Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
I started. “Me?”
“She hates you. Everyone is telling me that I can’t strike back at you because of the code. Everyone except her. Grandmother doesn’t consider the housekeeper’s bastards as part of the family. She wants me to put down the Dreg that ruined our reputation.”
My stomach twisted, shooting bile up my throat. Her grandmother—my grandmother—said such horrible things about me?
Saylor went on. “My grandpa did put a lot of time and money into hunting down the Rogues, but if he found anything on them, he’d have exposed and turned them in. Everyone would know about it already. But the person who would’ve kept the information to herself until it could be used to her advantage—”
“—is Grandma Burkhardt,” I finished. “She’s who I’d have to speak to, and she wants nothing to do with me.”
“Now you’re getting it.”
I was quiet while I thought. The idea that there was some deep, unrevealed secret about Everton that I could use in the fight against Everleigh was a long shot.
But I saw her face when I lied about her long-lost sister. Then I saw her face when I threatened to hurt her. Maybe there were no other sisters out there, but her grandmother could be sitting on damning information that she ignored because Everton died years ago. It didn’t matter to him anymore, but it could matter to his daughter. If she knows anything, I need to know it too.
“Put me back on the list, Saylor.”
“Did you not hear anything I said?”
“You said I’m dealing with Grandma, not Grandpa. That’s fine. She can hear what I have to say just as well. From what you’re saying, it sounds like she has a few choice things to tell me too.”
I sensed her hesitating. “This is my price if you want the keys to your kingdom back. What’ll it be?”
“Fine, Sinclair. You want to be a Burkhardt so badly, it’s time you learn what it takes. Be here in twenty minutes.”
VICTOR DROVE UP TO the gate and stopped. I leaned over him and smirked in Frank’s eyes.
“How are you, friend? Luna Sinclair to see Saylor.”
Frank gave no reaction. “Good evening, Miss Sinclair. You are welcome inside, but your guest must remain out here.”
Victor shut off the car and handed me the keys. “Do what you need to do, babe. My folks’ place is down the hill. Pick me up there when you’re done.”
I kissed him goodbye, then took his place. The gates screeched open, beckoning me inside the Burkhardts’ paradise. Frank must’ve called ahead to tell Saylor I was here because she stood before the grand double doors, waiting for me to pull up.
“Where is it?”
“Hello to you too, Saylor. That’s a nice beret. Where did you—?”
“Cut the shit!”
I laughed out loud. At this point, I was being pleasant to piss her off. Weird that kindness was a trigger for Saylor Burkhardt.
“Where is it?”
“By it, I assume you mean this.” I wiggled the phone above my head. “Let’s toddle up to your room. This is going to take a while.”
A frustrated breath flared her nostrils. Opening up to me on the phone hadn’t softened her a fraction. Saylor did not wish to spend more time with me than was necessary, but this was. I was ending T.O.D. for good. Everyone who was hurt by them would receive justice.
The justice that Winter deserved.
“Follow me,” she barked, marching up the steps. “Don’t loiter, don’t gawk, and don’t pretend like you belong.”
“Whatever you say, cuz.”
The tense line of her shoulders showed me what she thought of that.
Saylor took me down the same hallway from that night I spent with Alistair—eating, joking, and talking of the days we didn’t get to spend together.
Stepping inside Saylor’s room, the pang of hurt fled under awe. Think of a luxury department store with high-priced items everywhere and all displayed in the perfect arrangement to make you want, want, want. Think of it, and you still wouldn’t be close to what it was like walking into the fever dream of towering ceilings, a revolving bed, purple chandeliers, and a wall of windows that overlooked a garden even more magnificent than the Wilsons’. I could throw my shoe and hit something I could sell and feed a family of five for a year.
“Wait there,” Saylor said, “and don’t touch anything.”
Saylor disappeared through double doors, then came back out carrying a magazine. She ripped out a couple pages and laid them on the desk chair. “Okay, now sit.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I slapped the pages off. “I’m not a dog.”
“My mistake,” she shot back, smirking. “How am I supposed to know if Dregs are house-trained?”
“Okay, just for that, the price went up.” I stuffed Everleigh’s phone back in my pocket. “I know to you, empathy is just something you read in a book once, but now you’ve lived it. You know what it’s like to not be a Royal. You know what Dregs go through. The difference is your ass deserves it!”