Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“I can.”
“We’ll see about that. Later. When we’re alone.”
The elevator dings and the doors open to display two men, one of whom is my brother. The other, I don’t know.
“There you go, detective,” Isaac says. “Ask and you shall receive. Just what you were looking for. My two incestuous stepsiblings.”
I consider the merits of beating his face in right here and now, fuck the witnesses, and the badge. But that’s emotions driving me, and I stomp them down and let the savant in me take over. No face beating. Not right now. Instead, my lips quirk. I have another plan for my brother. One I’ll enjoy far more than he will.
Chapter one hundred two
Eric
Isaac and the detective exit the elevator and to my surprise, Harper steps right in front of Isaac. “Do not say that to me again,” Harper snaps, responding to Isaac’s snarky “incestuous stepsiblings” remark. “We never lived together. It’s a title, one you didn’t mind every damn time you tried to get into my pants.”
My lips quirk and I catch her hand, pulling her back to me. “Easy, sweetheart. Emotions are high right now. Remember what you said about that.” I nod at the detective, a man in his mid-forties, wearing a blue suit with a black tie at half-mast. He’s also sporting a three-day stubble that screams television cop. “Detective Rider, I assume,” I acknowledge.
“I am,” he confirms. “And you’re Eric Mitchell. Good to see you by your father’s side.”
I smirk at the repeated jab. “No one expects me to be by my father’s side. I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”
“And why is that?” he asks.
“Because I wasn’t his golden child like Isaac here.”
“Who inherits should your father die?” the detective replies.
“That’s a callous question,” Harper chimes in. “Has he taken a turn for the worse?”
“He’s the same as he was when he arrived,” the detective replies. “One foot in the grave and one out. I simply want to know who inherits, should both land in the dirt.”
“I was never under the impression that I’m going to inherit,” I say. “Thus why I made my own money.”
“Why is that?” the detective asks.
“Because I hate him,” I say, seeing no reason to lie. “I don’t want anything that’s his.”
The detective shoots me a skeptical look. “And yet you’re here?”
“He’s still the only living parent I have and I want to know why a strange man visited his room before he went down.”
“It was a heart attack,” Isaac snaps. “His visitors are not your business.”
“Not your ordinary visitor,” Savage interjects.
“Who the fuck are you?” Isaac snaps.
“I’m the guy who will happily bust your chops,” Savage replies, “and be equally fine when the detective arrests me for doing it. Though if he spends much more time with you, he might just cheer me on. And for your information, smart guy, if the detective here believed it was just a heart attack, he wouldn’t be here.”
I eye the detective. “Unless he chooses random rich heart attack victims to visit and make feel special? Perhaps with a donation in mind?”
The detective scowls at me. “I want to know what really happened to your father. Someone standing in this circle knows.”
“And the doctor’s opinion means absolutely nothing,” Isaac replies. “Is that a new creative police protocol we should know about?”
“If you want to go with the doctor’s word,” the detective states, eyeing me “then what does the man who visited his room matter?”
“I never said anything about the doctor’s opinion. That was brother dearest.”
“Because,” Harper states, as if I haven’t answered, “if it was more than it seems, my mother could be a target.”
“You’ve always been melodramatic, Harper,” Isaac scoffs.
“Says the man who threw a fit and tossed boiling water on his brother’s arm?” she charges.
I stiffen, not happy that she’s doing this. It makes me look weak, not strong. “I’m sorry,” she says, turning to me. “I know I’m not supposed to know, but he actually bragged about it at a party. He talked about taking down the big, bad SEAL who must not be big and bad at all. He’s a monster that does things normal humans do not.”
“You threw boiling water on him?” the detective asks, his attention hyperfused on Isaac.
“She’s an exaggerator,” Isaac states. “She wasn’t even around when Eric and I lived together.”
“And yet we’re incestuous?” she challenges.
I grab her and turn her to face me. “Stop.”
“He’s capable of things I don’t like to think any human being is capable of.”
“Did he burn you?” the detective presses.
My jaw clenches and I rotate Harper, pulling her around to face the others, under my arm and by my side. “She’s worried about her mother. Worry about the people who need saving. I’m not one of them.” I eye Isaac. “I’m going to see our father.”
“I’m not done asking questions,” the detective states.