The room fell quiet once again.

Especially that last line "fooled by your own arrogance"-Dan had said it with a pointed sharpness, and Derek couldn't help but wonder what he was really getting

at.

Dan was gone.

Now it was just Finch and Derek left. Derek, fuming, downed a full glass of water,

but it did absolutely nothing to cool the anger burning in his chest.

Finch muttered, "He's getting more and more out of line with you, Dad."

And what was up with that last thing Dan said? That whole bit about "fooling himself" it felt like all their scheming had been for nothing.

Derek lit a cigar, his voice gruff. "When has he ever been in line with me?" The words came out more bitter than he'd intended.

Finch fell silent.

He had to admit, as much as he hated to, Dan had never really played by the rules-not once.

Dan headed downstairs.

He ran right into Ivanna on the way down. "Hey, big bro," she greeted.

Though Ivanna had her issues with Dan-especially his constant clashes with

their mother-she kept her tone respectful on the surface.

She was sharp, and Dan's recent successes made her unsure who'd come out on top in the end-Dan, or her own brother's side.

Dan didn't even look at her, just brushed past and kept walking.

Ivanna watched him go, rolling her eyes. Seriously, what's he got to be so cocky about? All the crap at Black Gate right now-wasn't it him who started it?

Moments later, she stormed into the study.

"Dad, this is outrageous! Are we just supposed to sit here and take it?"

She was seething. Just thinking about the phone call she'd gotten that morning made her blood boil.

Finch sighed. "This is all because of Dan. He's the one who pissed off the Quinn family's eldest daughter."

"What?"

Wait, what? Wasn't all this because of that bastard Lacey's kid?

At this point, the whole Black Gate crew was utterly lost.

...

Dan got in his car.

He dialed Yvonne-she'd been relentlessly hounding Black Gate for Susanna, so she'd taken him off her blocked list.

The second she picked up, Dan growled, "Yvonne, I don't care if you believe me or not, but Susanna isn't at Black Gate."

"You're wasting all your time and

muscle going after Black Gate. Why don't you actually look for her somewhere else? If you mess around and she ends up dead don't you dare come blaming us!

Every word was spit out with frustration.

Right now, Dan wished he could rip his own heart out and shove it in Yvonne's

face, just to prove he wasn't lying.

But Yvonne, oddly enough, wasn't

losing her cool like she usually did. Normally she'd be screaming at him. to hand over Susanna.

Not today. She sounded almost calm. "You don't need to tell me this."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Yvonne replied, "Take it up with Hull. Or my brother Ronald."

Dan blinked. "Come again?"

Talk to Hull? Or Ronald?

What did that even mean? Yvonne was the one always coming after him, always losing her mind over it.

And now she was telling him to talk to Hull and Ronald?

Yvonne just said, "It means this isn't my problem anymore."

Dan was left speechless.

Not her problem anymore?

He thought his head had nearly

exploded after dealing with Dereket

and Finch, but now-after talking to Yvonne he was felt completel stunned