Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“Because Jordan won’t take me back!” Danny yelled his answer, his gaze darting to mine. I saw resentment there. Frustration maybe? I didn’t know. Didn’t much care. “She said she couldn’t live with knowing I had another woman out there I had a family with when she’d struggled to have children of her own.”
“How would killing Evelyn fix that problem? Sounds like your wife is done with you, no matter what.”
“If I had custody of the kids and Evelyn was gone, she’d let me come back. She’d have the children we always wanted, and everything could go back to the way it was!”
If he’d slapped me, I wasn’t sure I’d have been more surprised. “She actually told you that?” I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t seem to. The question slipped out. Had I been living in the shadow of not one, but two sociopaths?
“She didn’t have to,” he spat at me, his anger turned fully in my direction now. “She wanted kids. She lost the one she was carrying after the fire. She’d be happy to have my children, no matter how old they are.”
“And if she didn’t, Danny? What if she wanted babies instead of older kids -- children who would have reminded her every day that you’d led a double life -- one of those lives without her. What if she rejected you then?”
“She wouldn’t,” Danny said, confidence ringing in his voice even as tears still streamed down his face.
“I didn’t ask if she would, Danny. I asked what would have happened if she did. What would you have done if you’d killed me and Jordan didn’t want Luke and Aneshya and refused to take you back?”
Danny looked away and I had my answer.
“Got any idea how a blood brother of mine has turned out so Goddamned dumb?” Knox addressed the question to Rocket who shrugged.
“Not sure. I mean, Lemon said you never struck her as particularly bright. Until you claimed Evelyn, that is.” He grinned. “I think she’d agree you’re not a dumbass. Your brother, on the other hand? Yeah. Did either of your parents smoke? Maybe it was a birth defect?”
Knox snorted. “You’ve been hangin’ with the VP too long, prez.”
Rocket scowled. “Christ. That is something she’d say, innit.” Rocket shook his head before addressing Danny. “You admit you’re the one who killed Grover Knoxville in an attempt to kill Evelyn?”
“I didn’t kill anybody!”
“But you had someone else do it.”
“How do you know it was me? It could have been Jordan.” Danny gave a nervous laugh. “I’m broke! I don’t have a job. Never had a job! Jordan is the one with all the money. Her and her parents.”
There was movement at the door. I started and moved my hand from Knox’s to his arm, gripping tightly and moving so that I was sheltered in the strength of his body. I knew I was safe here, or thought I was, but I was so off-balance I wasn’t sure I could hold it together much longer.
Crush stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He met my gaze and ducked his head. “Sorry, Evelyn. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s OK.” My voice was barely above a whisper. “Not your fault.”
He patted me on the shoulder awkwardly before tossing a file on the table where Piston sat. Rocket picked it up and thumbed through it, his face hard and unreadable.
“You confirmed all this.” It wasn’t a question.
“Everything. Byte did the initial research. I corroborated everything he dug up.”
Rocket tossed the folder back on the table and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Did you find the shooters?”
“Yep. Ringo took care of them. He’s currently spreading them over the Everglades region outside our territory. Different… regions.” Crush looked very uncomfortable as he glanced back-and-forth from me to Danny.
“Good. Knox? There anything else you need to know before we take care of this?”
Knox looked down at me. I shook my head, blinking back tears. “He’s insane,” I whispered.
“He’s a megalomaniac,” Crush said. “He was in it for the power and the money.” He shook his head slightly. “Power from being able to keep you and the kids on the line without his wife knowing. Money from his wife and her family. He’d been slowly siphoning off funds from a variety of his wife’s accounts. Looked like he’d recently gotten into some of her father’s accounts as well. If things had gone on the way they had been, I have no doubt he’d have cleaned them both out eventually.”
“That’s not true, Evie,” Danny jumped in. It was easy to see the sweat on his face. “You know me.”
“Yeah, Danny.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I know you. And you’re lying. You did all of that. And tried to have me killed. You’d have killed your own children to further whatever scheme you were playing at.” I thought I’d have some kind of breakdown, but I felt strangely at peace. I’d weathered what could have been the worst thing to happen in my life outside of my parents’ death. Grover hadn’t tried to replace my father in my life, but I came to think of him as an extension of my father. They’d have liked each other. “I have no idea what’s going to happen to you, but I’m sure it won’t be pleasant.”