Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Agh!” My father spat out blood. “Fucking hell, Bennett.”
“You will cooperate?”
My dad glared at him, still spitting out pieces of tape and blood. “Yes. I’ll fucking cooperate, but only if you tell me where my daughter is.”
Kai went still. His eyes narrowed to slits. “Why? So you can hurt her further?”
“So you can finish this job for me.”
I stiffened.
Kai tensed.
“That bitch of a wife of mine slept with my business associate, but I could never prove it. She was worthless, hateful. She was a waste of my years. That girl too. Both of them been fucking up my life.”
He was still going, but I closed myself off.
I had known, and hearing it, hearing that he’d had no regard for us, this was nothing new. I’d always known.
“—and she was a fucking spoiled brat. We sent her away so I never split her head open on the floor. Couldn’t have that stain on my tile, you know. That stuff was fucking expensive. Sturdy. I humped my maid there a few times, so I knew it could clean up, but damned if I wanted blood there. Fucking bitch. She and her mother. I wanted both of them gone. Couldn’t stand either of them.”
He was still talking, poison spilling from his lips, and he didn’t even notice Kai was no longer paying attention. He was watching me.
A look of pity crept into his eyes, and I bared my teeth. “Don’t!” I mouthed. He hadn’t wanted my pity either.
A hardened expression firmed over Kai’s face, and he straightened up. “That’s enough, Bello.”
“I know you got her. If she ain’t in this room, she’s around. She’s got to be. I know she’s your new fucking pet. I had pictures sent to me. You think you’re the only one with spies? Well, I got mine too. I have images of you fucking her so hard that I jacked off to ’em. Tawnia got it hard that night, but she loved it. She was lapping it up. Bitch was moaning, crying all over me, but damned if she didn’t come. She came hard. Screaming the whole time too.”
“Shut him up, Kai.” The spokeswoman’s nose lifted in disgust. “Who has he been working with since you cut ties?”
Kai didn’t turn to her, only raised an eyebrow. “Bruce?”
My father shut up before his eyes darted downward. “I ain’t been working with anybody. I’m doing my own thing.”
“I told you. Hard and long, or quick and painless. Your choice.”
Hatred radiated from my father’s face as he snarled back at him. “I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything, but you gotta promise me something. You kill my girl. Finish the job. I don’t want her to have anything of mine. Bitch doesn’t deserve it.” He tried to spit from the side of his mouth, but he couldn’t move his head enough. The spit landed on his arm, just missing Kai’s face.
Realizing that, his eyes bulged out. “Oh shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” He stopped again, glaring once more. “No, fuck you. Fuck you, Bennett! I know you ain’t going to do shit. You ain’t going to promise anything. I’m not saying a wor—”
Kai’s hand moved in a flash toward my father’s side, and a gargle choked out of my father’s throat.
More blood came out of his mouth, and he spasmed.
Kai’s hand moved back, a knife in it. The tip was covered in dark blood.
He pressed the tip to my father’s leg to clean it off. “Now, I can start your slow death if that’s what you really want. Or, you can answer the fucking questions. Your choice.”
My dad gurgled again. “Goddamn you—”
“Do you want me to slit your throat here and now?” Kai slammed his hands down on my father’s shoulders, and a hoarse scream ripped from my father before he began sobbing.
I winced. Those sobs came from deep inside of him.
“Goddamn you. Goddamn,” my father choked out. Tears streamed down his face.
Kai stepped back, turning to me briefly before rotating back to the council. “Did you order the death of your wife?” he asked flatly.
My father frowned. “Yes.”
“Did you blackmail one of my security guards to kill your daughter while she was in my care?”
“Yes.”
Kai paused. Then, “Are you in business with the Guaranno family?”
“What?!”
“Hey—”
“What is going on?”
All of those protests were from the council. Two of the members shoved back their chairs, turning red-faced to the spokeswoman.
Not Kai. The spokeswoman.
One of the other women spoke clearly, “What’s the meaning of this? Jillian?”
The spokeswoman paled, her mouth gaping. “We—sit down. Everyone. Sit down.” She hit the table again with the base of her palm. “I said sit down!”
She seared Kai, half growling. “You better get to your goddamn point or I will—”
Kai spoke over her, calmly. “Bruce Bello, are you still in business with Jillian Guaranno?”
He waited.
“Yes.”
He stepped closer to the screen. His question was directed to my dad, but he wasn’t facing him. “Have you been in business with the Guaranno family for the last five years?”