Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Interesting,” was all Cole Haywood said.
“Why didn’t you put Anna Novak in the well?” I asked.
West had spared me seeing the worst of it, but I’d heard enough—seen enough—before he’d pushed me out of the room.
Cole had done that.
Was that how he was going to kill me?
“I lost my temper. She had a mouth on her.” He shook his head. “If she hadn’t understood what she’d made and for whom, I might have let her live. But she knew exactly who Caro was. Who Prentice was. And what they were to each other. And she made the necklace anyway.”
“So, she had to die?” I asked.
Cole raised an eyebrow and met my eyes in the rearview mirror for just a moment—long enough for me to see the full flare of insanity in his vivid blue eyes.
“No, Avery,” he said deliberately, each word falling in careful measure. “She had to die because she had a smart mouth, and she pissed me off. And it seemed like something I’d enjoy.”
I looked away, unable to hold that gaze. I could tell by the light in his eyes how much he’d enjoyed it. It followed that he would probably enjoy killing me too. Was he going to stab me before he threw me in the well, or just toss me down into the wet dark to die of starvation?
I wasn’t wild about either option. I wriggled, shoving my hands down to feel my back pockets where I usually kept my phone. Empty. Fuck. Okay, think, Avery. I knew Hawk could track my phone. Was that all? I wouldn’t put it past him to have planted trackers on us. But I didn’t know. Hawk could be sneaky. Oh, please, Hawk, please have been sneaky. Based on the woods outside the window, we were far out of town. And even when they found out I was missing, without my phone, they wouldn’t know where to look or who I was with.
Despair rose in a dark wave, threatening to swamp me. I wasn’t giving up. I just didn’t know how to fight while I was fucking zip-tied in the back seat of his car. I couldn’t stop Cole physically—he was bigger than me, and strong enough to have carried me out of the brewery quickly, before anyone noticed. And I was restrained.
Panic welled, my throat tightening.
If Hawk was tracking me, and if they realized I was missing in time, there might be a chance someone was going to rescue me. And if that was the case, and Cole was feeling as talkative as he seemed to be, I should keep asking questions.
“Why?” I asked. “What did Griffen ever do to you, or Royal, or Vanessa, or Ford?”
“Your father stole my wife,” he said, “and killed her with that baby he put in her. He took them both from me. She didn’t want to have a baby with me. Did you know that?”
I shook my head. It’s not like Cole and Caro had run in the same social circles as me. I lived in my jeans and brewed beer, while Caro had been high heels and ladies’ lunches—even though she’d also loved the outdoors and hiking. We hadn’t been friends or even acquaintances. I’d known her enough to make polite small talk now and then when I got roped into a family function. That was it.
But even I knew how much Cole Haywood had loved his wife. I had no idea she’d denied him the children he’d wanted.
“It must have burned,” I said, “when you found out the baby was Prentice’s—that she’d had a baby with my father and not you.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Cole agreed.
“I don’t know why she thought my father would be a better parent than you, when he was pretty miserable at it,” I said.
“Agreed. But your father had a way of clouding the minds of even the best women. Look at Darcy.”
I sighed. Cole was right. I’d never understood how sweet, kind, loving Darcy had fallen for my father. She’d been the closest thing any of us had had to a mother, and she’d had a heart as big as the universe. Why the hell had she fallen for Prentice? I didn’t know a more evil man, except maybe Cole. As far as I knew, Prentice hadn’t murdered anyone. That definitely put him a rung above Cole in the Ethics Olympics.
“When did you find out?” I asked, my heart twinging the tiniest bit at the thought of Cole finding out the wife he’d worshipped had betrayed him.
“When she died,” Cole answered through a tight jaw. “I thought the baby was mine.”
“I’m sorry,” I said—because I was. He was a murderous psychopath, but he’d loved his wife, and it sounded like he’d wanted the child. A discovery like that could make anyone lose their grip on reality.