Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Madison stood up, lifting her chin high. “When Luca suggested we partner up, he told me about the kind of women that came through his buildings. Alone, on drugs, drunk, with more baby daddies than they can count, and just as twisted up with the Merchants as all the criminals in this city. The Sunshine Agency was his idea, but it was a good one.
“I’ve lived these kids’ lives. I know the hell of crime and poverty. The families I placed them with were the opposite in every way. These parents are wealthy, responsible, stable. They’re giving those children everything they could ever want and more. If those mothers really gave a shit about them, they’d give me an award. I did what they couldn’t do—give their kids a decent life.”
One moment I was six feet away from her. In the next breath, I tackled her to the ground. “How dare you!” My hands were around her throat, throttling her as burning corrosive hate shattered my self-control. “We weren’t trash to be thrown away because of money! Because of our pasts! The lives we’d give our children were not less because we couldn’t send them to fucking private schools or summer in St. Tropez! How dare you decide I wasn’t worthy to love and raise my daughter! How dare you! You crazy, evil bitch,” I screamed into her reddening, bulging face.
At that moment, I hated her more than Damien. More than Lyla. More than my father. She handed me the card that destroyed my life and put my daughter in the path of a beast like Luca Adams, and she didn’t have the decency to be sorry. I could kill her!
And Genny just stood there as I knew she would, letting me deal with the demon who haunted my life from the shadows in my own way.
But not this way. Sense broke through the fog. Madison has more to answer for now. She has information that will help the men I love. And who knows, maybe after she and I make a video, she’ll stab herself in the neck.
It was an ugly, vicious thought, but I had nothing less for the woman who plotted to sell my child while she was still in my womb.
“Madison.” I released her throat and flipped her on her stomach. She sucked in deep lungfuls of air, hacking and choking. “It’s too bad you didn’t take a hint from your mother about what happens when you piss off the Merchants. Good thing for you, they’ll give you a chance to make it up by telling us everything you know about the Brotherhood.”
“Never!”
I wrangled her hands behind her back. Genny was there before I said anything, helping me secure her in the zip ties.
“You can’t do this,” she bleated. “I’m not going with you!”
“You are and so is little Poppy.” I hauled her up. “Laurel is going to be so excited when she meets her new puppy.”
“I’d die before I betray the Brotherhood.” She thrashed like a wild animal in my grip. Genny had to help me keep a hold on her. “Their cause is just. It’s right! The Merchants have bred criminals in this city like rats, so they could appoint themselves the judge, jury, and executioner. They don’t care how many innocents are ruined to keep their power.”
Madison flung her head back. I jerked to the side, nearly catching her skull on my nose. This sister was not going down easily.
“They’re loyal to nothing and no one,” she shrieked. “You Merchants are the crazy, evil bitches. Your precious Cardinals will curse your name, Genevieve Hunt, when one is slaughtered for every day you hold me captive!”
Genny dropped her arm in shock. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. If I disappear, my brothers and sisters will know it was the Merchants. You got a taste of what happens when you defy us. What was that bitch’s name? Oh yeah, Bugsy.”
I strained to hold on to her. “Genny? Gen, what’s wrong? Help me.”
“She can’t help you. Oh, did Genny not tell you that we cleared her bar of the trash? The Cardinals are all enjoying new accommodations with the Brotherhood, and they’re not comfortable.”
“What?” I whispered, eyes widening. “That’s not— You’re lying!”
“She knows I’m not.”
Genny stood still, her face melding into the tunnel’s shadows.
“I’m your only hope,” Madison said. “Let me go and surrender to the Brotherhood. If you serve us faithfully, your Cardinals will be released unharmed—”
“Stop listening to her! Genny, grab her arm and help me get her to the car.
Madison shouted over me. “Or you can prove everything I know about you people is true! So much for protecting the women of Harlow. It’s the Merchants over everyone else.”
“Kenzie,” Genevieve rasped. “Let her go.”
“You can’t be serious.” I held even tighter, dragging her back away from Genny. “She doesn’t just want to get away with helping the Brotherhood throw Sunny off a bridge and put a bomb in Liam and Tricky’s car. She wants you to give yourself up to those bastards. They’ll kill you!”