Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112449 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112449 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
I eased up on my hold, resting my chin on his shoulder. Roan said things like this so easily. But he also lied without remorse, stoked rage as entertainment, manipulated me for his masochistic pleasure, and made a target out of Micah Ellis before he gave him a reason.
I was beginning to understand the Bedlam Boys and what drove them. But not Roan Banks. Maybe not ever.
“I can prove it,” he said. “Micah Ellis is currently blindfolded and chained to the bed at Hollow Grove Motel, waiting for me to deliver a ravishing that will never come. The maid will find him eventually,” he dismissed.
“If you were planning this the whole time, why didn’t you say something?” I asked. “Legend’s stress has resulted in marks on my ass.”
“And your cum on his sheets.” Roan put me down in front of Legend’s house. “I didn’t say because I didn’t know if I’d pull it off. My guards were dragging on going outside their job description. Micah was waffling on sneaking away from the party to meet me. And the whole thing hinged on Elise coming through with switching Jeremy’s phone and switching it back at the right time.”
“Elise? My Elise?”
He winked. “She was mine first. Oops.” Roan unballed my fists. “There goes that jealousy.”
“Why would Elise help you put his brother’s nudes on Jeremy’s phone?”
“She was crushing on that Jonah guy till I showed her the video. Jonah’s lying about keeping his hands to himself. The girl he raped reported him to the police, but they never made it to trial. His family is loaded too. Elise was more than happy to help me take down the Crows after that.”
“Wow.” I dropped on the curb, stretching my legs over the pavement. Roan joined me—arm brushing against mine and staying there. “People underestimate you, don’t they? And you make them regret it.”
“That’s the state of living, de Souza. People are always going to underestimate you. If you don’t set out to prove them wrong, you accept the little they make of you. In which case you deserve it.”
I hummed. “Some wisdom buried in there. I guess I have some people to prove wrong too.”
“What other choice did you have?”
“What choice did you have?” I asked. “This war over Bedlam. Trust me, I don’t want to see this town split up, but I don’t understand why this is the Bedlam Boys’ fight?”
Roan looked over his shoulder, glancing at the house. “What’s Cairo told you?”
“Why does everyone assume he’s told me anything?”
He inclined his head. “You’re right. He’s not about to give up information while you’re still hiding things from us.”
“I’m not...” The expression on his face silenced me.
“The therapists say I have a reckless disregard for authority and a penchant for making trouble that borders on pathological. I guess it was always going to be me who gave it up.”
“What are you talking about?” I rested a hand on top of his.
“We all answer to someone, Rainey. Even the Bedlam Boys. The collections. Axel Verlice. Keeping the town in line,” he said. “It’s our job—along with keeping Ellis and Foundry out of Bedlam by any means necessary.”
“Your job? Who gave it to you?”
“That’s not nearly as important as why.”
Roan turned his hand up, tickling my palm with stroking fingers. In the middle of a serious conversation and my skin was tingling.
He grasped my chin, trapping me in his light, burning pools. “Bedlam has a secret. One that’s been protected for over a hundred years, and somehow Steven Ellis knows. His company, Foundry, is buying land and houses all over town.
“Other than Legend, we didn’t have the money to stop them. That’s why we started taking collections. Everyone pays—no excuses. They bitch and moan, but the money does go back into the town. We use it to counter Foundry’s offers and stop people from selling. We put it into improving and protecting the place, so no one buys into their speeches that there’s a better life waiting for them in Beckerburg or Hunter’s Crest.
“Shits like Axel Verlice. The last thing we need are federal investigations and national news sites throwing a spotlight on this town. Can’t have them looking into the lengths we’ve gone to keep Bedlam whole, or finding out why. If the world finds out the truth about us, Bedlam as we know it will disappear.”
“So, you killed to protect it? Verlice wasn’t the first, was he?”
“No, he wasn’t,” Roan said. “But every one of them was more soulless than the last. The first name was a pedophile who kidnapped little boys on their way home from school. The fifth was manufacturing bombs out on his farm. One of his targets was the university.”
“Goodness,” I breathed.
“I didn’t shed any tears getting rid of them, and Arsenio’s taken the job on solo without complaints. He enjoyed that part of our work more than the rest, and they say you should love what you do.”