Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76298 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76298 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
My eyebrows raise. “You brought someone here?”
“Found him waiting near the entrance when we arrived.”
“Who is it?”
“Malcolm.” She looks grim and steps closer. “He says he wants to talk.”
I meet her stare and hold it. Malcolm’s here, which means something’s going wrong back at Cask. That doesn’t bode well for Kaye, and if they hurt her, if they stepped a single toe out of line and injured her in any way, I’ll kill them all. I’ll murder them without hesitating,
And if she’s dead?
Well, this whole island will burn.
“I’ll talk to him alone.” I walk toward the path and glance back. “All of you stay here.”
“He’s dangerous, Emilio,” Lesley says. “At least bring your brother.”
“Yeah, bro, no need to go alone.”
“I can handle this.” I nod to Dom and Nathan. “If you two hear fighting, come up. Otherwise, I want you all to stay here until I come back.”
I turn away and don’t wait for an answer.
If Malcolm’s here, it means there’s a real problem, and I’m a nervous wreck on my trek back to the entrance.
Chapter 25
Emilio
Malcolm’s waiting for me at the cave entrance. The Jeep’s parked nearby, hidden behind a stand of trees. Malcolm’s sweating like he walked all the way out here from his house, and he looks at me like he can’t decide how this conversation is going to go.
I save him the trouble, walk directly up to his face, and slam my fist into his cheek.
He grunts in shock and stumbles backwards. I hit him again, harder, in the ribs, making him double over. I shove him to the ground and he groans, staring up at me with fear in his eyes as I loom over him, seething with rage.
“That was for hurting Lesley,” I say, keeping my voice low and steady. “She didn’t tell me about the little beating you gave her. She’s too fucking proud to say something about it, but I noticed the goddamn bruises when she was at the beach yesterday. You better pray you haven’t touched Kaye.”
“Well, fuck, Emilio,” Malcolm says, rolling onto his back. He sighs and stares up at the sky, squinting, and laughs once. “Does it help if I came in peace?”
“No, you fucking cockroach. Now get up. I don’t feel like killing a defenseless man.”
He laughs bitterly and slowly climbs to his feet. Say what you will about Malcolm, the bastard can take a beating and keep going.
“This is a fucking mess,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s all a goddamn mess. It wasn’t supposed to go this far.”
“Why are you here? You know you’re a dead man, right?”
“First of all, Lesley getting beaten like that was a mistake. I got carried away and I deserve the blame for her. I’ll take that on.”
“Good for you. Still doesn’t mean you’re going to walk away from here alive.”
“But the shit with Kaye? It’s too far, Emilio.” He meets my eye, his face hard. “Dean Wotherspoon’s going too far.”
I let that sink in. The dean made Malcolm kidnap Kaye then. He must’ve recognized her when she ran from his place earlier today, and I’m guessing Malcolm used his connection to Terrence to hunt her down. The pieces fit into place and fall together like dominoes, but that doesn’t help anything. Understanding the picture is one thing, but I need to bring Kaye home.
“Tell me she’s safe.”
“She’s safe. We didn’t hurt her, I swear it.”
“If you’re lying, I swear, I’ll kill you.”
“I know you will.” He grins and wipes blood from his mouth. “But I’m not lying. I came here in good faith and I’m going to take that punch like a fucking man.”
I cross my arms. “All right. You’re here. So fucking talk. What do you want?”
He begins to pace, limping a bit from where I hit him in the ribs. “Wotherspoon got me late last year during finals. I was in this fucking biology class and I’d spent most of the semester drinking and partying and fucking this sweet little redheaded girl—” He pauses, glances at me, grimaces at the look on my face, and keeps talking. “I got caught cheating. They were going to expel me and tell my fucking parents, but do you have any idea what my father would do to me if he heard I got kicked out of Saint Parras? If he learned that he wasted two years of tuition and I embarrassed him like that?”
“I’m guessing Daddy would be angry.”
“Yeah, that’s putting it mildly. Father would kick my ass worse than you ever could.” He rubs his shoulder like he’s remembering a particularly nasty beating. “I couldn’t go back home, knowing that shit was waiting for me, and that’s when the dean called me into his office. He gave me this whole fucking thing about honesty and integrity, then he made me an offer: start a competing smuggling operation to squeeze you off the island and he’d make my little cheating problem go away.”