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)
I wanted to believe there was another secret entrance in there leading to a way out, but the tunnel we came through was solid concrete with only two entrances on both ends—and neither one was in that cupboard.
Task done, all five of the bastards followed their leader’s orders, and pressed their tips in a perfect ring around Bane’s neck.
“Now, here’s what’s going to happen. I know that right now you’ve got the whole family in the building for the big reunion,” Debra crowed. “Everyone except for your oldest sisters, but they’ll be easy enough to track down when this is all over.
“You’re going to call all of them down here right now, and I mean all of them, Genevieve and that little brat, Beth or whatever her name is, included. Unarmed goes without saying. The longer it takes for them to show up”—she stabbed my other arm—“the more time I have to poke holes in your girlfriend.”
“Stop!”
“Ahh,” I cried, tears springing to my eyes. Overwhelming, burning hatred flooded my soul at this scheming, worthless bitch, but amidst that, I only had one thought.
My sister truly is psychic.
Sienna said the safest place for her and Laurel to be today was far away from me, and I thanked every deity from every culture and religion that they both were.
“You don’t need to prove how tough and serious you are by torturing an unarmed, innocent woman,” Bane barked, loading his words with scorn. “I’m not resisting!”
“She’s not fucking innocent!” Debra’s growl assaulted my ear. “No one that has anything to do with your filthy family is, so get on with it!”
Silently, Bane typed out his text and showed it to his captor.
He read it, nodded to Debra, then ordered Bane to hit send.
There were six elevators in the lobby of this apartment building turned family home, and all of them dinged their tune as the most infamous family in Cinco City exited their confines.
Sunny, Liam, and even Genny. Pushed in her brother’s borrowed wheelchair, Genny strained to keep her bandaged head up as one of her fathers wheeled her into the lobby, followed by Adeline, Killian, St. John, and Baris.
“Yumi, Maryann, check them for weapons,” Debra demanded. “If even one of them is packing so much as a paperclip, cut off Alexander’s finger, then— Hold on, where’s the girl?” Debra said, noticing the missing member of the family. “I said everyone!” She positioned the knife perpendicular to my throat. “Bring your daughter down here right fucking now or—”
“There is no place for me to bring her down from,” Liam said—tone smooth like honey. “Elizabeth is not in the building. I didn’t want her sitting alone in the apartment while we focused on getting Genny safely home, so I sent her and Fuller off to the beach for the weekend.”
Debra hesitated, sharing a look with her compatriots. “You’re lying. This is some stupid, father’s love attempt to hide her from me, and—”
“I don’t need to hide my daughter from you.” His shiny, cold eyes dragged the room temperature down fifty degrees. “As assuredly as I can see your hand shaking from here, you’re no threat to my child, because if you even thought about hurting her, I’d rip your head off your shoulders with my bare hands and stomp your worthless skull in until your blood and brain matter stuck to the shit on my shoes.”
Debra was shaking, and truly, so was I. I’d never, never, heard Liam speak this way before. Not just the threats, but the vicious way he delivered them—as if the violence he would visit on her was a fact of life.
Lions eviscerate zebras. Eagles tear the heads off fish. And Liam Hunt brutally murders anyone who threatens his daughter.
These were just the facts of life...
...and it made me love him so much, my knees weakened.
I spent the morning in the presence of the shittiest father to ever walk the earth. How lucky was I to have the love and the heart of the best.
“So as I said,” Liam continued—cool and calm as the two women patted him down and tossed his phone across the room, “Elizabeth is not here, and I can very easily prove that to you, but anymore talk of bringing my child into a hostile situation will cease immediately—for your own sake.”
Living, choking hatred bled from Debra’s pores. “Cold, hard Liam Hunt, so desperate to follow in his daddy’s footsteps—if you could remember which one of your mother’s manwhores he even is.
“You’re not in charge here, you bigamist’s bastard,” she hissed, leveling the knife on him. “I am.”
Liam, Sunny, Bane, and their parents exchanged a look... and burst out laughing.
I gaped at the lot of them. What the hell is funny?!
“What’s funny?” Debra screeched, echoing my thought. “Why are you laugh—? Stop that! I said stop! Wilson!”