Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
CAIRO
I paced the length of the carpet, glaring at my pet— Mine.
Or was she?
The stranger huddled within Legend’s covers, the lone lump on the bed. This should’ve made her look small and vulnerable, and instead I pictured a snake in its burrow—waiting for its chance to strike.
The innocence was gone from her eyes. The softness from her cheeks. She was hard, blank plastic staring back at us, anticipating our first move.
I didn’t know this girl. Seems like I never did.
“We’re ready for your explanation whenever you are,” Jacques said with a calm I both hated and envied.
She flicked to him. “Sit with me.” Her hand poked out of the blankets. “Hold me.”
“No,” I barked.
Those unnerving eyes turned on me. “Why?”
“You fucking know why.”
“You’re angry with me.” She dropped this matter-of-factly. It was just an observation. “Why? I did not deceive you on purpose. I didn’t keep quiet about Blake and the others on purpose. In every way that counts, I found out about all of this the same time as you.”
“You said—!”
Legend gripped my shoulder, silently staying me. His message was clear even though I shoved him off.
“You said you’re not Rainey,” Legend spoke up. “In fact, you claimed to be her dead sister. What does that mean?”
She showed her first emotion. Jaw clenching, she turned away—gripping the sheet. “It means what I said. Rainey... died. Blake and the others came that night,” she rasped. “They killed her, and when I found her... all I could do was run. I ran so far away, I left Ivy behind.”
“You had a mental breakdown,” Jacques said like all of this made fucking sense. “You convinced yourself that you were in fact your sister, and to explain where Ivy had gone, your mind invented a story.”
“Got it all figured out, don’t you, Stone?”
Jacques raised a brow. That deadened reply was nothing like the sarcastic snap we expected from Rainey. “Not quite,” he said. “Why don’t you fill in the rest? Who is the real Zoey Mariner/Blake Jensen? What were the both of you a part of?”
“Zoey is exactly what she told you. Or she was,” the stranger corrected. “She was recruited by Scott Cavendish. We all were. But most of us didn’t know his true goal.”
I slowed my pacing, eyes narrowing.
“Scott was smart,” she whispered. “He went after the broken, the bullied, and the powerless. People who had nowhere else to turn. I knew Gran was murdered for our land, but no one would listen to me. Her killers were going to get away with ruining our lives.
“Then one day, Scott showed up, saying he believed me. He was her accountant. She told him she was getting the farm’s financial affairs in order, so R-Rainey and I wouldn’t be saddled with debt and struggles. He knew she made a will.
“Once he was in my ear, I was lost. All I could see was someone who wanted to help me. To get me justice. Scott explained that we weren’t the first family this was done to. There’d been others who were forced to sell through threats, bribes, and even other murders made to look like accidents. There’d be no justice for me like there wasn’t for the others, so I had to get it myself.”
“He convinced you killing Andrew Clein was your only choice,” Jacques dropped.
She slowly shook her head. “He never used that word. Kill. It was always sacrifice. Sacrificed for justice. Sacrificed for an end to corruption. Sacrificed so that no other family would suffer as we were,” she said. “It was around then he introduced me to Zoey. Her bullying escalated way past her name like she said. She was getting it constantly from a couple guys on the football team.”
My brows snapped up.
“She was walking home one day and they drove up on her, forced her into the trunk, and drove her out into the woods.” She gave me a hard stare. “I don’t have to tell you what they did to her.”
“You don’t have to tell us what she did to them either,” I replied. “Hudson Olsen, Dylan Meyer, and Thomas Lawson. Years above us, but we all heard about the three footballers who never made it to graduation. They were all found dead in an upstairs room after a party. Everyone said they overdosed.”
She nodded. “That’s how it was supposed to look. I think there was still a part of me that knew taking the law into your own hands was wrong, but that part died after Zoey. After hearing how she stumbled bleeding and crying into the police station, and they didn’t bother to bring them in for questioning. The officer said it would always be her word against theirs, and it wasn’t worth the hassle of putting her through a trial that would end in not guilty.