Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“Let me go,” I seethe. “Then we can talk man to man.”
He likely knows that our “talk” would involve my hands around his throat. He only shakes his head.
“If it were that easy, why would I chain you to begin with?”
A door opens and I hear approaching footsteps. I look up to see one of Montague’s henchmen. I recognize the crooked nose, thin lips, and narrowed, beady eyes. I see him in my nightmares.
My torturer.
“Welcome back,” he says with a ruthless smile.
I bare my teeth at him. “Easy to say that when I’m bound in chains, isn’t it?”
He’ll go down first, and painfully.
“What is it?” Montague asks. “You know I don’t abide interruptions unless necessary.”
“So sorry for the interruption, but I have pertinent news.”
“Oh?” Montague gives him a curious look. “What’s that?”
He looks straight to me when he curls his lip. “We found her, sir.”
No.
I rattle the chains. “If you touch a fucking hair on her head—”
“Like you care?” Montague asks, his head tipped to the side. “You just found out she was working with me, didn’t you? You sent her away. You don’t want her.”
Something doesn’t sit right. Something’s wrong with this scenario. I know they drugged me, but I also know that they’re lying. I push through the fog and insist on what I know is true. “She isn’t working with you.”
“Do you say that because you believe it to be true or because you hope it is?” he asks, shaking his head from side to side. “Of course she is. Why do you think she lured Savannah out?”
It doesn’t make sense. She couldn’t have fabricated any of what we had.
The way she touched me. The way she told me in her gentle way how much she loves me. How devoted she already is to our baby.
Montague is a traitorous liar. So who would I believe?
I push through again. “Because you threatened to end her pregnancy.”
He laughs. “I didn’t even know she was pregnant when we asked her to betray you.”
My head swims with the lies, and I’m unsure of where even to begin to sort them out. Cosette didn’t betray us, I know that for a fact.
I wonder why he hasn’t killed me yet. I doubt it’s just to punish me for whatever crime he thinks I’ve committed.
No. He wants me for something.
Then why does he have me here?
What’s his endgame?
My heart beats faster at the knowledge that they know where Cosette is, when I realize if he’s lying about everything else, he’s lying about that too. It’s a bluff. I was careful about moving her, careful who I hired. I made sure they were untraceable and completely off the grid. There’s no way they actually know where she is. I wouldn’t have moved her from Le Marquise otherwise.
I imagine her, resilient as hell and strong, but compromised, focused on carrying our baby to term. I have to get to her. “You killed Rousseau.”
His eyes go hard. “Of course I did. She betrayed us. She was a danger to every citizen of Paris.”
The bastard. The fucking bastard.
I clench my jaw.
“What do you want from me?”
“It’s very simple, Mr. Gerard. I want to be reelected. I’ve promised to rid the city of the likes of you. All you need to do is move out. Re-root somewhere else.” A small smile makes him look almost reptilian.
No. That isn’t it.
“I want to let you go, you see. But I can’t unless I have some assurances. In short, Mr. Gerard, I want you to make a choice. Cosette or your family.” He begins tapping the little table beside him with broad, blunt fingers, but his eyes remain on me. “You’re an assassin, so this will be an easy one for you. Kill Cosette, and life goes back to the way it was before. I’ll come up with a story for the press and drop all charges and investigations involving your family. However, know that if you choose her, and your family remains in the city, I will kill all of you.” He scowls. “Starting with my sorry excuse for a daughter.”
Hot, visceral hatred bubbles inside me like lava.
He wants me to choose between Cosette and my family?
“It’s a very simple choice.”
“Very easy,” I say to him. “Because the answer is no.”
The electrical current sears through my skull, rattles my nerves, and brings pain the likes of which I’ve never known. I scream until my voice is hoarse, and when it finally stops, I’m dripping in sweat and my vision is hazy.
“Not an option, Mr. Gerard. You’ll do what I say, or I’ll fry you until you can’t remember your own name. And then, if you still refuse to do what I’ve asked of you, I’ll be sure you watch as I kill her, before I take your life.”
I won’t hurt her. I can’t. The only reason I rejected her and sent her away was for her own safety. I love Cosette. There’s no goddamn way I’ll allow anyone to hurt her, or our unborn baby.