Total pages in book: 260
Estimated words: 245483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1227(@200wpm)___ 982(@250wpm)___ 818(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 245483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1227(@200wpm)___ 982(@250wpm)___ 818(@300wpm)
“No,” I say.
“No?” He laughs. “You act like there’s a better way.”
“Patience,” I say. “That’s the best way, and you know it. This mother bullshit is just that, bullshit. You don’t know what’ll happen once she’s dead, and that’s bad. We can’t plan for that.”
“It’s the best shot we have,” he says, standing up. “Plus she’s old as fuck. What’s it matter?” He looks pissed, but I don’t give a fuck. I want him to come at me. It’ll give me an excuse to beat the piss out of him. It’ll give me an excuse to hurt him for the way he fucked me up when I was a kid, leaving me with this deep darkness inside of me.
“There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed,” I say softly.
He grunts and finally looks down. “What about the girl?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I’m close. But not yet.”
“Let me see her.”
“No,” I say.
“Gio.” He steps closer to me, suddenly calm. “I need to give the Romanos something. Let me see the girl so that I can report back.”
I stare at him for a second and finally nod sharply. “Just through the monitors, and only this once.”
“Fine.”
I lead him down the hallway and into the control room. Duke growls at my father, but I dismiss him with a wave of my hand. Duke slowly leaves the room, and my father glares at me.
“That dog is an asshole,” he says.
“Duke just doesn’t like dickheads.” I nod at the monitors. “There she is.”
He comes and stands next to me, and we both look in on Grace.
I can’t help but smile proudly. She’s in her cage, still drawing on the chalkboard, a beautiful and detailed realistic-looking shell. She looks totally absorbed and gorgeous, her face angelic and engaged in her task. I love the way she draws and how content she looks, wrapped in only her scratchy blanket.
Watching her like that, an idea strikes me. I need to get her some art supplies. Brushes, oils, canvas, all that shit. She’ll love it. I smile huge. That’ll bring her out of the cage. She just needs to express herself.
“What the fuck is this shit?”
I snap out of it, back to reality. My father is leaning over the monitor, squinting at Grace.
“She’s in a cage,” I say.
“I fucking see that. I mean the drawing.”
“She’s drawing,” I say.
“How the fuck is that going to help break her?” he demands, standing and staring at me.
“Get out,” I say softly.
He opens his mouth to argue, but he must see that I’m holding back my rage. He silently leaves the room and goes back to the kitchen.
I stand there and let the anger pass. If he had done anything but leave, I was going to beat him to death. I know it deep in my heart. I wouldn’t have been able to stop. That stupid piece of shit probably thought I should be beating Grace to death, torturing my fucking princess until she did what I wanted her to do. That sick fucking freak.
Or maybe I’m the sick freak for doing what I’m doing. Maybe wanting to care for her while also making her mine is even worse.
I release a breath. No, I’m nothing like him and I never will be.
I follow him back out to the kitchen. He’s leaning against the counter, his arms crossed.
“She’s sick,” I say.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t let her die.” He stares at me.
“No shit,” I say. “I know that.”
“We need her more than ever. We need her to be the perfect sex slave at the end of this.”
The anger comes back full force, but I ignore it. “I understand.”
“No, you don’t.” He steps toward me. “This is all falling apart. At the very least, we need to give the Romanos this mob slut as a gift if we can’t get to Toni or if something goes wrong. If you can’t get information from her, at least make her into a useful gift.”
I grit my teeth. I don’t fucking like the way he’s talking. I don’t like thinking about giving her back either. Now’s not the time. I grunt at him, looking past him at the tray on the counter and nod. “I understand,” I say, but the idea of Grace working as a sex slave for the Romanos makes my stomach turn.
There’s a short silence between us. Finally, my father shakes his head and sighs. “Let’s go,” he says.
“What?”
“You’re coming to this meeting with me.”
“I thought you wanted to deal with them exclusively.”
“I’m tired of being a fucking go-between, especially when you keep giving me bad news.”
I watch him for a second. I don’t want to go to this meeting and leave Grace alone. But I can’t trust him to speak for me at this meeting. If there’s something I can do to protect Grace, I need to go.