Total pages in book: 266
Estimated words: 250787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1254(@200wpm)___ 1003(@250wpm)___ 836(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 250787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1254(@200wpm)___ 1003(@250wpm)___ 836(@300wpm)
The door opens to my right, and my wife walks out of the room with Blakely. I reach my arm out moving over to her, and she immediately cuddles up to my side as I hold her tightly to me. Leaning down, I kiss her hair and catch sight of the smile that she and Blakely exchange as Ryat goes to his wife. At least one good thing came out of that bitch other than my wife.
“How do we find out how many founder families there are?” Tyson asks, and I couldn’t be more thankful for a change of subject.
“We don’t,” Bill answers. “The only advice I can give is to test everyone the Spade brothers currently have here at Carnage and everyone in the future that the Lords send them. Keep a record.” He looks at me.
Kashton crosses his arms over his chest. “There could be five or there could be thousands. All the bitch does is lie. I don’t trust anything she says.”
“Did women even start the Lords?” Saint asks Bill, letting out a long breath.
He’s over this fucking day, and truthfully, so am I. I’m over this past week. I think we all are. Ashtyn’s idea of letting it all go and moving on sounds pretty damn good.
“Yes and no,” Bill answers.
“It’s one or the other.” Saint snaps, and Ashtyn reaches out to take his hand in hers, giving him a soft smile to calm his nerves.
“I believe that she believes that’s how it started,” Bill says.
EIGHTY-NINE
HAIDYN
I’m sitting at my computer and look up across the room to see my wife curled up on the couch, facing me. She passed out the moment she lay down. Saint and Ashtyn have gone to bed, Kash left to go somewhere with Sin and joked for me not to wait up for him. Honestly, makes me a little nervous. If any two Lords could fuck some shit up, it’ll be them. Especially together.
The door opens to the office, and I sit back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest as Bill shuts it behind him. “You wanted to see me?” he asks, looking at Charlotte.
“Have a seat.” I gesture to the one opposite my desk.
He pulls it out and sits down, running a hand down his face.
“You punched my wife.” I haven’t had the chance to speak with him alone until now.
“I did what I had to do.” He shrugs. “You’d do the same.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’d never hurt…”
“So you’re saying you’ve never done anything to her that you regret?” He arches a brow in question.
My teeth clench because there’s lots of things that come to mind that I did wrong when it came to Charlotte. “How’d you know?” I change the subject. I wanted us both to get answers, but I’ll fill my wife in later. She’s exhausted. I’ll let her get her answers some other time. He’s not going anywhere. We’ve got his wife, and we told him he can visit as often as he wants.
“That you’d fall in love with her?” he questions.
“That I wouldn’t kill her,” I growl. He knew how much we hated Isabella. “Why risk her life if you were supposed to protect her?”
“One man can only do so much.” He chuckles. “And Isabella wouldn’t allow me to interfere in Charlotte’s life. Well, her plan for Charlotte’s life. It was set in course long before you killed her father.” His eyes soften when he speaks again. “And of course Ashtyn.”
“What about her?”
“What you did for her, helping her escape. My wife called that soft and weak. I call that a man.” He rolls his chair back so he can look over at Charlotte sleeping. “Not very many men in our world actually care about their wives.” He looks back at me. “I knew it the moment you saw her on the water that day.”
I frown.
“She hasn’t told you?”
“Who hasn’t told me what?”
“I’ll let your wife tell you that story.” He laughs softly and I wonder when he had the chance to talk to her alone. “But we both knew if given the chance, you’d take it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say honestly.
He stands. “Everything happens for a reason, and I guess it was a good thing you turned my offer down that day in your father’s office.”
I stiffen knowing exactly what he’s referring to. If Charlotte would have been my chosen, would I have been forced to kill her or watch her get raped by Isabella’s men? I know what I’d choose because while in her hell, I saw it. I lived it. It was a hallucination, but it might as well have been real. “Do you think she would have made her daughter live the same fate as Sierra?” I ask.
He nods. “Absolutely. Isabella would bite her own nose off to spite her face. A child…” he shakes his head. “To her that’s a justified sacrifice.”