Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Mother Ashby’s eyes cleared and then she was reaching for her cloth so she could wipe away the dirt on her hands. Renly stepped forward as soon as we were done so he could take the washcloths and then he disappeared again. He never did something as menial as offering guests warm towels.
My grandmother took a sip of her tea and then motioned to me. “Drink, eat,” she insisted. “The food must have been terrible over there.”
Over there.
Not in there.
Over there.
Dear God, she really did believe I’d been serving overseas all this time. How the hell was that even possible?
“So, um, who told you I was home?” I asked as I took a sip of my coffee.
“Renly did, of course. Just now, my silly little rose,” my grandmother said. She reached for one of the fancy little sandwiches on the serving tray. There were tongs, but she used her fingers to take it. My grandmother had always been a force to be reckoned with when it came to manners. Especially table manners. All of that had apparently fallen by the wayside.
“Your father must have wanted to surprise me,” my grandmother continued as she ate the sandwich. Another strict rule being broken. Never speak when one’s mouth is full.
The idea that my father would have wanted to surprise his own mother about her grandson’s reappearance was absolute bullshit. I kept my mouth shut, though, because it had finally dawned on me that my grandmother wasn’t the woman she’d been before I’d been arrested. Her mental state hinted at some kind of memory loss or dementia. It would have been easy for my father and all the other Ashbys to take advantage of her.
My greedy aunts, uncles, and cousins had been waiting for my grandmother to die so they’d all get their share of her fortune, but my father had the most to gain. As her closest next of kin, he’d get everything. All of the companies, all of the numerous properties all over the world, the countless number of cars, yachts, and planes and, of course, the money—they’d be his for the taking.
Mother Ashby wouldn’t even need to be dead for him to do it. All he’d have to do was have her declared incompetent and that would be it. There’d be no one standing in his way.
Except me.
I would be in his way.
Just like I would’ve been in his way two years earlier.
The idea that I’d been the target of the assassin’s bullet and not JJ had me wanting to throw up right there on my grandmother’s beautiful tablecloth. I jumped up so fast that I tipped my chair over, startling my grandmother so badly that she knocked over the cup of tea in front of her. Thankfully, none of it spilled on her, and a maid that hadn’t been present before appeared out of nowhere to clean up the mess.
“I’m sorry,” I blundered. “I, um, just need some air. Would you excuse me, Mother Ashby?”
“Of course,” my grandmother responded. As I turned on my heel and began striding back in the direction we’d come from, I heard her call out, “Should I call for a doctor, my little rose?”
“No, I’m fine,” I returned over my shoulder. “Just not used to being indoors.”
My stomach had settled by the time I reached the doorway leading to the gardens. Renly was waiting for me.
Good.
I needed to know what the hell was going on and Renly was going to be the one to tell me, whether he wanted to or not.
CHAPTER 20
Jj
Finding Cass ended up being a lot easier than I would’ve thought, and I wanted to kick myself for not having figured it out sooner.
While my brother was using every resource at his disposal to locate Cass, I’d had this strange feeling in my gut just after the sun had fallen and instead of ignoring it, I’d followed it. Sully had told me countless times to stay inside our house and had even posted several of his men all around our block so they could keep an eye on things, but I’d been going stir-crazy for days. Luckily, my brother had chosen tonight to call all the men who were watching the house inside for a quick briefing. I’d used the opportunity to quietly make my own escape.
Learning that either Cass or I had been the target of the shootings and not just an afterthought to the other murders had broken me. I didn’t remember my brother taking me home from the motel, nor did I remember the twenty-four hours that had followed. Fortunately, when I’d finally let the grief and guilt take a back seat to what was happening, I’d been able to start looking at all the evidence Sully had collected—and thankfully remembered to grab from the cabin—with a fresh perspective.