Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Okay,” I say, sipping more alcohol until my head starts to swim just a little. “My mother died when I was seven. His doing. I was in his office, I don’t really remember why, and these men came in, dragging Mom. I was hiding behind a chair. They were demanding information, and if he didn’t give it to them, they’d kill her ...”
I hate this memory.
More than any memory I’ve had.
I despise it.
I take a deep breath and stare at my feet. “He told them to do it. He didn’t care. And they did. They shot her in the head, right there in his office. He didn’t even flinch. He was showing them that nothing mattered to him. That they could use nothing to weaken him. He then called his men in and had them killed. I was just sitting there behind his chair, confused, I didn’t really understand back then, but it wouldn’t take long before he made sure I did.”
Scarlett grabs my hand, and I look to her. “I’m so sorry about your mom,” she whispers.
I give her a weak smile. “It was a long time ago.”
I look over to Malakai, his eyes are filled now with rage but also sadness. I know by the end of this story, he’ll hate Benjamin Masters as much as I do. Maybe even more. I hope more.
I hope Iron Fury MC is the end to that monster.
“Sorry about your mom, darlin’. Sucks,” Malakai finally tells me.
I nod. “Thanks. Anyway, my father realized something that day. Nobody knew about me. Not the bad people, anyway. Nobody knew he had a daughter, hell, he didn’t know he had a daughter half the time.”
I clench my jaw thinking about it but keep going.
“So, his perfect plan came into action. He was going to use me to get information. He trained me up, like a perfect little puppet. I did what he said, and he didn’t make it hurt. He had me act like I was lost, or homeless, and go and knock on peoples’ doors, asking to borrow their phone. When I was in their house, he would have me use a bathroom, or make an excuse to excuse myself and I’d run off and get any information I could. It worked. People, even the biggest monsters, fell for it. Though some didn’t make it easy on me, and let me just tell you, I experienced way too much as a young girl ...”
“What a ...” Scarlett growls. “What a pig!”
I smile at her, tapping her hand.
“Go on,” Malakai encourages. “How long did this go on?”
“God, a long time, until people finally started putting it together. They started figuring out this girl was going around and information was going missing.”
“So, he pulled it?” Maverick asks.
I swallow. “No, it just got worse, but I really don’t want to go into it. I did a lot of bad things, and please don’t ask me why, I was scared, and I had nobody, and honestly, I knew if I ran, he’d find me.”
Malakai nods. “Don’t need to explain yourself to us.”
“What kind of bad shit did you do?” Koda suddenly demands.
I look to him. “I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Could fuckin’ help.”
“It won’t fucking help!” I snap. “Back off.”
His jaw clenches.
“Koda,” Malakai growls, “back the fuck down. What she did back then has little to do with what is happening now.”
“You can’t fuckin’ know that. There could be a person, information, somethin’ that might help us find this fucker.”
“I can help you find him,” I snap. “I’m that person. I’m that information. You don’t need them, you need me. So back off.”
Koda glares at me, but I hold it.
I won’t back down from this. He’ll just have to deal with it.
“Can’t deal, brother, walk away,” Maverick says, his voice hard.
“Get fucked, Maverick.”
“Dakoda,” Malakai growls, his voice a vicious warning.
Koda clenches his jaw shut but says nothing more.
I swallow, my fingers trembling, and I stare down at my feet for a few minutes. Why does this matter so much to Koda? I know he’s angry. I know he wants to end this. But why is he so determined to make my life miserable because of it?
“Don’t have to continue, if you don’t want,” Malakai says. “No rush.”
But there is a rush, isn’t there?
He’s after me, and eventually, he’ll find me.
“I’m the reason he went to prison,” I tell them, my voice soft. “I knew it was the only way I would be free. At least, at the time, it made sense. I never thought that one day he’d be out of prison and want revenge. I just wanted ... I wanted to get away from him. I wanted a life.”
“How?” Maverick asks, his tone kind, but firm.
“The old-fashioned way,” I tell them. “I went to the cops, I found one I could trust, and I told them everything. He was a really nice man. His name was Oliver. He was a detective, and he agreed to help me. I’d do what they asked, they’d change my name, and I’d go free. I just had to work with them. Which meant I went back in, and instead of getting information for my father, I got information against him. It only took a few months, I had a lot of information. And it worked. One day, during one of the biggest tradeoffs, the cops took them down. My father, his closest men, and anyone else they could.”