Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
“I don’t know—”
“Quit fucking lying!” I shout, yanking on the cuffs. “Either get me out or let them book me.”
“I don’t believe you,” I decide to say to Jackson, not wanting him to know how close to the truth he is. I go to kick him.
He rushes out, making me pause, “Mr. Minson threatened Luke with his life. He was not allowed to fuck her after the wedding.”
I frown. “That doesn’t make any sense. That’s why he gave Luke the room.” It was to prove she had remained a virgin. She needed to bleed for him.
He shakes his head. “No. He gave Luke the room to make sure she stayed a virgin.”
“How would he have known?” Ryat wonders.
“Cameras,” I answer. Lake told me that Miller had mentioned her getting off on my cock. “He had cameras in there.”
“So her father watched you fuck his daughter? That’s pretty fucked up.” Kashton shakes his head in disgust.
“Why was her virginity so important?” Ryat asks.
“I … don’t know.” He begins to cry, knowing he’s not giving me enough information.
FIFTY-NINE
TYSON
My wife lies in her bed, sleeping. I sit on the couch while Ryat stands next to me. He’s typing away on his phone to his wife while I stare at mine. Ryat puts his phone away and looks down at me. “What’s the plan?”
“She needs to stay here,” I say, watching her readjust herself in bed. She’s still pretty out of it for the most part. We arrived six hours ago. And although I have some people to torture before I kill, I want to be here with her when she wakes up again. I lower my voice to make sure she doesn’t hear me. “They confirmed her pregnancy at the hospital. That won’t stay quiet for long.”
“You think no one will look for her here?” he inquires.
“I think it’s the safest place for now.”
He looks over at her closed door and then back at me. “You trust them?”
I nod. The Spade brothers do some fucked-up shit here, but they wouldn’t harm my wife. Or my unborn child. “Yes.”
“We bring you an update on the fire that claimed the life of ten people earlier this week at Blackout,” a reporter says on the TV. Ryat grabs the remote and turns up the volume a little bit for us to hear. “Remember when we showed this clip…”
It goes to the night of the fire, and reporters are already littering the parking lot along with all the first responders. My Bentley comes squealing into the parking lot. It shows me running toward the building. Then the cops knock me down. We fight. I’m in handcuffs. Then it skips over to me pushing the cops off me and shooting one of them.
“We can now confirm that Laikyn Grace Crawford, Tyson Crawford’s wife—the only living daughter to Frank Minson—was, in fact, inside the club when the fire took place and was pronounced dead at the scene. But no official report has been released as to how or where the fire started.”
Ryat turns it off. “So that was their plan?” He snorts. “To make the world think she died. A horrific death at that? Burning?”
“Seems so.” It’s worked before.
“But why?” he continues. “How does her death benefit anyone?”
“It’s not about benefiting them. Whoever it is wants to take her from me.” It has everything to do with me and nothing to do with her.
“You think it’s her father?” he asks. “We knew he’d retaliate. If not him, then who else could it be?”
A sniff gets my attention, and I turn around to see Lake sitting up in the bed, her watery eyes on the blank TV. Slowly, they meet mine, and the first tear falls from her bottom lashes, rolling down her bruised cheek. “Luke,” she whispers.
“What does he have to do with it?” Ryat asks.
Her eyes meet mine. “He was the one who pulled me out of Blackout.”
We both stiffen, glancing at one another. “Luke was there? At Blackout?” I clarify. No. She’s not remembering clearly. It couldn’t have been him. It had to have been her father.
“Thought you had guys on him?” Ryat asks me.
“They’ve been searching ever since the day of the wedding. He’s been MIA,” I say. Ryat doesn’t know that Colton, Alex, Finn, and Jenks work for me. He knows I’ve hired some men to do my dirty work, but that’s as far as his knowledge goes. When they never came up with anything, I pulled them from the surveillance.
“I thought you killed him.” She speaks softly, her heavy eyes dropping to her hands in her lap.
I sigh, wishing I would have. I had a hunch he’d lead me to something important. I was wrong.
“Why would he wait so long?” Ryat goes on. “You two have been married for months now.” He looks at her. “Did he say anything to you?”