Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“I find out she isn’t as inexperienced as she claimed,” Legend continued, “I’m hunting down every bastard that got there before me.” Legend made a harsh noise in his throat, tearing the bread in half harder than needed. “Listen to me. Roan and I have been in an open relationship for five years. He’d fuck people in front of me and I didn’t give a shit. Now this chick shows up and I get all... possessive. How the hell does that happen?”
When you figure it out, let me know.
“She’s ours now,” I said simply. “She goes when we say, and some twisted, masked sociopath isn’t about to change the rules. It can’t get out what we’re dealing with, but we may need her help all the same. My knowledge isn’t sufficient. What I know of the de Souza family ends with a news report and a line in a paper. She knows everything about the history of Bedlam. She could have something to say about the letters.”
“I’ll do the asking,” Legend replied. “I have to see her tomorrow anyway. She wants an update on the Crows.”
“We don’t have one to give her. Roan sowed doubt, but the cattle got a taste of freedom. They won’t go back in the barn that easily.”
“At this point, they can go wherever the hell they want as long as it’s not to the Crows. Foundry’s close to getting their way. Closer than we wanted to admit.”
“Close is all they will ever be,” I said, finding my way down another aisle in my mental sanctuary. “Roan has an accurate assessment of the situation. If we strike back at the Crows, Steven Ellis, or Foundry’s board with violence, we’ll be the main suspects. Riding out of town on a prison bus won’t protect Bedlam if the information has gone wider than those people. We can’t guess how many know at this point.
“Even so, I count five—make that six options for forcing them out and making the thought of setting foot in Bedlam again vacate their bowels. No violence required.”
Legend gave me a look, grin twisting his lips. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“Why do you think they weren’t plan A?”
“Any way we could work it in?” His knife cleaved the pepperoni in two. “I’ve got workers threatening to strike. Jeremy Ellis will leave our town, and he’ll be carried out.”
“Three options allow for physical harm that won’t be traced back to us.”
“Those three,” he said. “Tell me about them.”
RAINEY
I woke up the next morning, head pounding and mouth stuffed with cotton. I glanced at the clock and grimaced. I both slept too long and woke too early. Sleep that was fitful and plagued with nightmares.
The sun wasn’t up yet. Through the gloom, I made out Roan and Legend on either side of me. Roan lay on his stomach, bare ass exposed with my lifting the blankets. He slept naked as I’d come to learn with his joining me and Legend in bed. Legend opted for silk drawstring pants. There would always be something of the proper gentleman in him—even when I woke to him fisting his cock through the waistband.
I gazed at them unseeingly. I didn’t wake to them climbing in with me. Usually, I fell asleep after them. As in, after they had their fun with me. What did it say that they couldn’t bring themselves to bother me?
It says they all know about my one-sided battle with the Letter Man, and the coldest, most uncaring men in Bedlam pity me.
What did I tell Paris? Anyone who knows me for any length of time feels sorry for me.
I slipped out of bed and dressed silently in the dark. Shutting the door behind me, I padded downstairs, out the doors, and trudged past the grand fountain. I ended up on the sidewalk and kept going, heading toward the end of Bay Avenue.
I should look for Cairo. Find out what happened with his father and Bella. The thought floated through my mind, stirred no action, and dissipated.
The end of Bay Avenue tipped me out onto a grassy bank that led down and into the forest. Unlike most of the forest surrounding our town, this particular spot afforded a break in the trees that gifted a view of the canyon.
I sat down, resting my chin on my knees. Silent tears dripped down my legs.
I couldn’t go and speak to Cairo. To ask him if he was successful covering up my role in Bella’s death was a shame I couldn’t think of facing without wanting to throw myself in the canyon.
Bella deserved so much more than a terrifying, brutal death at the hands of a man who saw her as no more than a pawn on a chessboard. Her father deserved to know the full truth of why his daughter died.