Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
“Who said I don’t love her?”
“Then you need to tell her.”
“I show her.”
“Women need the words,” Victor told him.
Since when had he become an expert on women?
Regent turned away from him, but that knot in his stomach grew.
He cared about Jilly. He didn’t want to live without her. Would kill anyone who touched her . . .
He loved Jilly.
And that terrified him.
Regent still felt off as he walked into what was known as the torture chamber.
It was a storm shelter in an old building that he owned. Not that anyone would be able to figure out he was the owner. That was well buried.
“Have we got an ID?” he snapped at Basilien as he stared at the woman swinging in the air, her hands secured above her head with a rope that was attached to the ceiling.
She was slight with dark hair.
“She lives across the street from Jilly,” Jose said. “I saw her the night the older lady gave me that bag of stuff for Jilly.”
Right.
“Sasha Andrews,” Victor said, looking at his phone. “Jardin sent me information on her when you wanted Jilly’s friends vetted. Nothing interesting came back. Comes from a small town in Indiana. Single mom raised her. Sends money back to her. Been stripping at Sexy Sins for nearly two years. Pretty clean.”
“So either no one has ever caught her or something changed. What changed, Sasha? Why did you betray Jilly? She thought you were a friend.”
“Fuck you!” Sasha spat at him. “Let me go! You can’t do this!”
“You were blackmailing Jilly. You’ve known her secret since the beginning. You had easy access to her. What I can’t understand is why now? Why not months ago?”
“I’m not telling you anything.”
“Why did you do it, Sasha?”
Still nothing.
Hmm. Give her a few hours and she’d break. His men wouldn’t even need to touch her.
“Basilien?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get her to talk.” Basilien cracked his knuckles and stepped forward. “And Linny will gladly rough her up a bit.”
Regent nodded as though contemplating that.
Sasha let out a sob. Yeah, she’d break soon.
“Tell Jardin to dig deeper. Get Angel to help him. I want everything on her and something we can use against her.”
Victor nodded. “I’ll stay here. You’re going to Jilly?”
Yeah. And he wasn’t looking forward to it.
Jilly shook her head. She couldn’t believe this.
“There has to be some mistake.”
Regent had come home ten minutes ago to tell her what they’d found. She was sitting in the solarium, her laptop open in front of her, sticky notes everywhere, along with a really dull book from the library that she’d been attempting to read.
Yet she could see none of it.
All she heard were his words.
Sasha was the blackmailer.
Sasha.
Sasha, who’d helped her become a stripper in the first place. It had been her plan.
“But she was my friend.”
“I know, baby. Come here.” He sat beside her and drew her onto his lap so she faced him.
God, she felt so stupid. “There has to be some explanation. Why would she do this? She’s the one who got me the job. Who helped me with my routines. She came up with the whole plan. And she knows why I’m doing it. I have no money! I was living on ramen noodles. Why . . . why . . .”
His face was dark and cold. “I don’t know. But I will make her pay.”
“Was it something I did?” she asked.
Regent grasped hold of her chin. “No, baby. It wasn’t you. It was all her.”
“But why?”
He drew her against him as she shuddered. She thought she would cry, but she couldn’t. Her mind was racing with possibilities.
One thing kept coming back to her.
Pulling back, she stared at him. “I want to see her.”
He shook his head. “Not happening.”
“Please. I have to, Regent. I think . . . I think I can get her to talk. Please.”
“No. It’s dangerous.”
“You’ll keep me safe. I know you will.”
He still shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you upset!”
Strangely, his anger didn’t upset her. She just breathed happily. “I’m already upset. And I don’t think I will feel better without closure. Please let me talk to her.”
He glanced away, but at least he was thinking about it.
He ran a hand over his head and picked up his phone, tapping on it. Finally, he put it down. “Fine.”
“I can go?” she asked in shock.
“Yes, but you will do everything I say. Understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” she whispered. She was dealing with Regent the Ruthless King right now.
“You will not allow her to upset you.”
“I won’t.” That was going to be harder to do.
“And I am going to spank you every night for a week for this.”
She squirmed. He’d given her the remainder of her spankings last night after she couldn’t settle into sleep. Despite him also giving her three orgasms and fucking her while she was bent over the bed.