Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“What are you doing here?” I say as I place the safety back on my gun.
“Och, hello to you too, Léan,” he says like a grumpy big brother.
I roll my eyes as I tuck my gun away. “Hello, Finlay.”
“Orla has passed away. Everything has changed.”
“Is Deja all right?”
My heartbeat picks up. This is my worst nightmare come true. I thought I was doing the right thing by her.
I didn’t know this would take years of my life away from me. Years Deja and I can never get back. She’s grown to be a woman without me.
“She is fine, but the auld woman left behind something I think you should have.”
“Did Ken and Ewan send you?”
“Och, no. My nephew sent me, but it was Da’s words that caused him to.”
“Ian?” I ask with my brows threaded.
“Aye, he’s still playing a match. He did leave the journals for Logan like he said he would, and they are loaded. Nothing about any of our lives has been by accident.”
“Nothing was an accident around Ian Black,” I scoff.
Finlay chuckles. “Ye would have been my wife had we not fought like brother and sister from the time ye arrived.”
“Is that right?”
“Aye, ye should read the letter and the pages Logan and LaSalle copied for ye. It will all become clear.”
I nod and move to take the manila folder he’s holding out to me. Taking the pages out, I then take a seat on my sofa across from the accent chair Finlay is sitting in, like he’s the owner of the place and I’m the guest. When I see the handwriting on the pages, it’s like a punch to the gut.
I run my hand over the page as I close my eyes. I miss Ian. He was the closest thing I had to a father. I learned a lot from him.
Léan
My Léan, my Onyx. From the day I found ye, I knew ye were special. There was something in yer eyes that gave me pause.
I knew that day I would make sure ye were avenged. No young girl, no child should have been in the state I found ye in. When I began to train ye and show ye the love ye deserved from a father, I saw ye had forgotten where I found ye and where ye came from.
Yer brain erased all the horror. Ye might have forgotten, but I never would. The Krupin family had no right to do what was done to any of the girls or boys they took and sold.
I saw a lot of things while in my time of service, but coming across ye and the bodies of yer friends who hadn’t survived was by far the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Ye have lived yer life thinking the Alliance doesn’t involve ye. Thinking ye have no skin in the game.
Ye are one of the reasons I started this. Learning about the families connected and how many of them I knew, I was disgusted. But I made note of those who wouldn’t touch it, those I could ally with.
Those were the families I could stand with. The families who earned off your suffering, from yer body, will fall once the Alliance is in place. They will never have the power to do to another what was done to ye.
To make that happen, I needed more power. To make this happen, I had to place ye on the board before me. I’m sorry, love.
Angus was waiting in that coffee shop for ye because Lennox and I told him to be there. I needed Léan Black to become Helen Walsh. Onyx was ready to disappear, so I made that happen for ye before I lost ye altogether.
I saw ye ready to bolt. I would have lost a daughter and the wee one ye didn’t want to tell me about. Ye had to become Helen.
Ye and the little one were safer that way. I knew ye were pregnant even though ye hid the fact from me. That vacation ye took told me more than ye knew.
I believe with all my heart Angus was the best thing for ye. His love for ye was real. Never doubt that.
Angus cherished ye as a woman, his woman. Finlay wasn’t right for ye. The lad loves ye, but as an annoying sister.
My plans for Joe were elsewhere. At first, I didn’t think ye had it in ye to fall in love, not romantically. Not after ye walked away from Deja’s father.
I had hoped that relationship would stick. Then Phoebe Romaine contacted me and pointed out what threads to pull. I watched and waited.
I saw the moment Cole became infatuated and I nudged that bond as much as I could, knowing Oland couldn’t resist triggering ye to take his life and setting ye on a path to finish what I started.