Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Why did my mother kill him?”
“Why do you think? She overheard us. I went there to kill your father, Angel. If your mother hadn’t—”
“You don’t need to explain,” I coldly interrupted. “I know what you went there to do.” It was the other reason I didn’t hesitate to frame him for my father’s murder.
“What would you have done?” he boldly questioned.
“Nothing.” He looked surprised by my answer. “My wife wouldn’t need to fuck another man.”
“Love is fickle,” he shot back.
“Except your wife didn’t love you when she spread her legs for my father. She probably never did. I was there when my mom told Mian about their history. Can you guess why she married you?” We both knew Ceci didn’t marry Theo for love. He had been her ticket closer to my father’s heart. She used him.
He cleared his throat and looked down at the table. “The reasons don’t matter anymore. They’re both dead.”
“Your daughter will be too if I don’t find her first.”
He sighed, and for a moment, I thought I won. “Then so be it. She’ll finally be free of you.” He got up and walked away.
* * *
“HE WAS EITHER telling the truth, or he really did condemn his daughter to die,” Lucas mused.
“Do you think Art really had Mian’s mother killed?” Z questioned without a note of doubt. What Theo claimed was exactly what my father would have done to keep his secrets swept under the rug.
Lucas and Z knew it was my mother who shot my father. They had been the only ones I could trust with the lie I told to protect her. It hadn’t mattered in the end. They’d found Theo as guilty as I and wanted him dead, as well. After all, he’d said himself he had gone there to kill my father. My mother’s state of mind was never the same after she blew that hole in my father’s heart… so I gave her another truth to live.
I shrugged my answer. My father would have done anything necessary to protect the family he neglected, but Theo’s last day breathing was circled in blood. He had every reason to lie.
Would I still kill him without knowing the full truth?
Absolutely.
Theo knew the stakes just as I did.
“Anna’s getting a call,” Z suddenly announced. Before we let them go, he bugged Anna’s phone, so we could monitor her calls. It’s been more than three weeks since Mian’s last call, and I had begun to think I underestimated her.
We were all tense as we listened to Anna tear Mian a new one. I held in a laugh at Mian’s tone. I could tell she was frustrated with Anna’s fussing but didn’t want to upset her anymore. The exasperation on Lucas’s face as Anna shrieked and shouted also made it hard to keep my composure. I was just glad she was his problem instead of mine. When the little bulldozer convinced Mian to tell her where she is, humor faded, and I went on alert.
Z didn’t waste any time pulling up a map and finding the small blip I would never have thought to look if Anna hadn’t led us right to her.
“Look’s like we’re heading to the swamps, boys.” Lucas and Z wore triumphant grins while I sat as still as a statue.
Gotcha.
“The rock she crawled under is small as fuck,” Z complained while tapping the screen of his phone. “There aren’t even five hundred people living there. If we go there asking questions, she’s going to know we’re there before we even get to her.”
“You don’t need to ask questions. She’s working at a diner. A town that small, my guess is you two won’t have to look too hard.”
“Wait… you’re not coming?” Lucas baffled expression was priceless.
“I’m not the only one looking for her. I need to keep eyes on Staten. I can’t do that while chasing her.”
“Son of a bitch… Going after Mian will lead him right to her.”
“Precisely.” Their confused looks were expected. “When she sees you, she’ll try to run, but if she knows the senator has found her too—”
“She’s smart enough to know her chances are better with us,” Lucas finished for me.
“There’s one more thing.” They leaned forward, taking cues from my tone. “She can’t know I sent you.”
My request earned a rare scowl from Z. “How the fuck will we get her to believe that?”
Chapter Ten
MIAN
I QUICKLY LEARNED that nothing ever happens in Mosset, North Carolina. Everyone here was born and raised here. There had been a few who hadn’t been happy with small town living and made it out, but no one ever moved to Mosset. I was the first. The day after I showed up, I even found my picture and a three-sentence story of my arrival in the town newspaper. I had a panic attack in the middle of the diner, which had taken Becky almost an hour to calm me. No one here knew Mian Ross existed, and the senator would never bother himself to read a small town newspaper.