Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
I tried struggling to my feet, but before I could make it, there were hands there lifting me up off the ground. “Ryder?” No, it was them; they came back. “Where did you guys go? Didn’t you see that I needed help?” They didn’t answer, just hustled me towards the SUV.
One of them whispered something in my ear that I didn’t quite catch, though it sounded like he said something about Mary. “Oh, don’t forget, Mary sells little girls and boys. You should ask her and Scott about that, oh, and Matt, the kiddie diddler. They’re all in on it.” I passed out from exhaustion before my ass hit the seat.
Chapter 64
*Ryder*
I can’t believe the pace at which this has all gone down. Everything around me was imploding, and I was barely able to keep up. I thought for sure this was all going to take at least a couple of months, but here we were, just a few weeks later. I get it, though; while I’ve been stuck in my own little world of complications, these men’s real purpose here was to bring home the girls, some of them now women, who have been suffering years of degradation and pain.
I’m not sure what all was supposed to happen next, but after Janie’s colossal meltdown on live TV, Lyon packed me off to New York a day early to be with her. I guess he saw the strain and stress I was under worrying about her. In my mind, even though her name was yet to be mentioned, they hated her so much, especially Janie, that I was afraid they might come after her.
Now I’m tasked with the unenviable duty of telling her about Rachel and what had gone down in the last few days. I know she hasn’t been in contact with the other woman because we talked every night, and she hadn’t mentioned it. My only worry was that this was going to hit her hard, losing a friend, but I didn’t want her finding out from anyone else but me.
I guess Scott and Mary must be in deep with some very bad people because I’ve never seen them move this fast on a deal as they have with the catalog business. The money went through in a matter of hours when usually they’d tell me that anything I wanted would take days. Now I know that it was all a lie and that letting anyone else control my life was a bad idea.
One good thing, other than the money that came out of that deal, is the fact that I now own all the rights to everything. I can cut Scott and everyone else involved in this mess out of my life without a backward glance, which is something I’d stressed about for a while now, ever since the truth came to light.
Whoever had drawn up the contract was a phenom, and the fact that Scott had signed it was still a bit of a surprise to me. There was no stone left unturned, and quite frankly, he stood to lose way more than he gained, which made it even more implausible.
But once I learned how he was held over a barrel, I got it. The fact that they claimed it was some ten-year-old named Nia who drew up the contract is where I draw the line, though; there’s no way. I don’t know why, of everything I’d seen so far, this one thing should stump me, but after years of dealing with legalese that I still don’t understand where contracts are concerned, I find it hard to believe.
Scott is the quintessential businessman, and there’s no way other than the present situation that would cause him to let go of the hold he had on me and many others, and it looks like those girls chose the right opportunity to get him for everything, and I mean everything.
I haven’t spoken to him since the day I went to his house with the contract, and I don’t plan on it unless I have to, which I may no longer have to. Once Cord, the SEAL, found the bunny Janie had been hiding, it was game over.
It’s hard to believe, but she had it all in there. I doubt they knew she was keeping tabs on everything, and between what the men had got off of my home security and the phone lines they’d tapped ever since Tyler and Zak moved in, plus the well-organized notes and recordings she kept in there, they had more than enough now, that they didn’t need me to fake another concert tour, which could’ve gone on for months.
According to Lyon, the reason they’d suggested the tour in the first place was to fish out the buyers that Mary and Scott worked with. Since everything had been heavily coded, they couldn’t quite make out the names of the men and women involved, not all of them anyway. But now they had all the information they needed, thanks to Janie’s meticulous note-keeping.