Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Helios must have set him up for life to win his loyalty so quickly. But then, he had never really been loyal to her, had he? He had only been loyal to money, and it just so happened her stepson was able to throw more of it his way.
The point was, everyone, perhaps even her neighbors, had been paid to look away today, no matter what happened. The chilling thought had her swallowing. What did Helios want to happen now?
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU doing here?” Herod shot to his feet when he saw his bastard of a brother enter his office at home, cool as you please, like he was a welcome part of the family.
Helios slowly cracked his knuckles. In his mind, he could see MJ, her violet eyes filled with too much pain that made it impossible for her to even cry. Somewhere in this world, the woman he cared most about was hurting beyond tears, and Herod Andreadis was one of those to blame for it.
If not for the damn stunt Herod and his damn mother had pulled that time, Helios would not have been injured. He would not have been lying flat on his bed, resting, while MJ was abducted, her noiseless cries of help going unheard.
Herod was standing right in front of him now, haughty contempt on his face. “Do you have something to say before I have the guards throw you out?”
“I’m not going to play fucking nice this time.” It was all the warning Herod Andreadis got before his younger half-brother proceeded to try, really try, to beat the hell out of him.
Herod had never seen Helios this angry, not even when he had pulled that stunt with Odessa some years back. His lips, bleeding from the uppercut Helios gave him, parted, Herod wanting to make a jibe but Helios not giving him a chance to.
Fifteen minutes later, and the legitimate heir of the Andreadis clan had no thoughts left for making Helios lose his temper. There was nothing to lose, Herod realized, since his brother had long been replaced by a madman.
He tried to protect himself then, but it was useless. Helios had always been bigger, faster, and stronger. There was no way to protect himself from the kicks that landed in his stomach, his legs, and his back. There was no way to stop that one powerful hit which had his ribs cracking.
He tried to escape, but soon enough he realized there was nowhere to go, not when his own mother, Dahlia, was screaming outside the door. Mother. He tried to ask for help, but Helios’ fist punched the word back into his throat, and Herod fell to his knees. He choked, spat, and to his horror, he saw his own teeth fall onto the carpeted floor.
“Let my son out,” Dahlia was screaming.
Someone answered her in a voice too low for Herod to hear.
“Oh my God!” Dahlia started to moan. “Herod, Herod!” And then her voice started to fade.
Fear churned inside Herod as he felt Helios push him onto his back with a nudge of his foot. Dahlia had always been a monstrously strong woman, and to hear her sob like a weak, old, helpless being – it wasn’t right. Nothing in his world was going to be right again. As the fact became clear to him, Herod began to cry, too. Helios was going to kill him then.
Around him, the room whirled. All the walls had enormous zigzagging cracks, painted with smudges of blood. Helios had flung him at just about every side of the room. The only thing left, Herod thought dizzily, was the ceiling—
A wheezing protest came out of him as Helios lifted him bodily into the air, his hands around Herod’s neck. As the pressure around his neck tightened, Helios began to choke and the world got smaller and smaller with each second—
“Stop, please,” Herod choked out.
In the next second, the noose-like grip around his neck vanished and he fell to the ground in a jarring, bone-shattering thud. Herod groaned, feeling like he was black and blue all over. When he opened his eyes, Helios was crouched down on the floor next to him, the merciless look on his face making Herod’s bastard brother almost unrecognizable.
“Did that get your attention, older brother?”
Herod only managed a jerky nod, not wanting to risk saying the wrong word.
“That’s good. If you tell me anything but the truth, it means you just want more of my attention. But I don’t think you want that, do you?”
He shook his head vigorously.
“When you sent men after Rick, did you find out anything about Manolito Chavez?”
“Y-yes.”
“And?”
“He wants your...your woman. Badly. He has the woman’s father with him.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“He’s a ghost. No one knows where he is—” Herod’s scream was cut halfway when Helios once again gripped his neck and started to strangle him.