Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“This is my home. This is my land. Nothing mysterious about wanting to get back what’s mine. That said, I do like being a farmer, so fuck you.”
Chuckling, he put up his hands. “Fine, fine. Does beg the question why you’re hitting me up? And what happens if I refuse?”
My expression remained blank. “I’m not going to give you away, if that’s what you’re thinking. That doesn’t benefit me when you still have my farm to hold over my head. Part of me was hoping you’d cut me in for the bigger deal all on your own. I’ve done as much work as your buddies at this point. I’ve warned you off, fed you information, and traded in the jail cell you were driving straight toward for a warm night in my barn.
“But if all that isn’t enough, consider how much help I can be going forward? Keep you updated on the investigation, let you know if the Bedlam Boys are getting close, and when the time is right, I can drive you right out of Bedlam in Cairo’s truck. No one is going to stop me if I say I’m going out on an errand for the sheriff and his son.”
“Huh. Interesting.” Jeremy propped the knife handle under my chin. He clearly found this amusing. “No doubt all of those would be helpful, but why wouldn’t I force you to do them for free by holding this very farm over your head like you said?”
“Because I don’t like when people play games with me. When they do, I get what my Gran used to call ‘stormy.’ And when I’m stormy, I do what all natural disasters do and blaze over everything in my path,” I said flatly.
“What that looks like for you, Jeremy, is I start getting curious about what makes Bedlam so special that you’re willing to go to these lengths to get a piece of it. Then, I’ll start thinking twice about your too generous bribe, buying me a six-hundred-thousand-dollar farm— But oh, wait, you’re dragging your heels on giving me the keys and now I’m wondering if there’s a reason.”
His grin melted away.
“Maybe I start thinking you’re buying all this land and just sitting on it, because you’re waiting for your moment. So, now that I’m curious, and stormy, and fed the fuck up with you, I bring in assessors, crews, maybe even drilling teams and make sure I’m not sitting on oil or something.”
Jeremy’s sockets were two smoldering pits. “Watch yourself.”
“Why? Because I’m getting close.”
“Because you’re too stupid to know what you’re dealing with. Do— Do you know?”
“Do I know what?”
Jeremy probed me, searching my eyes for a trace of deception. He got nothing in return.
“You tell me not to play games, de Souza, but I don’t know anyone who plays them better than you. I ask again, what do you want the money for?”
“Ivy won’t come back to an old farmhouse and five a.m. wake-up calls. She’ll come back to her dream house, hired help, and start-up money to build her own marketing firm. I want what’s left of my family back together. You can appreciate that.”
He grunted. “The Crows were each offered a flat rate for their services. It’s generous, but it does not total the six-hundred-thousand worth we gave you. Plus an extra six thousand, and my car. Sell your sob story to someone else. Better yet, let your sister live her own life. She’s better off out of this shit hole.”
Jeremy, you’re making this so much easier for me.
“You’re not getting any more money.” He cuffed my chin. “As for your services, they are to continue as required, along with the additional help you laid out. We’re not having this conversation again. Say you understand this, or you’ll come back tomorrow and find out what I did to Granny’s bows.”
Raising my chin, I said, “I understand.”
“Hey,” Micah spoke up. “Where’s Asher?”
“I’ll find him.” I snatched Jeremy’s knife out of the air. “Just in case.”
He didn’t have a chance to stop me slipping out the door.
Arsenio, Cairo, Jacques, and Legend streamed out of the darkness, running past me.
“Hey!”
“Jeremy!”
“Agh!”
I strode over to the tied-up, gagged Crow thrashing in the bed of Cairo’s truck.
“Oh, look. I found him.”
Chapter Ten
“Why the sudden urge to treat me to dinner, dear friend?” Paris waggled her eyebrows at me.
“Does everything I do have to have a hidden sexual meaning?”
“You are a hidden sexual meaning.”
“I have no idea what to do with that.”
We laughed.
“Seriously,” I said. “Cairo texted me earlier saying we should go out. Antonio’s by the square, and it’s on him.”
“Hmm. Suspicious.”
I delayed answering by taking a bite of my pappardelle. “What’s suspicious?”
“My dear brother doesn’t get charitable out of the goodness of his heart. Wonder why he really told you to take me out. Have you seen him? I’ve called, but he’s not answering.”