Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I headed downstairs and went to the kitchen, my stomach gnawing from hunger, but my true intention murderous. Raymond stood at the counter with the plates of food that were already prepared. Plastic wrap covered each one, trapping the heat inside to keep it warm as he waited for the rest of it.
Everyone seemed preoccupied with their tasks, so I walked straight to the counter and grabbed one of the knives sitting there. It was a chopping knife, the kind that could slice right through an onion.
Perfect.
I hid it behind my back and stepped out without anyone noticing.
That was easy. Too easy.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked up to see Grave approaching. In a sports coat with a button-up shirt underneath, he took his time descending the stairs, his shiny watch catching the sunlight. I never noticed the similarities between Grave and Cauldron before, but now that I knew their relationship, I couldn’t not see them. They had their distinct differences, but the foundation was the same.
He adjusted his sleeve before he stopped in front of me.
I kept my hands together behind my back, the knife tucked away.
“Join me for breakfast.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
It was warm under the Tuscan sun, but his eyes were cold like the winters in Scotland. “The staff informed me you’re barricading your bedroom.”
“Yep.”
“That’s unnecessary.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
“So is that knife.”
I kept a straight face, but my heart started to thump erratically. No idea how he knew I had it. He just walked down the stairs.
He answered my questions. “I can see it in the mirror.”
Oh.
“Keep it if you want.” He started to walk around me. “But you’ll just hurt yourself.” He walked out the double doors and turned toward the courtyard.
His back was to me and I had the perfect opening to stab him right in the lung, but I watched him walk away instead. He’d brought me all the way here to make me his, but days had passed, and he seemed uninterested. He was playing a game. I just had no idea what that game was.
It was like being back at Cauldron’s.
I lay by the pool while Grave worked in his study all day. We didn’t see each other. We didn’t speak. It was nice, but it was also lonely. But now, I was far lonelier than I’d ever been, because the man I wanted to be with was somewhere else. I was a prisoner of a man who didn’t love me. He was just obsessed with me.
I looked over the edge of the infinity pool to the Tuscan landscape before me. It was almost sunset, so the sky was in beautiful colors. The heat had died down as night deepened, and the world looked so quiet from the top of that hill.
I heard the splash of water as someone else entered the pool.
I turned to see Grave make it down the steps until his waist was submerged. He was in his swim trunks, his powerful physique slowly dipping farther into the water as he approached me. Whereas Cauldron was lean and ripped, Grave was just bulky, like a man who ate a cow every day and then lifted his house with his bare arms.
I was stuck in the corner with no way out, unless I jumped over the edge of the pool and fell twenty feet.
He moved to the edge beside me, his arms on the ledge as he looked out over the lush landscape. “I’d take this over France.”
“Then why do you live there?”
“Work.”
“You call harvesting innocent people for organs work?”
A knowing grin came over his face. “So Cauldron explained my business model.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“And working the poor until their fingers are bloody for pennies on the dollar is admirable?”
“At least he doesn’t kill people.”
“He does indirectly. Through heat stroke, exhaustion, and cave-ins. Those guys don’t have much of a choice, so they take their fifty cents and pray the roof doesn’t collapse.”
I avoided his look. “Making Cauldron look bad won’t make you look good.”
“Just giving you a reality check.”
“Kidnapping an innocent person and murdering them because a rich person wants their organs…there are no words for that kind of savagery.”
“It’s not always like that.”
“If it’s like that even once, that’s sickening.”
He pivoted his body, one arm on the ledge. “It’s the family business.”
“A family business is carpentry or farming…not that.” I was relieved that Cauldron had forged his own path in life.
“There are a lot of terrible things in this world. Things that happen every single day that no one knows about. Things that happen right in front of your face, but you’re too naïve to see it. Call me evil if you want, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. I’ve allowed dying men a chance to provide for their families after they’re gone. I’ve helped an innocent woman live to care for her children. Yes, bad shit has happened, but a lot of good shit has happened too.”