of it. I angled close to Ares. “What are you doing?”

I started to look into the room, but he raised his hand again. He put his finger to his lips, and I was definitely intrigued now. His growl was low. “Seriously, little. Go downstairs—”

“Thanks for seeing me, Dad.”

What the…

I shouldered against Ares upon hearing our dad’s voice, and I think he only let me because he didn’t want me to make any more noise. He hovered a head above me while we both peered inside that room and saw our father. Ramses was behind his desk, standing while another man stood in front of it, his hair graying white, curly. He wore a silver suit, dark in tone, with a black dress shirt and matching tie.

And he looked a lot like our dad.

My mouth parted. I gazed up, but Ares wasn’t looking at me. He had his eyebrows narrowed, hard, and only in the direction of that room.

The man in the silver suit put his hands together, one flesh and the other… something else. Fingers of dark metal braced the man’s hand, a prosthetic. The man nodded and was older than our dad, much older. “I was surprised to hear from you, son.”

Son…

“I’m sure you know the surprise lies more with me,” Ramses said, his hands in his pockets. “You were presumed dead many years ago, Dad. A bombing in Italy.”

This was news to Ares, his head lifting. His jaw shifted a little, and I held onto the door.

“The authorities believed as much. I didn’t argue with it.” The man… our grandfather worked his prosthetic hand. He looked at Ramses. “How did you know I was alive?”

“Actually, our family lawyer,” Ramses said, causing our grandfather to blink. “He wanted me to know that the kids’ shares in Mallick were being talked about, my kids.”

Our grandfather said nothing but did wet his lips.

“Said someone wanted to make sure things turned out okay with all that and, well, Callum. That the kids got what was theirs.” Ramses nodded. “But most importantly, that what was theirs stuck, even if a certain someone was still alive. Said you gave them everything and wanted it to stay that way.”

Ares directed a look down at me, his eyebrows squished together, and I was sure my expression matched.

Our grandfather laughed. “Fredrick never could keep his mouth shut. Could he?”

“Well, he cares about this family, and he’s also how I found you. He gave me your contact and said you were recently in town,” Ramses continued. He drew fingers down his mouth before asking his father to take a seat. Ramses then explained he didn’t have long to speak with him. “It’s the kids’ prom night. I need to be there for that.”

“I understand,” the older man said, crossing his legs in front of the desk. “Is that why you asked to see me? About the kids’ shares? Well, you don’t have to worry about anything. Everything unlocked to the children after I was presumed dead, but I made sure with Fredrick that all stayed, regardless of the fact. They have everything, and it’s all legal. I assure you.”

I shook my head, and Ares did too. I knew he’d never met our grandfather, and after everything with Dorian’s, I guess, well, I’d assumed the man was the same. He was a man obsessed with greed and power, and it was because of our grandfather all this had begun. Callum had gone after me due to an obligation our granddad had failed to fulfill.

Ramses’s smile was subtle after what his father said. He sat back in his chair, his fingers together. “I guess I have another thing to thank you for, I suppose,” he stated before opening his desk. He presented a small object, and even from here what was clearly a flash drive could be made out. He put it on the desk. “A man known as Lucas Gray presented this to me not too long ago, a man who, until recently, my friends and I believed had been in the wind.”

Lucas?

My heart hammered in my chest. Lucas had worked for Callum.

And if he was still out there…

He’d held me against my will along with Callum, helped him, and killed Godfrey. He’d been a part of this whole thing.

My grandfather simply stared at the drive as Ramses rolled forward in his chair.

“Told me it was everything I needed to let the world know what Callum Prinze did to my daughter and your granddaughter.” Ramses sat back. “And to my surprise when I listened, it was. There’s a detailed confession on there by none other than Callum Prinze himself. It was the night he told my daughter everything and her voice is on there as well. It’s authentic.”

What?

Ares blinked my way, his look of confusion shared. Why would Lucas give Ramses that confession?

“Said it was mine to do with as I wished, and when I asked him why, he told me this was at the request of his employer.” Ramses eyes narrowed. “Said who he actually worked for wanted me to have this, and no one was more surprised than me when I looked into that. I did find a name connected, but it wasn’t Callum Prinze or even his alias Callum Montgomery.”

The older man shifted in his chair. “Son—”

“It was you, Dad,” Ramses stated, causing both Ares and me to twitch. “Lucas works for you, or at least, well, he did before you died. He was head of your security, and don’t deny it. There’s sheets of evidence, and my people are still finding more.”

“I wasn’t going to deny it, Ramses,” the man stated, I think shocking the whole room and even Ramses himself. Our dad’s brow lifted after what his father said. Our grandfather shook his head. “It’s just unfortunate. Lucas was supposed to provide you what you needed, and that was supposed to be the end of it. There didn’t need to be a spectacle or even this meeting. I just wanted you to have the truth and a way to expose Callum.”

“Even in death?” Ramses asked, and our grandfather sighed.

“I wanted you to have that option, yes, felt you deserved it, and needless to say, it was the least I could do. I mean, all this was me…” His voice broke off, thick before he pressed a knuckle to his lips. He faced Ramses. “Had I not been thinking more about the future of my company than the implications my decisions could potentially have on my own family, none of this would have happened. You and Brielle wouldn’t have lost eighteen goddamn years with your daughter, and my grandson wouldn’t have lost his sister.”

My lips parted, Ares’s too. I squeezed my necklace, and when he noticed, he braced my arm.

“I pleaded so hard with that son of a bitch. I had no evidence he took my granddaughter, but I just knew… I knew he had something to do with it when I heard,” our grandpa said, glancing away. “It just made sense, and he had threatened me before. Said he’d take everything I loved away from me, but I didn’t take that to mean he’d ruin my family’s lives.”

Ramses said nothing, watching his father.

“I told him I’d give him everything.” Our grandfather looked up. “Anything he wanted just to give her back, but he laughed at me and claimed, once again, he had nothing to do with it.”  His hand covered his prosthetic. “The truth was more than evident when he tried to have me killed. Said the meeting in Italy was to reconcile, but the last thing he said to me before he left that cafe was that karma was a son of a bitch. He’d get what he wanted, and he’d watch my world burn even if I wasn’t around to.” His head shook. “The bastard left, and the bomb went off shortly after that.”

Which meant Callum had cared more about revenge than anything else. Our grandfather had been willing to give him what he’d wanted.

I rubbed my chest, and Ares rubbed my arm. He had this look on his face, a rage heating his dark eyes.

Ramses’s lips parted. “Why didn’t you come to me, Dad?”

“I had no proof, son. Proof he took her or anything else. Not to mention, I knew you wouldn’t have seen me anyway.”

Ramses glanced away, the action of which was very telling. Ramses had talked to me about his dad, but it hadn’t been easy the one time he had. There was pain there, and though he may have gotten past that in his father’s death, that didn’t mean this was the case when our grandfather had still been alive. There was ill will just like with Callum and his own family.

“Instead, I kept my focus on searching. Trying to find my granddaughter, and the search never stopped despite time and time again coming up with nothing,” Grandpa said. “I looked for her for years discreetly, quietly. If Callum knew I was alive, who knew what he’d do to my family.”

“He was good at covering his tracks,” Ramses said. “Pretty much anyone connected to my daughter’s fake adoption he had killed.” Ramses cracked his knuckles. “He made it virtually impossible to find her.”

The dark prince had said many of the people who’d helped with my adoption had died. Ares had called that justice.

But none of us had known that justice had been murder.

These were obviously things the parents had found out during their own investigation.

My God.

“But one person who’s not so good at covering his tracks is my father,” Ramses continued, his head tilted. “And before you try to deny this, I have evidence of this too. More than one person saw your Lucas Gray leaving the room housing the hotel’s security footage. Footage that was conveniently shut off just before our people were about to move on Callum.”

Whoa.

“That was you, Dad, but something tells me that security room going dark wasn’t just for us. I mean, how could it be? No one knew we were coming. And yet, there were no feeds available to capture what was about to happen in that hotel. There was also little to no security on that floor, which was quite unusual as well. My people weren’t even certain they’d be able to get in and get to Callum Prinze since he had so much, but that night they were just gone. The man was unattended, and the only one around was Lucas Gray, a man who worked for you.”

The older man looked up. “What are you trying to say, son?”

“I’m sure you see what I’m trying to say,” Ramses continued. “Lucas Gray obviously had a job. And one was obviously this.” Ramses held up the flash drive. “This confession. It had Callum’s truths, but like you said, these were probably just for me. Justice was going to be ultimately served in another way, wasn’t it, Dad?”

The man laced his hands, and Ramses eased forward.

“Lucas Gray was there to carry out that justice,” Ramses said. “An occurrence that would have happened had no other forces been at hand.”

I think we all knew those other forces. Between the Legacy families and Bru, justice had been served that night.

But it sounded like they had only happened to get there first.

Ramses didn’t continue, but the older man’s silence was everything. He started to speak, but then Ramses held up his hand.

“And if you did have a guy there, one to get that confession and ultimately take out that hit,” Ramses started, his throat jumping. “You had someone watching over the situation. You had someone there with Callum Prinze, alongside him and watching his moves. Maybe even guiding them.”

I looked up, my twin brother as well. Ares didn’t seem to breathe above me.

“You had someone watching over my kid,” Ramses stated, his knuckles touching his mouth. He nodded. “You had someone there to protect her and her brother Bruno.”

The chain of my necklace dug into my fingers, my throat thickening, and Ares’s nostrils flared above me. There was a plead in my twin brother’s eyes in the direction of our grandfather, something deep, and I wondered if I had that too. We’d both had so much darkness in our lives, and just once, we wanted to have some light. We wanted something to be true and to be able to believe in it.

We wanted to believe in someone.

The older man cradled his prosthetic hand, and though I wondered if he lost it that day at that cafe, I wondered more about him. I wondered about his soul and if there truly was something to believe in within him. If people could change themselves, change their legacy.

“Dad?” There was a plead in Ramses’s eyes too, his voice. “Did you have someone on the front lines looking after my daughter?”

Grandpa Mallick looked up, his eyes sad. “I’m the reason someone had to be at the front lines looking after your daughter, my granddaughter.” His gaze cut away. “And Lucas did what he could. Callum didn’t always reveal his moves right away. Things like that fire. The plan there was to save Sloane, make it look like Godfrey went insane, and for Callum Prinze to be the one to save her and bring her back to this town. He didn’t tell Lucas this until the plan was in action and even had Godfrey fire on Lucas, force him to defend himself to make it look good.”

Oh, my god.

“Godfrey Sloane had basically been put on a suicide mission, and Lucas informed me Prinze had been able to convince Godfrey to do it with the promise of keeping his son Bru safe in all this.”

Another lie. Callum had every intention of killing my brother. He was sick, a madman.

“I suppose Prinze thought Sloane’s save would make him look good to the city, to Sloane herself, and to his family.” Grandpa’s jaw tightened. “And everything that happened to her I’ll never be able to forgive myself for. I’m the reason she needed protection. The choices I made.” He squeezed his eyes. “I found out too late where she was. There’d been a leak at Fredrick’s firm. A guy there had been feeding Callum information for years about our family. That’s how Callum knew to get to her in the hospital and about the births in the first place. The traitor even helped with the goddamn adoption.”

His voice rattled the air, and I covered my mouth.

Ares glanced my way. “D said someone who worked for our grandfather helped with the coverup, a lawyer,” he whispered. He looked into the room. “Sounds like that’s how Callum got intel on our family.”

I rubbed my chest, and Ramses nodded.

“We know all about Fredrick’s associate Dane Masterson and found out recently about his passing. He’d been in hiding before,” Ramses said. “I can imagine because pretty much everyone else involved in my daughter’s kidnapping was dead. I’m sure Dane connected the dots that Callum was going after people.”

Our grandfather said nothing, and Ramses leaned forward.

“But that one was on you this time, right?” Ramses asked, both my twin and I blinking. “I could go on about the evidence we’ve gathered there, but I won’t. Dane Masterson’s car accident was you, his death you. It was because that one was personal.”

A short breath left from our grandfather’s lips, his eyes narrowed. “He hurt our family, son,” he said, his voice struggled, tight. “And I can make no apologies for that.”

He seemed to battle something as he stared away, like he had no regrets but wasn’t necessarily at peace with what he’d done.

I suppose those answers only resided with him.

Ramses picked up the flash drive. “You want me to expose Callum then? Tell the world the truth about what he did to our family?”

Ramses asked the question almost like a son to a father, like he truly did want his advice, and our grandfather sighed.

“That information is yours, Ramses. Like I said, it’s your right, and I…” He worked his prosthetic again. “I needed you to have it. I only wished I’d been able to get it to you sooner. It took Lucas some time to get Callum’s confession. Longer than either of us hoped. My guys only found out about the leak in Fredrick’s firm and the information Dane had about who your daughter was now shortly before Callum made moves to bring her to the city. We had to act smartly after that, the situation delicate. Her safety was priority, and we didn’t know Callum’s plans for her. We also couldn’t have him deny anything. He was so good at that.”

He was. He’d had the whole world believing he’d been helping me, had me believing that.

Ramses braced the drive. “Had we not interceded that night at the hotel, it really would have been you, wouldn’t it? Taking out Callum Prinze?”

The older man’s lips turned down, but he didn’t have to say anything. During the entire conversation, the evidence was clear. He’d had Lucas there for a reason. He had been given the job to look after me while he sought for the truth, and once he’d gotten it, he’d been given next steps to take care of Callum. Lucas Gray was supposed to kill Callum Prinze, and those directions had been made by none other than my grandfather, a man who was now giving my twin brother and me all he had. Ares and I had heard crystal clear that our grandfather’s shares were now ours, and that was insane. Especially considering how all this had started.

What had started out as a plot for revenge by Callum Prinze had ended in a man trying to make things right. Callum had been doing nothing but trying to take power, power from me and my family to give to his own. Meanwhile, my grandfather had sacrificed his. He’d done everything he could to make things right and protect his family.

He’d protected me.

Ramses started to say something after his dad didn’t speak, but then the door cracked.

It was on purpose.

Ares, who’d been watching with me, left the door frame. He strode over to our grandfather, and I wasn’t far behind.

Ramses rose from his chair. “Ares…”

I didn’t know why Ramses didn’t continue with what he said. But I think, like me, he was wondering what his son was doing. I was wondering what I was doing, but whatever that consisted of would be standing by my brother. Ares worked his hands, and our grandfather got up from his chair. He was a tall man too, broad-shouldered. He stared at Ares and me in awe as we came over, and by then, Ramses came around his desk.

Our dad stood behind us, a hand on each shoulder. He exchanged a glance between Ares and me. “Ares, Sloane, this is your grandfather,” he said, his hands leaving us. “My father.”

The older man stood there before us, and from the way his suit fell, that prosthetic went clear up to his shoulder. He started to reach that hand out, but stopped as if he’d just noticed it. He clenched the metal hand, hesitating. He didn’t approach any farther.

He didn’t have to.

Ares took a step forward, and I think to everyone’s surprise. He wet his lips. “You really did all those things?” he said before looking at me. His jaw shifted. “You helped my sister?”

I glanced our grandfather’s way, the man’s hands coming together. His chin lifted. “I hindered her more, and I’m sorry for that.” He looked at me, his smile shaky, small but also sad. “I’m sorry.”

My throat thickened, my vision blurry. I didn’t know what to say, but like that first step forward, my twin took another. Ares put his hand out directly in front of our grandfather. He reached for the man’s hand, but only the one my grandfather was trying to hide.

“Thank you,” Ares said, waiting for his grandfather to shake his hand. His cheeks flushed. “Thank you for helping her and helping us.”

The air silenced, and slowly, Grandpa Mallick did take his grandson’s hand. Something touched the man’s expression when he did. He’d had a hard demeanor before, and it was something he’d clearly been trying to uphold.

That faded away as he shook Ares’s hand, and then mine when I reached mine out.

“Thank you,” I told him, my dad squeezing my shoulder. Ramses squeezed Ares’s too, his smile subtle and his eyes warm. He let us shake our grandfather’s hand, and I didn’t know what would happen after this. I didn’t know what the future held for all of us, but in that moment, we all did have peace.

All finally felt well.