Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
I screamed, begging for someone to notice, but it blazed by without having any indication that anything was wrong.
But it was.
It was wrong.
So wrong.
Everything.
Everything.
Pruitt pushed me into the middle before he crammed in beside me, and my father rounded the front and got into the driver’s seat. He eased back onto the road.
“How could you do this?” The words were croaked and bent in two, my eyes on my father’s cheek that was reflected in the rearview mirror.
The muscle ticked, and he glanced up, eyes meeting mine. “I’ve always had bigger plans for you, Hailey. You just weren’t ready to take them on yet. You were too soft. It was Pruitt’s job to guide you. Mold you into who I needed you to be. He didn’t do the best job of it.”
Disgust barreled through me, sickness gliding through my veins as awareness began to seep into my consciousness.
Pruitt flinched at my side, barely contained anger vibrating from his flesh.
Hatred.
I could feel it. The way he hated my father.
Hated that he was in control.
I blinked again as my mind spiraled through the information that I’d gathered on Pruitt.
His crime ring went deep and dark.
Illegal gambling. Racketeering. Money laundering.
Murder.
I’d had an inclination that there might be someone above Pruitt. That he wasn’t at the helm.
And it was my father—my father who was in control the entire time.
All the worry I’d possessed, the way I’d been scared to go to the authorities because I was worried his connection with Pruitt might somehow implicate him when he was innocent.
Except he wasn’t innocent.
Nausea crawled over me like a physical sickness, my flesh going clammy and my mind getting warped.
“What do you want from me?” It would have been a whimper if there wasn’t so much spite behind it.
Pruitt leaned in and ran his nose down the side of my cheek. Vomit pooled in my mouth.
“Do you not understand it yet, Hailey? You’ve always been my prize. My gift for bringing my father’s world into your father’s. You are the key to this merger. I told you that you were mine. I take over once your father is gone. And without you? This whole deal falls apart. You wouldn’t want that to happen, now, would you?”
He dragged the barrel of the gun up the top of my leg.
Shivers crawled like a thousand spiders skittering across my skin.
Poisonous.
Toxic.
“I won’t go anywhere with you.” I spat the words, though they were soggy with horror.
Pruitt slung an arm around my shoulders, and he crushed me against him, his mouth at my cheek.
“See, now that’s where you’re wrong. I’m taking you home. Where you belong. Don’t worry, I already had one of my guys swing by that hovel where you were staying to pick up our daughter. He took care of that hick who thought he could have what is mine at the same time. Two birds and all of that.”
Cody.
Agony tore and ripped.
I thrashed against Pruitt. “No.”
No.
God, no.
Please.
Pruitt tsked, taunting, “You know, your dear daddy here has been trying to get rid of Cody Cooper for years.”
My father’s jaw clenched, and his hands flexed against the wheel.
“Ever since Cody discovered the ring in Eddings. Of course, he had to call that execution off when your friend happened to overhear the plans and it became far more important to silence her than it was to go after Cody. He couldn’t have two accidental deaths so close together, now, could he? Especially since each of them could be tied to the ranch?”
Another shot of grief rang out.
Bullet after bullet piercing my soul.
Brooke?
Oh God.
What was he saying? My father…he…
I spluttered over the gutting disbelief. The shattering sorrow that surged and swept and overcame.
Pruitt grinned and his dark eyes gleamed. He knew exactly what Brooke had meant to me. He was the one who’d comforted me after her death. Wrapped me up and promised to make me better. And now he was taunting me with the truth of what had really happened.
A sob ripped from my lungs.
Unstoppable.
The pain unbearable.
Brooke.
Cody.
I rocked, unable to sit still beneath the atrocities that ravaged me like the squall of a hurricane.
“Personally, I think your father never should have allowed Cody to live, but he’s always been a little on the soft side,” Pruitt continued, completely casual.
“We kept an eye on him for years, waiting for him to step out of bounds. And he finally did. Don’t worry, though, sweetheart, I made sure to put an end to that problem.” Pruitt’s mouth was at my ear, his voice turning vicious. “He had to die just for the fact that he touched you.”
“No!” I screamed it. “I’ll kill you.”
Pruitt laughed and sat back in the seat, his easy words tossed at my father. “Maybe she’s more like you than we thought. I guess it’s a good start.”
FIFTY-ONE
CODY
Ezra came running back up the road just as I was lumbering out the front door. His gun slack at his side and regret on his face. “He got away.”