Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
“I am not, you little whore!” He snarled. “You’ve ruined everything!”
“I’ve ruined everything?” The fucking nerve! “What exactly have I ruined?”
“He was going to dangle you in front of me for control of the air and seaports out of Knoxville, and with it about seventy percent of the cocaine and fentanyl traffic.”
Flagg’s mouth opened, but before he could say anything, Miles nodded. Knuckles swung one huge fist, connecting with Flagg’s jaw. That’s when I noticed the brass knuckles. Because, of course. When Knuckles stepped back, Flagg’s jaw was askew. I’d never heard my father make that particular sound before. I found I liked it far more than I should.
Zeb Randall looked on in shock. Where he’d been so arrogant before, now he was sweating and trembling. “Oh, God.”
“God can’t help you now.” Knuckles grinned as he cracked his knuckles. “And I doubt he’ll be the one welcoming you where you’re going.”
“What did you mean when you said you didn’t know about me until a few years ago?” The question was out before I could censor it, but once free I knew I had to have the answer.
Miles brought his attention to me, and I actually saw warmth there. Sorrow too. “A man I had working for Randall so he could report to me what was really going on, learned of you one of the times Flagg had to send for a doctor to see to your injuries. It took me some time to confirm you were my daughter’s child, but I finally did. The same as I finally confirmed what really happened to my daughter.”
Neither Flagg nor Randall bothered to say anything. I doubt they could do more than moan at this point. It was funny. My father, the man who was universally feared by his enemies and allies alike, who buried himself and his children so deep in anonymity and trained them to be assassins and elite soldiers, was whimpering, drooling and, I thought, might have pissed himself.
“You’re nothing like what I built you up to be,” I mused out loud.
“He’s a shadow of his former self,” Miles told me. “For three decades he’s been my muscle. After my daughter passed, I never fully trusted him but could never figure out why. He gave me no reason not to trust him, but I blamed him for Margaret’s death.”
“Wait. Stop.” Chains held up a hand, like a kid in school asking for permission to speak.
“Yes?” Miles raised an eyebrow, an expression somewhere between amusement and annoyance.
“Her mom’s name is Margaret? You’re shittin’ me right now. Right?”
“Why would I make that up?”
Chains looked more uncomfortable than I’ve ever seen a man look. “Uh, no reason.” He scrubbed the back of his neck. “I’m just gonna, ah, I’ll be in my apartment, Knuckles. I gotta…” The man was actually pale.
“Yeah,” Knuckles sighed. “Go on. Superstitious little shit.”
Everyone roared with laughter. Well, everyone but Miles, Flagg, and Randall. The latter two were in misery while the former just looked confused.
“I’ve really got to watch that movie.”
Miles stiffened. “Movie?”
“Yeah. Apparently, there’s a movie named Carrie. Chains is freaked out by it or something. I’ve not watched it yet.”
To my utter surprise, Seth “The Hammer” Miles, criminal kingpin in charge of the region, burst out laughing. In fact, he laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks and someone had to get him a chair. He actually wheezed with laughter.
When he finally calmed down, Miles sat with his head down for several minutes. When he looked up at me, it was with such grief and pain, but also a love so heartbreakingly deep it brought tears to my own eyes. “Your mother would have loved this story. I know how you came to Kiss of Death. The men you killed. All of it. I couldn’t get to you, so I drove you this way by putting people in your path who would help you get here. To these men.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because, when you left, I knew Flagg would be close behind you. What I didn’t know was how he’d started to lose his mind. He was always a mean son of a bitch, but I’ve been getting reports he was becoming worse.”
“Why would you just… give him your daughter?” I was on the verge of shattering. If this man had been so cruel as to force my mother into marriage with a monster, I wasn’t sure I could handle it. The thought was too much to contemplate.
“Carrie, I swear to you, I didn’t. Margaret told me she was in love with him. She begged me to allow it. I didn’t want her to marry him, but I wasn’t going to deny my only child what she wanted most.”
“Then what happened?”
Miles looked over at Flagg, then nodded at Knuckles again. Knuckles grinned, then hit Flagg again, this time on the other side of his jaw. Flagg tried to scream, but it came out more of a strangled gurgle. His jaw now hung loosely. Next to him, watching the whole thing with dawning horror, Zeb Randall looked like he was going to be sick and was pleading with Knuckles not to hit him all at the same time.