Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
He fell quiet until he mumbled, “Guessing the torture had more to do with this than the hacking, huh?”
I stared at him. It was all I could do in this moment because all my grief, all my anger, all my frustration, everything that had been accumulating over the last week, all of it had a target. He was sitting in front of me, but fuck him very much. I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with him because Logan cared about the guy.
I shook my head, needing to let some of my anger go. A small trickle of it. “I’m a celebrity. I get that. Because of what I earned playing a game I loved, a lot of people think that makes me theirs. Theirs to inspect. Theirs to tear apart. Theirs to objectify, hate, project all their own shit onto. It comes with the territory, and yes, stalkers happen. But you are here. You are local. You are connected inside my circle, and you are fucking weird. I didn’t know you. I didn’t want to know you, and after you approached my daughter, I loathed you. We tortured you because you were hacking into Kai Bennett’s family’s accounts, and you brought that motherfucker to my front door.” I leaned forward again, my eyes hard. “Why?”
He opened his mouth but then shrugged, leaning back in his seat.
“I know I didn’t read you in on my situation. I can’t believe the few who knew would’ve done that.” I asked a different question. “How did you know to look into Kai Bennett?”
He frowned, looking away. “I got a text alert.”
“You got a text alert? What does that mean?”
He shifted in his seat, perspiration coming to his forehead. Tugging at his shirt collar, he coughed. “I—oh fuck. You can’t say anything…”
“I’m not promising you shit. You stalked my family.”
“I know. I know.” He held up a hand. “I’m—things are starting to look different to me since you and your brother strung me up. But look, Channing sent a text to the Brenster—”
This fucker could somehow read text messages from Channing to his sister.
“The Brenster?” I asked.
“Bren. Channing’s sister.” He sighed. “I call her the Brenster since she said I couldn’t call her Brentress—like the Huntress. Bren’s kick ass. It’s, like, literally what she does for a living. She’s more badass than her brother—”
I growled.
He changed his tone. “Right. What was I saying? Text alert. Yeah. The Chanster texted the Brenster and asked if she’d heard anything about Kai Bennett operating in the area, specifically Fallen Crest. I thought it was weird. Bren said she didn’t know anything. When she offered to look into it, the Chanster shut her down right away. That set off my alarms too, so I did some digging. And…” He trailed off, but after a bit he focused on me. “Once I started digging, I couldn’t stop. Are you aware of who they are?”
“Yes,” I said dryly. “So you didn’t know about their connection to me?”
He shook his head. “No. I about pissed myself when I woke up and saw you standing there. I can’t figure out the connection. Channing asked about Kai Bennett. That made me start looking into him. He visited you, told you to get me to stop? That sent you and your brother to me, but I’m not understanding how Kai Bennett is connected…” He trailed off. His eyes got wide. Bright. He shoved up in chair and cursed right away. “Fuck. That hurts. But—” his gaze latched onto me. “Did Kai Bennett have anything to do with your dad’s death? That’s the only…” He trailed off again, seeing my face.
He gulped. “You’re not happy.”
“What is wrong with you?”
He blinked. “What?”
“You look excited just now. Like you’re thrilled. You’re not comprehending the magnitude of this situation.”
Zeke gulped again. His hands curled around the chair’s armrests. “Uh…”
He had no clue. No goddamn clue. I snapped, exploding out of my seat. With one arm, I swept everything off my desk, moving the computer to the edge. All the papers went flying, the stapler Maddy had played with, my phone, paper clips. And I didn’t see any of it.
All I saw was red.
Zeke jumped up, backing away from me. “Hey, man—”
“You have no fucking idea what you’re messing with!” I thundered. “They’re the mafia.”
Zeke’s eyes widened. He took another step, missed the floor, and crumpled.
I didn’t care to help him, not one fucking bit. I stood over him. “Stop fucking hacking into Kai Bennett and his family. He came to me, dipshit. If he’d gone to you, you’d already be dead!” I bellowed.
Zeke winced, making no attempt to stand up again.
“The connection is me, dumbass. Someone told my father a lie, and that lie had to do with Kai Bennett. He came to me within a day of you hacking into his family’s business. One fucking day, Allen. He told me flat-out that if you’d gotten into his account or his wife’s, you’d have a bullet in your forehead.”