Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Bane’s captor moved so fast, Bane’s laugh was still in the air as the knife slashed across his forearm—tearing through flesh and muscle.
Bane growled, eyes popping and veins thickening on his neck. He clapped his hand on the weeping wound, glaring at Wilson with a venom that would put me on the ground if it ever came my way.
I had no idea how the dick was still standing.
“What happened?” Debra taunted as the room fell silent, leaving only River’s muffled shouts in the background. “Not laughing now, are you?”
“Oh no, we very much are,” Adeline replied. Her smile was wide, even pleasant. “I’m sorry, dear, but it’s quite hilarious that you think you’re being so clever and smart when in fact, this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done in what has surely been a pointless, trainwreck of a life.”
Now my bulging eyes were on her. What life were the Merchants living that they could laugh and insult the mad people holding knives to their brother/son and his girlfriend’s throat? This kind of blasé calm in the face of violent madness was just something I could never comprehend.
“How in the world could you ever think you could take charge in our home? On our turf?” Adeline pushed out her lips, gazing at Debra in convincing sympathy. “Has no one ever taught you the first rule of dealing with assassins?
“You never chase a snake into its den.”
I couldn’t see Debra’s face, but I imagined her expression wasn’t too pleased going by her tightening grip on my throat.
“I wouldn’t be too sure of yourself, or the Fairfield’s famed security,” Debra spat. “This isn’t your den anymore. It’s mine.” She flicked the knife in Bane’s direction. “Bring him.”
Debra dragged me out of the security booth so that her buddies could shove Bane in.
“Log in to the building security system and shut it off. All of your door codes, elevator codes, pressure plates—”
Bane’s and Sunny’s heads snapped up, surprise clear in their eyes.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Debra crowed. “I know about those. Just like I know about the poisonous gas, the security for Liam Hunt’s island home where I bet sweet little Lizzie is having her beach vacation, and the hidden tunnel leading to Caddell House.”
The Merchants exchanged looks again, but these weren’t amused.
“What do you say to that, Adeline? Want to lecture me some more on my ignorance?”
Adeline didn’t reply—her pinched expression as deafening as her silence.
“Log in and turn it off,” Debra said, “and don’t try anything, Alexander. I told you, if I’m surprised, my hands will slip.”
Bane gave her a look that would’ve boiled her head. “I can log in but I can’t turn off the system. Only the developer knows the code, and that was by design. If no one in the family knows, then none of us can be forced into doing what you’re doing now!”
“Let me worry about that. Just do what I said.”
Flicking from her to me to his family, Bane sat down.
Wilson and Debra—and I—were shadows over his shoulder, tracking his every twitch and keystroke. As ordered, Bane pulled up a program called Cofre. He logged in, then Wilson grabbed his desk chair and flung him back. A hard shove sent me flying too, right into Wilson’s hold.
“You all thought you were so clever.” Debra sauntered up to the desktop, flipping the knife on her palm. “Hire a security expert in complete secrecy, allow him to choose the shutoff code, and then send him on his way. No one would know the important information he holds in his head. No one will even look his way.”
“And no one can,” Liam sliced in. “He died over a decade ago, taking the code with him. He was—”
“—shot in his home,” Debra finished. “The police claimed it was a burglary gone wrong.” She smirked right in his face. “I think they wrote that on the report to make his wife feel better. It was kinder than telling her I didn’t take a damn thing when I tortured him for hours until cutting things off finally made him loosen his lips.”
I goggled at her. “What the fuck! What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Debra blinked at me, holding her hand to her chest like who? Moi? “Not a thing is wrong with me, Mackenzie Blaine.”
I shivered at her casual use of a name she shouldn’t know.
“What you should really be asking is what is wrong with your pals here? How could they have been so stupid as to let an outsider walk out of here with the code to their security? And of course, because they’ve never known the code, they’ve never been able to change it any time in the last ten years. So this...”
Bending over, she pulled up the main screen. Clearly displayed across the top was GUEST MODE, but beneath it were some of the modes Bane talked about. Family Mode, Hostile Enemy Mode, Natural Disaster Mode, and even a Cops Mode. At the bottom beneath all of that was a red button we all knew well: