Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
“You’re not killing him here, Ezekiel,” Ezra’s mother said, her bored expression hardly changing.
Ezra’s sheet-white face went impossibly paler. “Mom?” he whispered.
She gave Ezra one empty glance before she stood and smoothed her hands down her jacket. “I want nothing to do with this.” It was all she said before she left the room.
Alaric felt utterly shattered for Ezra, but he couldn’t afford to look at him again since both shifters were watching him closely, their bodies coiled tight—ready to attack. They knew what he was while Ezekiel still thought him a human bodyguard. He was surprised to see the shifters working for him—werewolves were generally very upstanding preternaturals with a strong sense of honor. Ezekiel must be paying these two a fortune. Alaric could smell no pack bond on them, so they must have had enough incentive to leave their pack.
“You’re the one,” Ezra said, his voice shaking, and Alaric knew it was from complete devastation that his own family had turned so far against him. “This was about money? But Ezekiel, you stand to inherit so much on your own. Why would you need mine?”
Ezekiel stepped in front of the shifters, gaze just briefly flicking to Alaric before he sneered at his brother. “Because you don’t deserve it. And now that you’ve taken out a good portion of my income, I’ll be needing more.”
“Your income?” Ezra shot to his feet. “You mean Brian’s business? You were working with him? How long, Ezekiel? Because if you worked with him, you worked with our father. How long were you a part of our father’s world?”
“The whole time, you ridiculous moron. We kept my involvement carefully hidden, but you lived here. Should have been aware.” Ezekiel shook his head. “So. Fucking. Blind. So Father didn’t think me weak, like you. He started teaching me the business when I turned twelve. I made my first kill at fourteen. By eighteen, I was his partner while you were off taking photos with your silly camera. You were, and always have been, a mistake.”
Alaric was going to enjoy killing this man.
Ezra was shaking with anger and grief, his hands balled into tight fists at his sides. “You didn’t expect me to be in the will at all, did you? You were just as surprised as I was when it was read to us.”
Ezekiel inclined his head. “True. It’s mine. It should all be mine. I’m the one who worked for it.”
“What could you possibly need with my share in addition to yours?”
“I plan to follow my father’s dream of expansion. Not just running a few territories.”
“What? You want to rule the entire country?” Ezra barked out a short laugh. “I think you’ve read one too many comic books if your dream is to be some kind of super villain.”
“You couldn’t possibly understand. My father always knew you didn’t have the right mind for what we do.”
“You keep saying that he was your father. He was mine, too, whether you like it or not.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“I may not have his eyes, but I look just like him. A fact I always hated.”
“So did I. I. But I didn’t mean biologically. I mean, you, as a person, did not fit into our world. It was apparent when you were a child. Always asking for hugs. Seeking affection at all times. You drove our parents crazy. At least you finally stopped that at some point.”
“Happens when you realize your family doesn’t love you.”
“Love is a silly emotion that gets in the way of progress. I don’t expect you to understand that.”
Ezra didn’t say anything for a few moments before he let out a shaky breath. “Mother knew you were trying to kill me.” It wasn’t a question.
“She was even more surprised than I was at the reading of the will. She believed the will she’d seen was the final. We’ll never know just why Father changed it before he was killed. Like me, she doesn’t deem you worthy—and if you think she didn’t know exactly everything Elijah did, you’re very wrong. The business we shared with Kemper was, after all, her idea.”
Ezra put a hand on his stomach.
“Still vomit when you don’t like something?” Ezekiel’s lip curled. “You have never had the constitution to be a Forsberg. You’re useless.” He lifted his knife and touched one finger to the tip.
That bit of grandstanding was so damn silly, but Alaric had reached the end of his patience. “Enough.”
Ezekiel looked at him and blinked in surprise, like he’d forgotten Alaric was even there. “You would do best to leave. I guarantee you have no idea just how…talented my associates here are.”
“I know exactly what they are,” Alaric responded. “And they know exactly what I am. I can lay them flat before they could get any closer.”
“Really.” Ezekiel looked back at the shifters. “He’s one of you?”