Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“You speak like you know from experience.”
River flicked over my shoulder. “I lived in the Fairfield once.”
“You did? Wait, when? Were you one of the family’s staff?”
“Not staff, Kenzie. Family.”
My lips parted and nothing came out.
Sighing, River scrubbed his face. “I’ll say this, I promise the whole story will come later, but not today. Sunny is technically my nephew. His mother and I are half-siblings.”
Eyes bugging, a billion questions crowded my tongue and I strained to hold them in. Nephew?! Half-siblings?! The Merchants have been warring with their own family? Why?
River relaxed when he saw I wasn’t going to ask the questions written all over my face. “Look, I told you that so you know I understand. From the palace in the sky to the streets, you can bet I had second thoughts when I left that place. The Brotherhood is an unknown that’s already put you through so much. I understand if you want to stay safe inside with Laurel and only come out with Sunny, Liam, or Bane by your side.”
He looked over my shoulder again and I turned to see Sunny in the window, giving away blankets in between glancing out at me. No, watching over me.
“All I’m saying is when you get to the point of feeling safe outside the Fairfield, that you leave them home and spend real time with me. I swear I’ll protect you better than I did.”
I blew out a long, deep breath. “I shouldn’t be scared to go outside, let alone need to get to a point where I’m not. I shouldn’t need protection, River. I’m as sick to death of being lied to as I am of always needing someone to rescue me.”
“We’re in a world of killers, abductors, traffickers, and revenge sworn in blood. It’s almost a guarantee that someday, we’ll all need a rescue.” He gestured with his chin. “Even people who aren’t in this world do.”
I followed his line of sight to the woman on the slide. “What’s her story?”
“Two years ago, she lost her job and moved into one of Digger’s slum houses. The same story, he started off sweet, charming, and loving, and she fell hard. After manipulating her into sleeping with a few guys he claimed he owed money to, Adams drove her straight to that building.
“She believed they were going out on a romantic weekend away to put all that awfulness behind them, and instead, he walked her right into hell. She hasn’t seen her son since.”
Horror leadened my bones. “She has a son?”
He nodded, genuine pain on his face. “He’s nine years old. Marie doesn’t know what happened to him after that day. She begged Luca and the men holding them there to tell her, but they laughed in her face. After we got them out, we went back to the apartment of course, but Jake wasn’t there and the neighbors didn’t know anything was wrong. They were all told the two of them packed up and moved—nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Oh my gosh,” I breathed, clapping my hands over my mouth. “But we’re going to find him. We have to find him!”
“We’re trying, Kenzie. Digger taunted us in the short time before his deserved death. He said he planned to sell Laurel for a high price. Could be what he did to Jake... and the other three kids that are missing.”
“I can’t believe this.” I was physically ill. “He has done this before. Sunny said Digger wouldn’t have done it with me unless it worked more often than it didn’t, but I didn’t want to believe that demon made a habit of preying on desperate single moms. We have to find those children, River.”
“I have every homeless person, in my crew and out, searching the city for them. If there’s any time we work together, it’s for missing kids.”
“What about the police?”
“I took her to file a police report. It’s been months though. The cop that took her statement didn’t even fake optimism.”
“That poor woman,” I said, squeezing my chest. “Even when Charlie had Laurel, I knew she was safe and that one day I would get her back. What she’s going through right now... I’d only wish that pain on the Brotherhood.”
Taking my hands, River stood, helping me up. “You should talk to her. I’ve tried but all she wants to hear from me is that I’ve found Jake. There’s nothing I can say to make her feel better, but it might help to talk to you. You’re a mom. You understand.”
A soft kiss on the lips, over as soon as it started, was my parting gift.
I watched her at the top of the slide. Taking a step, I stopped.
What could I say to this woman that would help? Tell her Adams stole my baby too? That I couldn’t stop it or save her? Should she know that I had to be rescued from the hole he threw me in, and the one who saved my daughter after I promised we’d never be parted again, was Sole?