Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“How’d he even get your banking information? How’d he—”
“Nadia. Come on.” He sighed. “This is Grandpa we’re talking about. If he wants to find out something bad enough, more times than not, he probably can.”
“This man is unbelievable. I’ve heard of some far-out shit, met some demented folks in my life and I thought I’d seen it all, but your grandfather showed me otherwise. After all that has happened, and the emotional toll it’s taken on you, Lennox, it seems you could save your cousins the time and trouble.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you could go ahead and tell your grandfather that if he doesn’t leave Kage and all the rest of them alone regarding this workin’ for his company business, you’ll go through with turning in that video and giving all of that information and evidence to the FBI. All of this could finally be over with.” She shrugged and shook her head.
“Baby, no…” He sighed, wishing it were that easy. “It doesn’t work like that. I wish it did, but it’s far more complicated.”
“Well, explain it to me because my ass is ready to go to the FBI, and social media, right the hell now! He sent that fool to my job, wit’ a damn gun, and he’s just about ruined your family. He’s out of control. Something has to be done!”
“Yeah… something does have to be done, but it has to be done in the right way, baby. You’re not a Wilde, so this is a little hard for you to understand, but let me break it down like this. For starters, each contract is individual to all of us. None of them are written the same, and they aren’t asking for the exact same things, either. The compensation, should we agree, is not always the same, either. Secondly, what happened between Grandpa and me because of this mess was specific to me.” He pointed at himself. “We have to fight our own battles. I can’t fight for Kage, he can’t fight for Roman, Roman can’t fight for Maddock, so on and so forth. Now, we can help each other, he can’t stop that shit, but we can’t do the heavy liftin’ for one another, and ain’t no honor in that. Grandpa only respects you if you stand on your own two damn feet. If you try to ride off of someone else’s steam, he won’t release you from the contract.
“Thirdly, and this is probably the most important, let’s say I did what you said and threw caution to the wind. Let’s say I went on with turning in the accounting reports to the FBI, which of course would take my father down, too… but let’s put that aside and say I’d do it anyway. And let’s say I turned over that sex tape, which would embarrass Grandpa—kinda the entire point, true—and potentially ruin his reputation in the Christian sector that he has attached himself to. Nadia, it would only be a damn speed bump.
“Grandpa has so much pull and power in Houston, hell, Texas and the entire South, period, that he could work from prison and STILL ruin Kage’s, Roman’s, Maddox’s, Phoenix’s, Ryder’s and everyone’s lives if he saw fit! And believe me, he would, without a moment of uncertainty. The only difference would be now he’d be all the more pissed, and unhinged.”
“…Damn.” She hung her head and shook it.
“See? And let me tell you something else. Those contracts are set in stone, unless we can find a way out of them on our own, just like Grandpa said. He’s got a provision in there—if we can find a way out, he’ll let us out, but like I said, each contract is individual. This is no, ‘Let my people go,’ situation. He ain’t treatin’ us like Moses.” He laughed mirthlessly. “This one act of mine changes nothing for nobody but me. He’s serious about this. That man meant what the fuck he said. Nothin’ short of death would stop that son of a bitch from still going through with this. The contracts are basically written in blood, but since he put that caveat in there, we have a chance. We didn’t make a deal with the devil, but, the devil made a deal with us….
“Just like Roman and I talked about when I went to visit him a long time ago. This ain’t got a lot to do with Grandpa wanting us to work for him. I mean, sure, that is what started it years ago, but right now? This is all about control. It’s about power. It’s about domination. It’s about his legacy and his warped vision for the future of this family. Grandpa takes this family thing, blood ties, to a cult-like level. That man is a narcissist, baby. The worst kind. Only thing is, Grandpa is ridiculously intelligent and has a sense of awareness, which makes him even more diabolical. His downfall, though, is thinking he’s smarter than everyone else. He never in a million years thought I’d be able to pull something like this off. He never said that to me, but I can read between the lines. He figured I’d be the easiest one to take down because I don’t start any trouble and keep to myself. But he found out real damn quick that he was wrong.”