Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Did it work? Did the decoy accept the offer?”
“Of course the decoy took the deal. He buddied up with Len and offered him cash for kills. Showed him the money I gave him in advance. He was to act like a rich bigshot. We’d planned it for weeks. And for the record, I told your Uncle Scott that Len didn’t need no damn college, anyway!” Smoke eddied from the side of his mouth as he replayed those old tapes in his mind. “It would put silly ideas in his head… like this dumb gymnasium he wants to open. He took business classes for it. Anyway, the point is, all of these bastards want to link up with a Wilde boy, Sam. Getting a decoy is easy, but you never befriend them. So many people want to be our friends. Be around us.” Sam nodded in agreement. “If they’re broke, they wanna get close to our money. If they’re boring, they want to ride our coattails to look big and tough and get some excitement.”
“Yeah… yeah… did Lennox do the deal, too?”
“Lennox was depressed and angry. He was sitting in those classrooms feelin’ sorry for himself and pissed at the world because his mama was in the grave, and this was even waaaay after her death. He took it real hard. He was easy pickings. He rejected the deal at first, but then, he accepted it. Did it in a heartbeat. I got him at his weakest. He had bloodlust. You could see it in his eyes. I tell you what,” he giggled, “I was impressed with Lennox’s God-given talents, boy.
“He wasn’t a skilled hitman, not by any stretch of the imagination, and yet, he managed to do it so damn easily and without leavin’ any evidence behind. Damn… he was so good at it too, Sam. A natural. He could kill with not a care in the world…” His voice trailed as he lamented over the crimes. His heart beat harder and faster when he saw the crime scene photos from the decoy. Lennox is a beast. Too remarkable to pass up.
“This is all about Lennox not taking your offer, Grandpa, but it baffles me because why wouldn’t he want to work for you? All of his money problems woulda been solved, and he would’ve been safe.”
“Sam, Lennox has refused to work for me since he was in his teens. I approached him at seventeen to just get the lay of the land – nothin’ criminal. He refused. I approached him at nineteen. Learn the business. He refused. I approached him at twenty-one. Get trained for the Zoo. He refused, and so on, and so on. He’s got a nasty stubborn streak. He declined politely at first, but then he became more aggressive as I put the heat on him. It was his fucking mother. She poisoned him, turned him against me!”
His voice echoed, reverberating in the outdoors as hot rage coursed within him. “Regardless, in the end I found out what I needed to know. The plan was going well. Of course it wasn’t long before his father came runnin’ to me after I called the police anonymously and reported Lennox as a suspect in the murders I needed done.”
“What? Why would you do that? I thought you wanted those guys killed anyway?”
“I did… Let me explain. My son Scott, Lennox’s father, wanted my help to get Lennox off the hook for the crimes he’d committed. In his mind, somehow, the police had found out and were lookin’ for a payday to keep quiet, knowing that Lennox was a Wilde. Well, I did in fact use my money and influence to get him off the hook. I hoped Lennox would then be grateful for my generosity, but he wasn’t.” He sighed. “Things went downhill. He was still tryna finish school, and eventually he picked up a job at some little hole in the wall restaurant. How embarrassing.” He tsked.
“What about the decoy? Were you ever worried he’d squeal?”
Grandpa turned to him and chuckled. “You eat and never leave crumbs, boy. The decoy was silenced with a bullet right between the eyes.” He gleamed as he pointed to his forehead. “You never allow anyone who isn’t family to hold your secrets, Sam. Don’t ever forget that. I’ve only made one exception to that rule, and Jasper is a longtime friend of mine who has proven his loyalty.”
He walked back and forth, smelling the freshness of the day, and then glanced up to see the sky filling with streaks of light. “Everything is royally screwed up now, boy. You’ve helped create the perfect recipe for disaster, and now he’s linked up with a bitch just like him. They’re a two-headed monster, and I have to deal with the fallout.”
“GRANDPA, BUT I—”
You’ve single-handedly,” he eyed the guy’s fucked up arm, “created double the trouble. What part of ‘don’t let your guard down around this trollop’ did you not understand?!”