Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“What?” I asked.
“There’s a story,” he admitted. “Pretty much, some things happened to Keely…”
He hesitated as if he wasn’t sure how much to share.
“My dad was hurting my sister when my brother, Copper, caught him. Copper killed my dad, who was rich and important. My brother went away, and he’s been there for fifteen of his seventeen-year sentence,” he blurted. “About three years ago, one of my dad’s top aides was convicted of rape, and he’s also in prison. Which just so happened to be at the same prison that my brother’s at. My sister hasn’t confirmed it, but I have my suspicions that the reason that my sister refuses to come anymore is because of the aide.”
My stomach sank.
My dad was hurting my sister…
A dad hurting a daughter in any way was reprehensible. But I had a feeling the way he was hurting her went beyond that…
Disgust.
Pure disgust.
“Copper went down for your dad’s murder?” I asked, focusing on the major player, seeing as I was about to meet him.
“Yes,” he said, his eyes studying mine.
“Y’all should’ve gotten a better lawyer,” I grumbled. “Because I’m reading between the lines here but sounds like he maybe deserved it.”
He snorted. “We tried. My dad was just really…big.”
“Who was he?” I questioned.
“We don’t share the same last name,” I said. “When my dad died, we took my mom’s name. You’d know him as Castanon.”
“Castanon as in Castanon Industries, the biggest real estate mogul in the South?” I asked.
“That’s him.” He lifted his lip in disgust.
“I’ve heard a lot about him,” I said. “But I thought he was still alive seeing as his company is still thriving.”
That’s when Cutter’s eyes gleamed. “My sister is the one running it now…in her spare time. She owns the majority share of it, sits in as the head of the board of directors, and takes a pretty healthy dividend of their profits—or would if she agreed to take some of the shares. She won’t, because she feels like they’re Copper’s.”
“You don’t?” I asked.
He was already shaking his head before I could finish the question. “I want nothing of my dad’s. The only reason that Keely took it was because she was owed.”
I didn’t ask how she was owed.
But if Cutter felt like she was, then she was.
“Let’s go meet your brother first,” I urged.
“You want to go meet some random man in prison?”
I looked at the man that was still playing with his dick and said, “Most certainly.”
He followed my gaze and said, “Get the fuck out of here, perv.”
The man jolted, surprised that he was being addressed. Almost as if he was thinking he was invisible or something.
“Uh, I’m waiting for my lunch.”
“Then go wait in the fuckin’ car,” Cutter ordered. “Someone’ll bring it out to you.”
He opened his mouth and then closed it. “My mom said that I had to wait.”
“Does your mom know you’re a creep?” Cutter asked.
“Uh,” he said.
“Go,” Cutter snapped.
The man, which I now realized was a very young, likely not-all-there, early twenties ‘man,’ got up and bolted out the door.
“I’m still coming with you,” I asserted.
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “Okay.”
The ride to the prison was less than a mile.
“That is the women’s prison,” he pointed it out. “I have a friend that was in there. Her name is Sawyer. She’s married to a man that’s head of a motorcycle club in Louisiana.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s…interesting.”
He grinned at me. “She’s good people. Though, she was unjustly punished for something that wasn’t her fault.”
“I’m sensing a theme,” I said as he pulled to a stop in front of a building that looked intimidating as fuck. “I wonder how many men and women are doing time for a crime that was necessary.”
“Probably way more than you think,” he said as he got off.
I followed suit, grabbing the hand that he held out to me for balance.
I also held on to it for a bit too long, only realizing when we started walking that I was still holding onto it like a lifeline.
Did I let it go?
No.
I held onto it because I could.
When we got inside, a man’s gaze zeroed in on me.
“Rome,” Cutter nodded his head at the very large, very intimidating looking man. “How are the kids?”
I stepped behind my own very large, very intimidating man to block me from the other man’s view.
I wasn’t necessarily scared of him, per se, but the way he was looking at me like I was coming in here to do harm was making my heart race.
My watched vibrated, and I glanced down to see Shasha’s name on the screen with a ‘wtf are you doing at a prison?’
I ignored it, silenced my watch, and peeked out from behind Cutter’s muscular shoulder.
“They’re doing good.” He glanced at me, assessing. “How ya been? Haven’t seen your sister in a while.”