Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Edwin walks into the room, taking Apollo by surprise. He holds his revolver close to Apollo's head, and for the first time ever, I'm worried for our leader. Mine isn’t a fatal wound, but if we don’t diffuse this situation right now, Apollo’s will be.
"Drop your weapons, boys. Just do it. All of you, or this one dies."
He's got an insane look on his face, and his voice is pitched high with paranoia. This is a man who may have lost his goddamn mind, and that means he's capable of anything.
We exchange looks, and one by one the guys put down their guns and hold their hands up in the air. I’m already on the ground, unprotected and holding my shoulder that's oozing blood.
Fucking hell, this is not how this was supposed to go down.
We do as he says and wait for whatever deranged thing is about to spew from this motherfucker’s lips.
Chapter 30
Samuel
I stare blankly at both Edwin and Archibald as Archibald gets up and moves to stand next to him. Their faces are plastered with a disgusting smugness teeming with an aura of sludgy superiority.
We each have our arms up as Edwin shoves the muzzle of his gun harder into Apollo’s temple. Every time Apollo winces, Edwin’s face scrunches into maniacal glee; he looks like a sociopathic child in power for the first time in his life.
“Look at you little boys!” Edwin exclaims. “Look what you’ve been reduced to by a little plotting and scheming!”
Archibald smirks alongside him. “It was a rather glorious set-up, and I’m rather shocked none of you caught on already. And who wouldn’t believe it? It’s the perfect story. Seven crime lords, renowned for their cruelty of action, turn on their leader then lust after, rape, and murder her beautiful virgin daughter in their compound! Her own grieving father pleads to me to save her, and he braves the compound himself, compelling the staff with his sob story. The crime lords’ own men learn of their disgusting actions and turn on them, but it’s too late! The father is left to grieve over his daughter. Who wouldn’t buy it? And all that’s left for us to do is collect the trust fund!”
The two of them laugh. Their combined chortles and guffaws mix in a disgusting echo across the silent room as they stare at our shocked faces, their eyes wild with madness. It’s all too clear to me that their thirst for power has sent them to the brink of insanity.
But wait. Her daughter? What is he saying?
“That’s right!” Archibald smirks as I narrow my eyes.
“Lucy was my sister, and Caroline’s real mother! And I’ve been getting incredibly fucking tired of sitting under Lucy’s thumb,” Archibald explains coldly. “Edwin and I took care of her ages ago and have been figuring out the perfect way to situate her wealth for ourselves.”
His voice takes on a sinister tone. “What we didn’t know was that her money was left in a trust to her fucking daughter!”
Edwin shakes his head. “Five hundred million dollars…do you realize exactly how hard it was to get all of this information from her, too? Passcodes, pin numbers, defense setups for just such an occasion…Archi here had to torture his sister for days to get it all out.”
“You monstrous son of a bitch!” Marshall exclaims, lunging towards him, his eyes practically blood-red in anger.
Edwin whips his head around and fires at Marshall. The shot ricochets inches away from his foot. He jams the gun back at Apollo’s temple. Apollo doesn’t even flinch from the impact. We’re all reeling from shock at the huge revelation.
Lucy has been our unseen leader for as long as any of us have been with Sin, Inc., but we’ve never met her. She’s always given us direction through Archibald. Now we suddenly learn she’s not only dead, but that we’ve been puppeteered by the name of a corpse?
I think back carefully. It’s not often something like this would slip past me, but Caroline had told us her mother’s name was Lily.
After all this time, not even she knew the fate of her mother…
“I suggest you hold your tongue!” Archibald screams at Marshall. “You were all under my hand anyways. My puppets! And you’ve far outlived your usefulness. Now for the final piece of—”
“Where the hell is Caroline?!” Edwin screams out, interrupting Archibald.
They look at each of us in turn and are met with blank stares and shrugs. I respond in kind, holding my hands up towards them, but glancing behind me to plop into an armchair nearby.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Edwin yells wildly at me.
“If you guys are going to keep talking and asking questions, there’s no reason for me to not be comfortable right?” I shrug.
Edwin glowers but Archibald places a hand on his shoulder.