Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
“A big one,” he says. “I don’t believe I have to spell it out for you, but I will tell you what I can. The Henshaw family was involved in the mistake I made. Otto, to be exact, but I’m assuming, given recent events, he was foolish enough to pass this information on to his son.”
My father waits for me to confirm, so I give a slight nod. “I already told you how he acted and what he said. The insinuation is there.”
“And you fought back against it rather than heed his warning,” he accuses.
“Is that why you kidnapped him?”
My father’s eyes hold steady on mine, and it’s as if he’s searching for something. “You should not have pushed the boy. You should have held on to your grace and you should have come to me, so I could deal with this.”
It’s been the same ‘conversation’ for the last thirty-one days, and it never gets us anywhere because he clams up or gets called away every single time. I’m sick of it.
Things are getting tense on campus and people are starting to look at each other as if we’re all the enemy. If it keeps up, we’ll crumble within our own walls.
“Do not blame me for whatever it is you’ve done that’s falling on our shoulders.”
Boston gasps, looking from me to my dad, but she doesn’t say a word.
“I will never allow anything to fall onto you girls that you cannot handle,” he fires back, neither confirming nor denying. “But this is different. This is something with the potential to rock the foundation the Greyson Union sits on. This could mess everything up, especially for you, Rocklin, including the society you’ve built. I can’t say I regret it, at least not the way I should, and that might be the worst part.”
His words mean nothing without the knowledge of what he’s hiding, so I force myself not to dwell on the anger they bring and speak on what we know. “Mr. Henshaw watched the surveillance from the pool the day Oliver disappeared. He saw Oliver approach me, saw what followed, so there is no way he believes you’re not involved after seeing him grab me the way he did.”
My father watches me too closely, but I’m not sure why. Slowly, he nods. “Yes, I would agree Otto believes his son is at the mercy of my hands.”
“So if only Otto knows and he’s gone, the secret is safe, right?” Boston wonders. “We can stop worrying about some giant shitstorm coming out of nowhere?”
My father cocks his head, eyes narrowing on mine slightly before moving to hers. “I imagine it might be for now, yes, but this is his legacy we’re talking about. His only heir. He will come for me if the boy does not show up. He has grown edgy. Our team is sure he’s about to break, and the moment he does, he will cross a line he can’t come back from.”
“You sound like that’s exactly what you want, so you can keep this secret of yours buried.”
He lifts his hands as if to say if I can be so lucky, I won’t complain.
“Otto must have a lot of enemies,” Boston offers.
“He does, and he’s about torn through them all now, to no avail.” My father shakes his head. “Make no mistake, he will be coming for us.”
“There’s no way he would dare come at you without help and he wouldn’t get it without proof, if even then,” she pushes on.
Father looks to me. “His son put his hands on my daughter and then disappeared.”
“Coincidence.” Boston shrugs.
“The daughter he was trying to blackmail me into selling to him.”
My head snaps back, hearing this for the first time. “What?”
“Yes. You are what they were after.” He finally shares something new. “They’ve been after one of you for years. It was his plan all along. I didn’t realize this until after I used his services. From that moment on, I was locked in without knowing it. He wasn’t deep in our world at the time. He was just a man with a skill I required, nothing but another gang out there who was no threat to my organization that I used for a job. He was on the council with the Greysons, so I knew his work would be efficient and, more importantly, discreet.
“The Henshaws sit on the council alongside Calvin, but they are nothing but a name to the Greyson Union, but where we have four powerful families united under one name, the Henshaws do not.”
Curious, I sit back and wait for more.
“Power and greed led Otto down a different road, one that wiped out the people beneath him, to who he was supposed to give his loyalty as we do the Bandonis, the DeLeons, the Henleys. He decided he no longer liked the idea of being equal with the names tied to the Henshaw empire, and so he picked them off one by one until he and his heir were the only ones left. The problem with this is the times changed as the new generation came and took over and he realized we were outgrowing and outpowering him in every way possible. He knew eventually someone would come for his seat on the council and his family would be done, so when someone tied to a second member of that council, me, came requiring his services, he hatched his own plan.”