Total pages in book: 227
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
“Kellan James,” King muses. “How did you end up on this side of the track?”
James doesn’t answer him.
“Tragic thing that happened to your family. Tragic. And Otto! How’s ya belly, mate?”
Fucking hell.
“You’ve made a new friend,” Danny says to Sandy and Luis, stepping in before James starts amputating limbs and making this mess messier. “How sweet.”
“Fuck you, Black,” Luis spits. “You fucked me over. I lost dozens of men because you failed to deliver.”
“I was kinda busy,” Danny retorts calmly, turning his attention to Sandy. “Dealing with the results of broken friendships.” A smile, dirty and malicious. “Take note, King. Sandy’s the kind of friend you need when enemies are sparse.”
“You’re just pissed because I fucked your wife,” Sandy drawls. I tense on Danny’s behalf. Jesus Christ, if he was armed, Sandy would be dead on the spot, fuck the consequences.
“You raped her, you sick fuck.” The Brit is here. “When she was fourteen.”
Sandy waves a dismissive hand, Luis looks truly disgusted, and King bursts into laughter. “Fourteen? Fucking hell.” He chuckles. “People claim I’m a sicko.” He looks at James. “And he tried to kill your girlfriend.”
“Wife.” James grunts.
Danny’s itching to kill. James is twitching. This could go south very quickly.
Then King turns his attention to Pearl, and my blood begins to simmer. “What happened to her arm?” he hisses, sounding oddly outraged that she’s injured. It doesn’t sit well. Fuck, he definitely intends on taking her. Selling her again? Doubling his money?
“She fell,” I say, biding my time, locking down every muscle to remain where I am.
“Fell?” King dips, trying to see under the peak of Pearl’s baseball cap. I breathe in. Keep my mouth shut. “Did you get tired of the hook, Pumpkin?”
“Where’s my son?” I ask, stepping to the side, half concealing Pearl from King.
“Bring him out,” King yells, and one of Luis’s men appears from behind a container. My heart drops when I see the state of Nolan. But he’s here.
“Fucking hell,” James says quietly, Danny parroting him, all of us watching as Nolan limps along, being guided roughly. His face is so swollen, his eyes black. Definitely more damage than the footage. They’ve disfigured my boy. “You fuckers,” I hiss under my breath as Nolan’s half-closed eyes find me. I feel my nostrils flare. I can’t look at him. It’ll tip me. “Where’s the necklace?” I turn to King, and he pulls an envelope from his back pocket.
“Here.” He tosses it down on the dirt, and I see Pearl peek up. Breathe in.
I step forward and scoop up the envelope, looking inside. I don’t find a necklace. Instead I find a photograph. I close my eyes and turn my face away from the image of Pearl curled up on a bed as King barks his laughter. Naked. She’s a vessel. A shell. No emotion on her face. Nothing.
God help me.
One of King’s men moves in on Pearl, and I step in front of her, blocking his way. Pretty fucking useless unarmed, but still. “I don’t think so.”
King laughs more, amused. “Okay, okay.” He checks the boat. It’s full of cash. “Let’s move this along.”
Yes, let’s.
Nolan gets shoved forward, and he falls to his knees. “Choose,” King grunts, waving his machine gun between Pearl and Nolan.
My throat tightens. “What?”
“I said”—his lips stretch—“choose.”
Is he telling me to do what I think he’s telling me to do? “Choose between”—don’t call her by her name—“. . . her and my son?”
“Yes.”
“Choose her,” Nolan murmurs.
“What?” I blurt, outraged, spinning to face him. “Shut your fucking mouth.”
“Choose her,” he repeats, robotic, all life kicked and punched out of him. Pearl’s head is still low.
“Come on, Mr. America,” King sings. “Choose.”
“Fuck you,” I hiss, my heart hammering.
James’s hands start discreetly pressing against thin air. Calm down. But then Pearl appears in front of me. Walking to King? The fuck? “Pearl,” I yell, reaching for her. And get countless guns thrust in my face, forcing me back. “Pearl, what the fuck are you doing?”
King smirks. “Oh, how the moral compass is tested. Your long-lost son or a helpless little virgin?”
Virgin.
I throw a look Sandy’s way. Observing. Still keeping his filthy mouth shut. He fucking knows. But King doesn’t. “A few facts for you,” I say, facing King. He can’t hide the falter of his sneering smile. “Your Russian friend here tried to have your precious virgin abducted.”
“You speak lies,” Sandy hisses. “Why would I do that?”
“To use her as a pawn against King.” I smile. It’s a fucking effort. “Why? Because you don’t trust him? You shouldn’t. He’s a fucking lying, immoral cunt.”
“Fuck you,” King bellows at me before swinging outraged eyes to Sandy. “You tried to abduct her? Use her?”
“And his pretty mole also tried to kill her,” I add. “That’s why her arm’s broken and she’s covered in cuts.”
“What?” King barks.