Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
My butler knew when I was on the property and always came to greet me, regardless of the hour, and the fact that he wasn’t there told me he physically couldn’t be. “I hope you took your boots off before you came inside.” I walked around the stairs with the gun at my side, unsure how they’d bypassed the security measures, how they’d infiltrated a place that couldn’t be broken in to.
“My boots are propped on your coffee table as we speak.” The voice came from the study, farther down past the staircase, the place where I spent most of my time.
With my gun still in hand, I came around the corner and spotted Bolton in my armchair, dirty shoes on my coffee table, drink in front of him, a lit cigar in his mouth because he really had made himself at home.
With a bomb strapped across his chest.
My gun had been pointed at his head, but I lowered it to my side.
My butler was in the other armchair, appearing still and calm except for his trembling hands.
Bolton pulled the cigar out of his mouth and rested it in his fingertips, not afraid of the ash that might land in the wrong spot on his chest. “You made yourself at home in my house.” He smashed the cigar in my ashtray. “Thought I’d do the same to you.” He nodded to the couch. “Take a seat, Theo.”
I glanced at my butler then looked at Bolton again. “He’s got nothing to do with this, Bolton.”
“He has everything to do with this, Theo,” he said. “Because we both know what he’ll do once I cut him loose. Now take a seat.” He gestured to the tray of cigars. “Help yourself. I don’t mind in the least.”
I took a seat on the couch across from my butler and stared at Bolton.
He stared back, lounging comfortably like the bomb didn’t bother him at all. “When I think of revenge, I only think of torture and death. But you have a very different approach to it.”
I assumed he meant Astrid, but I wasn’t sure if he was fishing.
His stare continued to burn into my face, growing hotter and hotter.
I wasn’t sure if he knew where I’d just been. What I’d just been doing. That my dick smelled like her because I hadn’t showered.
His stare continued, explosive like the surface of the sun, his rage so intense he seemed to forget words.
Yep. He definitely knew.
“I’d kill you right here, right now, if I could. Luck is on your side, Theo. But I have another idea—a compromise.”
He wanted to compromise with the man fucking his wife?
“You want to know who put that hit on Killian? I’ll give you the contract details. But this man is a cut above the rest. If you intend to take him down with your usual means, you’ll be unsuccessful. So, not only will I give you his information, I’ll help you put him in the ground. But I want something in return.”
To stay away from Astrid.
“You’re going to hurt my wife.”
My heart gave a sudden clench.
“There will be no explanation. You’ll just dump her and ghost her. You got your revenge and poisoned my fucking soul. It’s done.”
“It was never about revenge—”
“Take the offer.” He grabbed his gun and aimed it at my butler. “Or I shoot Grandpa in the head.”
My butler stiffened, his breaths turning anxious.
“Bolton—”
He cocked the gun. “Take the deal, or he dies.”
My brother was my other half, and to never reclaim his body was something I couldn’t live with. I didn’t want to hurt Astrid, but I didn’t want to betray my own family and my butler for a woman I could never have. And even if I did have her, it wouldn’t last. It wouldn’t last because I was irrevocably broken and had nothing to offer. “Fine.”
“Good.” He set the gun next to the ashtray. “I want this done first thing tomorrow. She will know nothing of this conversation.”
“Even with me out of the way, she won’t go back to you.”
“I disagree.” He helped himself to a glass of scotch he poured for himself.
“If you didn’t want your wife fucking other people, then you shouldn’t have asked to fuck other people.”
He took another drink and ignored me.
“I didn’t do it out of revenge. I did it because I wanted to. Because Astrid is a beautiful woman—who deserves better than you.”
“If she deserves better than me, then she deserves better than you.”
I couldn’t disagree with that.
“Dump her, Theo.” He got to his feet and stuffed his gun into the back of his jeans. “And I’ll keep my word to you.”
“What happened to your plan to kill me?”
He stared down at me for a second. “My wife is a smart woman. If you drop dead, she’ll know it was me. And then she really will leave. But if you hurt her, her confidence will be crushed, and she’ll run right back into my arms—where she belongs.”