Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“What? Sienna?”
He nodded, rising out of his seat. “I do not know what we did without you both, Mackenzie. Your sister had it right from the start. You have it right. Why weren’t we listening?”
“We had it right? Listening to what?”
“Why whoever is behind this doesn’t care who kills us or how we die,” he said. “It’s not about us at all.”
“Not about you?” I repeated. “Seems like it is to me.”
“Sole. Bane,” Liam called. “Sienna.”
My sister blinked at him from over her mug of tea.
“Sienna, you were right. These attacks aren’t about the Cardinals, the Sons of Saint, or any of us. The leader of the Brotherhood doesn’t give a shit about us. They want us dead to get to the real people they hate—our parents. Our deaths destabilize the empire they built. It drives them out into the open.
“We can’t think of an enemy behind this because it’s not an enemy we made. It’s one that’s been waiting, recruiting, and lying in wait for years, and they have no need to come out and face us because it’s not us they want.”
“Shit,” Sunny swore.
Bane emerged from the back, face grave. “That can’t be the only explanation.”
I bounced between the brothers. It was Sienna who voiced my confusion.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You must’ve suspected before that this could be an enemy your parents made.”
“We suspected that back when it was two guys,” Sunny said. “The assassin and the guy who hired him. That’s a manageable situation, bestie. But an entire organization headed up by a fucker we’ve never even met is not manageable. We can’t use ourselves as bait to drive them into the open, because we’re not the catch. We can’t assume they sent their best people after us, or that if we pick up Vito, he’ll have information worth extracting.”
“Wait.” I got up and joined the huddle. “Why can’t we assume that?”
“Because if they’re gearing up for the main fight with our parents, they won’t send their army after us,” Bane replied, “and they didn’t. They sent one assassin after Sunny, Liam, and Genny. That showdown at the shipping yard only happened because Snyder finally realized we weren’t to be underestimated. We’re not the endgame, Mackenzie. Our deaths are merely the tools used to torture our folks, and tools don’t get your attention or resources.”
“I still don’t understand why you three look so grave. Okay, we’re dealing with an organization instead of one man, but you knew that for the last two days and you weren’t as bothered as you are now.”
Liam grasped my shoulders. “Cold, efficient, calculating, intelligent, rich. Despite your high and flattering opinion of me, this person... is me. And if it’s me behind this, there’s nothing Sole could do to force me to reveal myself, and then give him a chance to warn our parents about who’s after him.
“He can search for as long as he wants. He can kill all the faceless assassins I send after him. He can walk past me on the street and receive no more than a passing glance. A cold, efficient, patient killer doesn’t get tripped up by the collateral damage. If we can’t force him to face us, we have to find him with nothing to go on.”
“Well, now that we know this is bigger than Snyder and bigger than the four of you, it’s as simple as asking your parents who they believe could be behind it,” I told him. “They’ll narrow the suspect pool for us.”
Sunny slumped in a seat. “I wish it was that simple, sugar butt, but I’m not exaggerating when I say they have about a thousand enemies.”
“You have to be,” Sienna cried.
“No,” Bane echoed. “It’s not just the gangs they crushed under their boots or forced to work for us. It’s the ledger. Mom revealed every secret in that book, Kenzie. Every bribe, every murder, every cover-up, every atrocity. Acts that people killed for or obeyed the ledger owner to keep quiet. All of that dumped on the internet to be trending worldwide news for months.
“The bomb that set off in Cinco is what left it too weak to fight back when our parents took over. Villains were exposed, and then killed by the families of their victims. Businesses ended in ruin when the CEOs drained accounts and fled to a non-extradition country. Fortunes lost. Parents imprisoned for life. Reputations destroyed.”
“You see, love?” Sunny said. “This could be anyone, or their kids. From the governor to the lowest gangbanger, they all have a reason to hate my parents. Do you see now that while I believe in your sister’s gifts, I’d have liked her to be wrong about this one?”
I thought of the little I knew about the ledger and the kind of names that were in that book. I thought of how much they’d hate the person who exposed them. Then how much their disgraced, penniless, and humiliated wives, husbands, and children would hate the Merchants too.