Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“We done here?” Rage smooths down her ponytail and taps her foot impatiently.
“We’re done here,” Griff says after his men give him a nod that assures him I’ve got nothing hidden on my person. “It was a pleasure.”
“It was creepy as fuck for me,” Rage turns, her blondness swaying back and forth as she makes her way out the same way she brought me in until I hear the roll of the heavy door.
Griff kneels before me and runs a fat finger across my throat. My skin crawls, and bile rises in my throat as I flinch away, but he holds me still by grabbing my throat and squeezing until I can’t pull in air.
“You and I are going to have so much fun,” he grinds out.
My last thought is of Smoke on the porch of the house in the prison, puffing on a cigar, strangling the neck of a whiskey bottle. I focus on his laugh as everything around me turns fuzzy and gray at the edges.
“You don’t know a lot about me, do you?” Griff asks, he pulls out a switch blade. He lets up on my throat so I can answer. I pull in a deep breath.
“I know that you buy and trade human beings like baseball cards,” I say.
Griff smiles proudly. “True, but there’s more to me than that, my dear. Did you know my mother was a midwife? For many years, she delivered babies, and I was her little helper. That’s how I was able to cut the child from Morgan’s womb. That’s how I was able to keep it alive.
“You’re a fucking monster,” I say. I’m vibrating with rage.
“I have no interest in being the hero of the story. Quite the opposite. I am only interested in being the one with the most money in the end. Morgan was asking Smoke to leave the business. I couldn’t let that happen, could I? He’s too valuable to me. But now, you’ve ruined everything. You’ve stolen my money, and I’ve lost my best man. You, you little bitch, have thrown out the anchor and you’re making this ship drag. I don’t like to drag.”
Griff runs the blade across my cheek, blood drips to my chin. “Where the fuck is my money?” he growls.
“I used it to pay mercenaries to stop your trading of lives.”
Griff raises the blade above my head.
“But not all of it. I’ve hidden a big chunk where no one but me can find it. It’s not in one place. I’ve spread it around. I can get it back, though” I say with shaky words.
Griff rolls his eyes. “Like I’d allow you near a fucking computer after all the damage you’ve done. I’m not that fucking stupid. Besides, I don’t fucking believe you.”
“I’m telling you the truth. I’ve got nothing to lose,” I say. “Not anymore anyway. Kill me if I’m lying.”
Griff thinks. “No, you won’t do it.” My hope sinks. “Leo, my nephew. He’ll do it. You’ll just tell him where to look. Leo!”
I’m looking at the floor at bright white sneakers. I lift my head. Khaki pants. I look higher. Bright green polo. Higher still. Bright white smile. Curly blonde hair.
“Duke?”
Chapter Fifty-Three
I push my bike to its limit. The engine growls at me as I lean forward, willing it to go faster. The wind stings against my skin, but it won’t slow me down.
Nothing will slow me down.
Not now, not ever.
Revenge has fueled me for so long. The thought of taking the life from the person who’d taken lives from me. Revenge is the ultimate decision maker. The one thing I thought that could turn a rational man into the devil himself. I was a step closer to the devil than most men already, but I know now it’s not revenge that makes the sane insane.
It’s love.
For love, I’m willing to burn down the world and everyone in it.
For Frankie, I’ll destroy, maim, and avenge until I’m swimming laps in the blood of those who dared to lay hands on her.
The landscape passes me by in a blur. I can’t see it even if I slow down. I can only see one thing right now and one thing only.
Frankie.
It’s fueling me to go faster, push harder, and fight the wind to get to her.
The thought of her smile, her laugh, her heart, her body. Her everything I didn’t deserve but can’t imagine ever living without.
Please be alive, Frankie. Please be FUCKING alive!
Chapter Fifty-Four
“It’s gonna take some time, Uncle Griff,” Duke says, but he’s not really Duke. Griff had called him Leo.
I’m in a state of shock when I’m pulled up and dragged to another room. One lined with a wall of computers and another with a server just as large. Fans blow on them from the ceiling.
The ties at my feet have been cut, but my hands are still bound.