Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Hard to argue that,” he said simply.
He’s talking. We’re having an actual conversation. A depressing one, but real.
“Can I ask you something?”
“You will anyway.”
I laughed hoarsely. “It’s the Society of Sisters, so your mom is one of them. She gave her perfect and only child the green light to become a Bedlam Boy. Why?”
“This town means just as much to her. Before she became a St. James, she was a Lyman. Before the revolt, there were three Lyman sisters who inherited their father’s tailor shop when he died. They were the only women in town who owned their land and a business. That—”
“—made them a target of the Men of Honor.”
He nodded. “They were relentless in their harassment. Raiding their shop and destroying their fabrics. Bricks through the window. A mysterious fire started in their home in the middle of the night. It all escalated to one terrible night when they chose one of the sisters for the Hunt.
“The things they did to her were so horrific, Mom wouldn’t let me read it in the old journals that survived and were passed down. She still won’t and I’m a grown man. I just know it was an attack so brutal, it left her unable to have children.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, sickened by the people who did that, and those today who raised them up as some kind of heroes.
“When the revolt kicked off, the Lyman sisters not only took up arms, but they shielded women in their shop—defending them when the Men descended with guns and torches. When the fighting was done, only one sister survived. She rebuilt her family’s legacy and passed it down to us,” he said. “Mom would say that if she wasn’t willing to fight half as hard as they did to protect what we have, she didn’t deserve it in the first place.
“She’s proud of me for being a Bedlam Boy. In this, I’ve made my parents very proud.”
I gazed out the windshield, his reply turning in my mind. Gran’s voice came to me so clearly.
“That’s the blood that runs through your veins. You came from the strongest of people. The fiercest. People who would give up their lives before surrendering their freedom. Never forget who you are, girls. Fighters.”
“I think my grandmother would be proud too. She raised me to fight. Like she fought for our home and family. Like I’m fighting for them now. I haven’t done everything perfectly,” I admitted, “but me here with you guys—stopping Ellis and Dante. I know that’s what she’d want.”
If Legend planned to say something, he was interrupted by me spotting the final turn.
“This is it. Turn here. I bought our tickets online, so we can go straight in.”
Legend slowed, then hit the brakes short of the sign. “Hunter’s Crest Zoo? You’re taking me to the zoo?”
“Yes. Go on, pull in.”
He didn’t move the car. “Why in the hell would I want to go to the zoo?”
“You’ll find out in approximately ten minutes.”
“I won’t find out shit. I was brought here half a dozen times when I was a kid. There’s nothing in there I haven’t seen.”
“Ah, your parents brought you back here to see the python family they adopted you from? It’s good to be among your kind. We’ll drop in and say hi on the way out.”
His brow twitched. “Cute.”
I bit back a smile. “Legend, if you haven’t been since you were a kid, then you haven’t seen what I’m about to show you. It’s a new exhibit. You’ll understand everything when we’re inside. Now, take your foot off the brake, find a parking spot, and stop being the most stubborn date on the planet.”
“This isn’t a date.”
“What did I just say?”
I thought I glimpsed a grin as he finally pulled off and turned into the parking lot. Early morning on a weekday, there were few people about. That didn’t stop Legend turning into a deserted part of the lot—far from everyone and backed by trees. He wasn’t risking a ding to his ride by parking next to a stressed-out dad, too focused on wrangling his sugar-crazed kids into the car to pay attention when he was backing out.
“You have a need for control,” I said, linking my arm through his.
“That a problem?”
“No, I find it very attractive. Especially because it gets you so deliciously riled up when I tie you to the bed.”
“You will not like the consequences if you try that again.”
Oh, but I would. I knew my guys. Roan was the only one of them who enjoyed being at my mercy. Legend, Arsenio, Cairo, and Jacques would unhinge like wolves in a trap, chewing off their own leg. Thinking of the resulting effect on my pussy made me stumble. I wouldn’t walk right for weeks.
Together we walked past the ticket booth, heading inside. I’d also been to Hunter’s Crest Zoo many times. When I was searching for the kookaburra in Cavendish’s letter, it brought me here even though the park employees kept telling me they didn’t have any here. After the first time, I’m not sure what I kept coming back to find. But I did keep coming back to walk under the canopy of leaves, finding an odd sense of peace as a light mist washed over, and critters chirped, screeched, and huffed around me.