Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
King’s hands fisted at his sides, and I knew he didn’t blame her, but hearing about what Rumor had been through was hard on him.
“It’s no one’s fault,” I said, wanting her to stop talking about it. For all our sakes.
She looked back at me then. “I poisoned him and watched him suffer as he foamed at the mouth and convulsed. He didn’t go quickly. He didn’t deserve an easy death. And if I’d known the Mafia wanted to kill him, I’d have gladly handed him over.” Then, she reached for the doorknob. “If that is all I can do for you, then I need to get back onstage. My break is up.”
King nodded. “But if we find out you lied, we’ll find you.”
“No one wanted that bastard dead more than me,” she replied, then opened the door and walked out.
• two •
I had to be at the beck and call of a man.
Briar
Seven Months Later
Sliding the slab of hardwood back over the floor under my bed, I reached for the area rug and pulled it back into place. Fifteen thousand five hundred forty dollars in cash wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t enough. The pay and tips at Highwater, the bar I was currently working at, were good. The best I’d ever done at a bar, but Jameson Chester’s payoff not to tell his fiancée about our fling would be worth it, and he hated me working there. Funny how that always happened. The jealous, controlling ones were always the cheaters. I was going to have to quit Highwater. This wouldn’t be the first time I had to give up doing the one thing I loved because of a man.
That wasn’t what was important though. I had my priorities. Cash flow wasn’t an option. It was mandatory.
Standing up, I walked over to the floor-length mirror and stared at my reflection. This was all I truly had in power. How I looked. That and my ability to lie.
Shaking my head, disgusted with myself, but unable to change the way my life had played out, I turned to look out the window of the apartment I’d moved us into six months ago. Always on the go. Never getting to stay long and set up roots.
Getting attached to any one place was a luxury we couldn’t allow. Netta wouldn’t spend her money on looking for Roger. She’d assume he skipped town on her. But it was Dovie, her daughter, I worried about. If Netta ever put it together, which would be a stretch since the woman was an idiot, then she could take Dovie away from me. I wasn’t even her real sister, and Dovie was only fifteen. She’d have to find us first and then get past me, but she wouldn’t make it out alive. She’d already proven she couldn’t be trusted to protect her own child.
Roger had moved from one foster mother to the next until he met Netta. A waitress at a bar who had a ten-year-old daughter. When I went to find him and make him pay for what he’d done to me, I found Dovie instead. Alone, dirty, terrified in a run-down trailer. I didn’t get my revenge like I’d planned. But I took Dovie. That had been four years ago.
They hadn’t even searched for her. No missing person report. Nothing. It was the only way I had kept her with me under the radar. She couldn’t attend school and stay hidden. I was doing the best I could to teach her. The day she turned eighteen, I would have the money to get her the help she needed. Until then, it was on me to help her with what little education I had. Thankfully she read. I figured there was a lot to be learned from books. It didn’t matter the genre.
Which was why Jameson was picking me up in three hours and taking me to some private party for the evening. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but we needed the money. I’d said I was done with this kind of thing two years ago, but unfortunately, money was growing short again after our last move, and I refused to touch the savings I kept put back for Dovie’s future. Using men was the fastest way to get money.
So far, Jameson had given me a pair of diamond earrings and a bracelet that was appraised for over twenty-five thousand dollars. A Louis Vuitton purse would sell for over five thousand, but letting it go was going to be painful. The dresses and shoes that he had bought for me would make a pretty penny too. But I had to wait to sell them off until this thing with him was over.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, snapping me out of my thoughts. Slipping my hand inside, I pulled it out to see Jameson’s name on the screen. He was already texting me his orders. His issue with controlling me wasn’t new. I’d dealt with it before. Wealthy men craved power, and all seemed to require my submission. It wasn’t always easy to do with my personality, but for the money I’d get in the end, I could deal with it.