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)
“They were the bane of his existence. All the time and money my father put into trying to find and stamp out the Rogues, and he’d gotten nowhere. As a young, brash kid, I saw them as my way to break free. What they did didn’t bother me as much as it should. Like I told you, there was always a darkness in me. I was falling in with the right crowd, not a bad one.”
What he said should bother me, but that would make me a hypocrite too. I said so many times that I belonged with the Rogues. Sounded like Alistair found where he belonged too.
“What about Everton?”
Alistair came back to the armchair and motioned for me to sit. I did—needing to hear the story too bad to hear my warning bells. “It’s not as simple as announcing on a street corner that you want to be a Rogue. You didn’t find them. They found you,” he said. “There are plenty of low-rent delinquents running a dozen rackets.
“The Rogues don’t need that. They want talent. They want something only you can do. They want connections only you can make. Didn’t matter that we were both rich or our places on the Royal line. Plenty of people have money, but not everyone can bring those people to their knees.”
“What did you guys do? How did you get in?” Yes, it did occur to me that I wasn’t having the most normal conversation with the father I just met, but it had been an abnormal week. This fit in perfectly.
“Everton’s family owned a string of private law firms all over the country. Everton used his name and access to get into their clients’ private information and sell it to the highest bidder.”
My mouth fell open. “That’s way past unethical! It’s disgusting.”
“It was a serious line to cross,” Alistair agreed, “but it worked. Rogue members lined up at his door to buy the information. He was in.”
“And you?” I asked, bracing myself.
“Me,” he drew out, gaze tipping to the ceiling. “I took another route.”
“You can tell me. It’s not like I have the right to judge anyone after all I’ve done.”
He smiled. “Everything you’ve done was for your sister. Your intentions were always good.”
“Do you know everything? What I’ve done to Wesley, Levi, Ashton, Owen, and indirectly, Giovanni?”
His smile didn’t waver. “Leon knows a lot of things about a lot of things, as he likes to say. He brought me up to speed. My question is how? How did you know to go after those five? I exhausted all my resources to find the bastards, but the bullying came from almost everyone and everywhere. Why those five?”
“Winter named them in her note.”
He stilled. “But your mother showed me her note.”
“Winter sent one to me too. I never told Mom about it. In it, she told me everything.”
It was impossible to read his face as he took that in. “You didn’t tell your mother because you decided from the moment you read the letter to take them out one by one. You didn’t want her to suspect you when they turned up dead.”
He said it so plainly, I flinched. “So what if I did? They took the life of the best person in the world. They deserved everything they had coming to them.”
“I’m not criticizing, sweetheart. Just the opposite. I’m so proud of you, I want to dress down my father again for suggesting I get a paternity test. You are definitely my daughter.”
“You’re proud of me? I basically took a hit out on Owen. I tortured Wesley. I got Ashton Scott stabbed.”
“Well, yes,” he said, inclining his head. “You went easy on them, but that’s to be expected. You’re new at this.”
If there was something to say in response to his casual dismissal of murder and mayhem, I didn’t know it.
“I’ve shocked you,” he said. “Understandable because I haven’t gotten to the end of the story. What did I do to get the Rogues’ attention? I hunted them down, Luna.
“I did what my father, his father, and his father’s father tried to do for decades. I found every Rogue and either took over their rackets or shut them down. Within two years, there wasn’t a single one who wasn’t owned... by me.”
“But how could you do that? How could that be possible?”
“Money, deception, favors, bribes, informants. Whatever it took. You see, I wasn’t looking to be one of the Rogues. My goal was always to make the organization my organization. The thing about Burkhardts is we’re not joiners—”
“We’re leaders.” I didn’t realize I chose we until it was already out of my mouth. “You’re the leader of the Rogues.”
“I am,” he said, the picture of nonchalance. “Over the years, I’ve made many changes to the organization. I got us out of the kind of vile businesses that founded us and brought order to a disjointed group of felons used to doing what they wanted, whenever they wanted. There was one such change that brought us where we are now, Luna. In this room.”