Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Bane cleared his throat. “But,” he said in a firm tone, “Levi did get some useful information. He found one thing that wasn’t protected or hidden. Seems our mad genius hadn’t been completely thorough. He left something of great importance behind. The one thing we can take to draw him out of whatever hole he is hiding in.”
My eyebrows shot up. The first good news I’d heard since being jerked out of bed before the fucking sun. “And that is?” I asked impatiently.
Linc took a folder and slid it across the table to me. I snatched it up quickly, anxious to find out what it was that I needed to go get to find this fucking asshole. He had made me look bad. Not just to my family here, but to the boss too. Four million dollars’ worth of bad. I’d always been the best bookie inside the family across all the Southern states. I brought in more money than any of the others. I didn’t like being made a fool of.
Snapping open the folder, I looked down at a photo of a…woman. A fucking gorgeous one. No. That wasn’t possible. This female was not in any way attached to fucking Perry Gerard. He might be stalking her, but that was it. The skinny, pale-faced geek did not have a stunner like this one interested in him. I shook my head, wondering how Levi Shephard had made such a mistake. Was he that blinded to other women now that he was married to his little redhead?
I held up the picture and looked at Bane. Had he seen this? “Not believable.”
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” he replied.
“That’s Perry Gerard’s older sister. She’s a second-grade teacher at Madison Christian School. She is his only living family member, and his call log—on a phone that Levi found under his name—had calls to her daily, as well as text messages. They keep in contact. He checks on her all the time. Tries to give her money regularly. Bought her a plane ticket and cruise for Christmas that she just used last month. He seems to spoil her. She is important to him. From what Levi has pulled up she is one of the two people he contacts regularly.”
Linc cleared his throat, then continued, “Her name is Winslet Gerard. Age twenty-three, as of three days ago. This was her first-year teaching in the classroom. Perry had paid off her student loans last year. She lives in a small apartment. No romantic relationship since she broke up with a boyfriend of two years almost a year ago.”
I stared back down at the photo in my hand. Brown almond-shaped eyes with ridiculously long black lashes, dark chestnut-brown hair that hung in waves over her shoulder, smooth olive-toned skin with no makeup at all. There was just pure, natural beauty. This woman looked nothing like Perry. Nothing.
I looked through the other photos. In the first one, she was carrying an over-sized tote bag with a large red apple on it that read Teacher on the front as she walked from a building out to a bright yellow VW Bug. That was a fucking ugly-ass car. Another photo showed her going into an apartment building, holding bags of what looked like groceries. There was one of her in a red bikini on a sun deck, holding a margarita while taking a selfie. I closed the folder, angry with myself for looking at her tits. I didn’t give a fuck about the size of her boobs.
“He calls her Winzy,” Linc went on. “She is enjoying what is left of her summer break. Should be easy enough to find and snatch her. I’ve already got a location ready for you to take her to. It’s set off in the back of one hundred acres of land in Natchez, Louisiana. It’s family-owned. An old plantation house that has been moved, along with an added basement and security for holding those who need to be kept hidden. I want to get her out of Mississippi to get Perry’s attention fast.”
Frowning, I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. He held out a key, burner phone, and a piece of paper toward me. I studied the items, but didn’t take them. I lifted my eyes back to meet his before giving Bane a brief glance.
“Are you telling me I am supposed to abduct this woman and take her to fucking Louisiana?” I asked. “Why can’t she just be held on the cabin on your property?”
One of Linc’s eyebrows slightly lifted. “A man has used us to clean four million dollars’ worth of counterfeit bills, and now, he is missing. We have the Feds on us, questioning where we got that much counterfeit and why it looks so damn real. I have no answers because the man who it came from can’t be found. Blaise Hughes is ready to start a killing spree, and your head isn’t safe from his path. So, yes, I expect you to take this woman, hide her, and keep her locked up in the basement.