Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 166103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 831(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 166103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 831(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
“Oh my God. That’s why you saved me? To get your inheritance?”
“Yes,” he bit out. “I showed him.”
“But I never even met your father.”
“Of course not. I would never introduce you to him. He died a few days after we returned to London. Besides, all I had to do was produce documentation to the lawyer. Don’t you remember the tests that doctor did when we got to London?”
“One of those tests was for DNA?”
“Of course. And I had my father’s lawyer come to the house to meet you. I made certain he didn’t mention who you were to me.”
“Why didn’t you want me to know?”
“I didn’t want anyone to know. Jesus. That would have been an embarrassment. People knowing you were my daughter? No, that couldn’t happen.”
Ouch.
She glanced over to the corner of the room to find Beck standing, looking furious. She gave him a sharp look. He couldn’t interfere. No matter how upset he was.
“I paid the doctor off. I sent through a tip-off to the cops that underaged girls were being raped in that strip club, couldn’t have those dumb ass bikers talking about me.”
Holy crap.
He was the reason the strip club was raided?
“And the lawyer was bound by confidentiality. That old bastard didn’t care anyway. He secretly hated my father.”
“All of that for money?”
“A lot of money. Millions of pounds.”
“Which is now gone?” How had he lost it all?
His face reddened in anger. She glanced down at his hand instinctively to see just how mad it he was.
It doesn’t matter now.
He’s not near you. He can’t ever make your life miserable again.
“I made several bad business investments. It wasn’t my fault! Over a year ago, the devil approached me, offering me a deal I couldn’t refuse.”
She glanced over at Beck who looked furious still, but nodded to her encouragingly.
She licked her lips. She needed to find out as much information from him as she could.
“The devil?”
“Oh, I am not saying his name. They might be doing their best to break me here, but I know that my life is forfeit if I say his name.”
“What deal did he offer?”
“He paid all my debts. Gave me money to live on. And all I had to do was sell him my soul.” He let out a bark of laughter. “I voted the way he told me to in the House of Lords, met with who he wanted me to meet, basically I became his lap dog. Then he told me he wanted me to go to Escana and made a trade agreement that he could use to get a foothold into the country. And if that failed . . . I was to do what I could to ruin the Princes and their cousins’ lives. Mr. Fical was my contact so maybe you should be asking him who the devil is. Oh, wait. But he’s dead.”
Mr. Fical had died in his cell of a suspected heart attack before they could get any more information out of him. Although Wolfe did think he’d found proof that he’d started the Purity Party.
“The thing is . . . I would happily have helped destroy the Princes and their fathers after everything my father used to tell me about them. How wonderful they were. How much better than me.”
Part of her almost felt sorry for him.
Just a small part, though.
“So you bought me from the gang, then used me to get your inheritance . . . why keep me around?”
“I paid a lot of money for you. I thought I could get my money’s worth.”
Jesus. She felt ill.
“Yes, you liked to constantly remind me how much I owed you,” she said.
“I spent so much time on you! I had to remake you. Before I came along, you were nothing. You belong to me! Until you met them and your whorish ways came out again,” he spat out.
She stared at him in shock.
“You’re mad at me for being with the guys? You told me to distract them!”
“But not to fuck them! A whore just like your mother!”
“What? What do you mean . . . how did you know about us?”
“I saw you wrapped around one at the fair, remember?”
Shit. They’d been so careful, but he had found her in Judd’s arms at the fair.
“And for that reason you decided to punish me? By implicating me in what you were doing?”
“Why should I go down alone? Misery loves company.” Again, he stared at her like he hated her.
Dear. Lord.
“It wasn’t supposed to end like this! I let my anger got the best of me.”
As it often did.
He really hated her, didn’t he? All this time, she’d just thought he was a cold man. That he didn’t like anyone. But he hated her.
“You are mine. You don’t get to go on living your life . . . being happy whoring yourself out to them. No!”