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)
Yumi: What do we do?
Jillian: Are you okay?
“Debra”: I’ve taken worse hits to get to where we are now, and I’m fuck sure not going to let her get in our way. But we don’t have time to look for her, and the girl, and the flash drive. We need to speed this up, but first, where are you? Are the Merchants secure?
Maryann: They’re secure. They wisely didn’t put up a fight on the way up, especially when Wilson traded our knives for guns.
Wilson: Alexander has a treasure trove. I couldn’t take it all with me, but I did throw all the ammo out the window. The guns are useless.
I cursed. You’re not as stupid as I want you to be, Wilson.
Wilson: I’m waiting for the elevator now.
Yumi: And I’ve got the Merchants tied up with muzzles pressed to their brain stems. We’re good.
“Debra”: Good. Here’s the plan. We’re moving the auction up. It goes off within the hour. Yumi and Maryann, start bringing in the bombs.
I stopped the elevator on a random floor and let myself out, allowing it to continue to Bane and Wilson.
Yumi: Now? We can’t.
Maryann: Because of that designer bitch?
Wilson: We can’t move it up. They’ll want immediate delivery of their Merchants as soon as the money goes through. We can’t deliver until we’ve got the flash drive.
“Debra”: We’ll have the flash drive, and you can thank the designer bitch. Adeline’s bastards are obsessed with her. They’ll do anything to stop me from “torturing” her.
The wave of smirky, winky faces I sent was obscene.
“Debra”: Wilson, just tell Bane to give up the flash drive, then put me on the phone. “Her” screams will do the rest.
Wilson: You’re a genius. But what if he figures out it’s not her?
“Debra”: Every scream sounds like another. He won’t risk it. Just do it. But first, put your phones on do not disturb. Block all unknown numbers. We don’t want the real designer bitch to pull something with her stolen phone.
Wilson: Got it.
Maryann: Done.
Yumi: Done.
Natalya: Got it.
Jillian: Done. Now get that flash drive. Let’s finish this.
I took a deep breath, shaking out my limbs. I was nervous, jittery, and sweaty like a criminal in an interrogation room with the key evidence in her back pocket. I had a very tight window to escape unscathed before it all blew up in my face.
Debra’s phone rang.
I allowed it to ring a minute, prepping myself for the performance of my life.
“—where the flash drive is, Alexander.” Wilson’s snarl bled through the speakers. “Or she’ll regret it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Bane was chiller than ice-cold soda. “We don’t have some little digital black book. My family learned their lesson about hanging on to ledgers a long time ago.”
“Is that so?” Wilson’s voice got louder. I assumed he was holding the phone closer to his mouth. “Debra?”
I took a deep breath, and screamed. “Ahhh! Ahhhhh! No, stop! Please! Ahhh!”
“Who is that? Kenzie? Kenzie, is that you!” The calm tone was gone.
“Ahhh! Ahhhhh!” I screamed my lungs out, ripping my throat to shreds. “Help me, Bane! Help!”
“Stop! Stop it!” Bane roared. “Leave her alone!” Grunts and the sound of struggling came through the speakers. “Get your fucking hands off her!”
“Ahhh!”
“Where’s the flash drive!” Wilson bellowed. “Give it up, and your girl gets to keep most of her fingers!”
“Arggh!” My chest caved in hearing the agony in Bane’s voice. “This isn’t her fight! She has nothing to do with this! Stop!”
I just kept screaming.
“Flash drive!” Wilson sounded strangled, like he was fighting to peel a strong and determined grip off his neck. “Give it up!”
“Let her go!” Thud! “Let her go, and I’ll give you whatever you—”
“Debra, gouge out one of her fucking eyes! Maybe that will loosen Lover Boy’s tongue!”
My screams ratcheted higher.
“Nooo! It’s in Liam’s apartment,” Bane burst out. “In his bathroom! It looks like a regular stick of Chapstick, but the bottom twists off and the USB is hidden inside. No one would ever look at it twice.”
Wilson laughed. “Thank you very much for that information, Alexander.
“Deb, did you get all of that?”
“Ahhh—eugh!” I cut my scream off at the knees, falling eerily, deathly silent.
I held the phone away from my mouth, and covered it for good measure—disguising it to match Debra’s raspy, smoker’s voice. “Got it, Wilson. On my way now.”
“Kenzie? Kenzie! Answer me! Say something, baby, please,” Bane roared. “Oh gods, what did you do?! What the fuck did you do?!”
I hung up, unable to hear the despair in his voice for another second.
I hated that. I hated every single fucking second of it, but I had no choice. The Brotherhood had two of the three things they needed to destroy almost everything and everyone I loved. They had the Merchants, and they had the bombs. The only thing left for them to get their hands on was the flash drive, and once they did, they’d have zero reason to keep any of us alive.