Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Did you put it in my fucking boot?” I asked.
He didn’t respond. “Why were you in Arkansas?”
I was tired. I wanted to see Cressida. And my temper was short because of both. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Yelling at Bane wasn’t going to help matters.
“I had some business to handle.”
“What business?” he snapped.
“Personal. Last I checked, we are allowed a personal life. I don’t have to report to anyone about that.”
“You do when you go to the city your former girlfriend lived for the past four years,” Bane replied.
“Why is that?” I asked, taking a step back toward him. “Huh? Yeah, Cressida lived there. She’s not there now. So, what did I do that makes this your business? Linc doesn’t seem to care. He’s not here.”
“Linc is letting me handle this,” he replied.
“Why? Because it involves your best friend’s younger brother? Or because he thinks it’s a waste of time? There is no reason for all this … this fucking … monitoring. Pirate is dead. I can’t kill him again. What is it you’re worried I’ll do?”
Bane’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket and answered it. “Yeah?” He didn’t take his eyes off me, as if I were going to run. This was all too over-the-top dramatic. “Fuck,” he muttered, and anger thinned his lips. “Yeah, go ahead and clean it up. Thanks,” he said, then ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket. “This. This is why I was monitoring you. This was why you couldn’t be near her. You act without consequence or reason.”
“What did he do?” Oz asked, stepping up beside him. Concern marring his brow.
“Howi and Avett found a dead man sliced up and hanging up in the abandoned mine they use for their underground. Identified him as Arthur Howt,” Bane said, turning his hard glare at me. “Cressida Beck’s step uncle.”
Oz ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
“He broke her bones, beat her, punished her to control and manipulate her. She was here because she had run from the narcissistic bastard,” I informed them. “He also killed her mother. Something she doesn’t know. She found her mother drowned in a hot tub. Thinks she passed out from mixing antidepressants and alcohol. Yeah, I killed the son of a bitch.”
Some of the anger in Bane’s expression eased, and he glanced at my brother, who was staring at me. He wasn’t angry, but something was wrong. It was … he seemed … pained or sad. It was odd, considering the situation.
“All right. He deserved to die,” Bane replied. “But taking Than and Gathe and sneaking off to do it, then leaving his corpse for the Arkansas branch to clean up wasn’t the correct way to handle it. That’s the problem with your obsession with Cressida. You don’t think clearly. That is shit that will get you killed. Or someone else killed.”
“I want to talk to Linc. Have him talk to Hughes. I want to come home. The threat of my killing Pirate is over. The case was close and sealed.”
“We all want that. And Blaise has agreed to it,” Oz said, still with a tone that didn’t make sense, much like his expression.
“I get to stay?” I asked, hope surging through my chest.
Bane nodded. “Yeah, you do. But …” He paused for a moment. “Cressida is gone. Contact with her is off-limits. She is your crazy trigger, and before you can start getting as deep in with her as you once were, she’s been moved out of your reach.”
The words sank in slowly, but my move to get in Bane’s face was much faster. His shoulders might be wider than mine, but I was an inch taller and not scared of the motherfucker.
“WHERE IS SHE?!” I roared as my temples began to pound.
“Jesus Christ, KASH!” Oz shouted, grabbing my collar and jerking me back.
Bane’s entire body had gone rigid, but there wasn’t fury glinting in his eyes, like I’d expected, but sympathy.
What the fuck?! He didn’t get to feel fucking sorry for me!
“Where. IS. SHE?” I demanded, pulling free of Oz’s hold.
“She is safe. Provided for. I made sure she had all she needed. Including a good job.” Bane’s tone was reassuring, as if that was all I needed to hear.
“Tell me where!” I started at him again, and Oz’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, stopping me.
How the fuck was he so goddamn strong?
“Let go of me,” I sneered.
“This is why you can’t be around her, Kash. Listen to yourself. She makes you psycho,” Oz said.
“No. Her being taken away and hidden from me is making me psycho. This goddamn family I didn’t ask to be born into is making me psycho! Now tell me where she is!”
Bane blew out a heavy breath, and his gaze looked past me toward my brother, who was still holding on to me.