How to Raise an Assassin

CHAPTER 46: BROKEN BONDS & TIGHTENED CHAINS

Dead silence filled the dinner table. The waiters serving us the dessert crept backwards into their holes to hide from the drama that was about to unfold.

My hand reached to my side, and I opened up a flap that led to the handle of a sharp knife coated in a poison. Depending on where I struck, I could do some serious damage or make it look like I did.

I glanced at Ash and his hands fidgeted beneath the table as well. Sweat was beading down his neck. He loosened his tie and collar.

Meanwhile, both of our fathers sat casually next to each other. My father picked up a fork and cut into the dessert, taking a bite.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Dex," he said after chewing. "Perhaps your position of power has made you paranoid."

The Mayor sat back in his chair amused. "I know how to read a room old friend. And while you are very adept at keeping your intentions down..." the Mayor looked to Ash and me. "Our children not so much."

My grip tightened around the handle. It was like watching a long fuse being lit and waiting for the spark to snake its way towards detonating the explosion of chaos that would ensue any second now.

My father took his napkin and wiped his mouth. "People want you dead Dex. That bill you passed targeting the wealthy...well they don't like to have their money stolen."

"Stolen?" Dex laughter was dripping with sarcasm. "Is that what they call it? You use our roads, our bridges, our hospitals, our police force, our electricity, our services, and you don't pay for it. I don't call it stealing. I call it collecting the debt you owe, something you are very fond of doing to those beneath you whenever you aren't hiding your money overseas to escape contributing your fair share to society."

"Dex don't do this," my father warned. "We keep society afloat. We hire the unskilled. We train citizens. We provide services where you lack coordination. Who owns the universities that teach your doctors in your hospitals and your construction workers who maintain your infrastructure? We do. We've invested more into society than your government."

The Mayor shook his head. He cut a piece of his dessert and took a bite. Then he wiped his mouth. "Remember the summer mansion?"

My father leaned back in his chair. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Seems like you do," the Mayor took a sip of some dessert wine. "Every summer it was roasting hot. Yet the people inside the mansion were dressed in sweaters and enjoying great meals and parties while we watched on the outskirts of the property. They only came for the summers and locked down the mansion in the winter."

My father interrupted. "And your point?"

"Remember how we wanted to dismantle it? How frustrated we felt seeing them live in such luxury knowing they did half the labor we did. We produced more than they ever did that summer and yet they got to celebrate. While we worked on the farm harvesting the food they would serve their guests, they swam in their pools and enjoyed a life that we could never have."

"That's where you're wrong Dex," my father pointed at him. "I worked hard to get that life."

"And how many souls did you have to trample over to get it?" the Mayor asked.

My father was silenced by that question. I knew the amount of lives it took to get him where he was today...and I was an accomplice to his success.

"Wealth comes at a price the rich never have to pay," the Mayor concluded. He made a signal with his hand and appearing from all entryways were armed security detail in suits. "That was until I came into power."