Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Abraham’s brows shot together, then smoothed out just as quickly. “Forgive me, Miss Genevieve, you’re absolutely right to correct me. It was rude of me to downplay your business, and the effort you spent building it. It is never my intention to treat a woman as anything less than my equal. Especially not a woman such as you. I underestimate many people, but you will never be one of them.” He bowed his head. “I apologize.”
It was everything in me not to spit on his hair. His polite routine grated on my soul like a chainsaw. Never did I think I’d miss the misogynistic bastards who called me a cunt to my face. Anything was better than hiding their true hatred behind a plastic smile.
Saying nothing, I stepped out of the van and fell in beside Abraham, with two guns pointed at my skull.
“Stay here,” Abraham ordered the goons. “She won’t try anything.”
My fist ached to punch the certainty out of him, but I didn’t make a move. He was right. I wasn’t going to try anything when there was a chance to save my Cardinals. After what they did to Laura, I wasn’t letting them spend another day in the hands of this madman.
Abraham set off into the trees, expecting me to follow. I did with a scrutinizing glance behind me, taking in the modest, but pretty two-story house tucked away in its own part of the woods.
Heavy black curtains blocked out all the windows, and every inch of it was painted in different shades of brown. Even so, there was a nice wraparound porch boasting comfy chairs for those nights sitting out among the stars and the singing cicadas. No one passing by would ever guess there was evil lurking behind that beige door.
“I’m sure you have questions, Miss Genevieve.” Abraham walked strange and stiff-backed with his hands folded behind his back and his chin pointed at the sky. I wasn’t sure what persona he was going for, but all I was getting was stuck-up butler. “Ask them.”
“It’s Genny.” I walked four feet behind him, keeping one eye on him and the other on the coming trap. And yes, I was certain it was coming.
The guy said himself he didn’t want me here. Madison took the bait and offered me up to Abraham, because the discovery of the trackers in our clothes made her useless. She thought she could score points by offering up a high-value hostage, and instead she scored a bullet in the face.
So now what? If he doesn’t think I’m useful to him and he can’t let me go, what option does that leave him, the insane fucker? My eyes fell on the gun comfortably tucked in his waistband. Only one.
“Only the woman who bore me gets to call me Genevieve, and unless you brought me out here to share some shocking news, that’s not you.”
Abraham chuckled. “Ah yes, your mother, the Adeline Redgrave. Everything comes back to her in the end.”
“I don’t think it does.” My tone was even. “But if you want a question, here’s one: why do you think everything comes back to her? My family doesn’t even know you. My mother doesn’t know you.”
“No, she doesn’t, and that’s the biggest insult,” he replied, a hard edge bleeding into his voice. “She ruined my life, and she doesn’t even know who the fuck I am.”
I rolled my eyes behind his back. Here it comes, I’d heard it all before. The boo-hoo sob story about how my mother spilling the ledger’s secrets, and getting his mommy or daddy locked up ruined his life and that was all Adeline’s fault. Because naturally, it wasn’t his parents’ fault for being a loathsome fucking criminal—oh no! As always the bullet of blame is aimed at the messenger.
“How did she ruin your life?” I asked, not even trying to tamp down my boredom. All of our enemies play at being big and bad, but at the end of the day, they’re basic.
“I’m sure you know the story.” Abraham looked straight ahead, adjusting his gait only once to step over a raised root. “I’m sure your parents told it over dinner every other night while you all laughed and applauded your mother, the great hero. The one who took down Corbin Dumont.”
I frowned, slowing a beat. Corbin Dumont?
“See?”
I snapped up to find Abraham staring at me.
“I knew you knew his name.”
I definitely knew Corbin Dumont. Decades ago, when my mom was still hiding her true badass self from my chef-abducting dads, she found herself in the middle of a child-trafficking auction. An auction run by Corbin Dumont.
She was only able to save one girl that night, and that girl grew up to be my equally badass aunt, Kaylee. Kaylee took over running the circus after my grandparents passed away, but whenever she rolled through town, we got drunk and risked our necks on the tightrope. I loved her. She was the epitome of the cool aunt, and whenever I think of how she came into the family, I wanted to dig Corbin fucking Dumont up and piss on his corpse.