Page 10 of Ruthless King (Mount Trilogy 1)
“Too late. Mount never makes a move without knowing everything about his target.”
“My parents . . . my sisters . . .”
Magnolia nods. “And your friends. Employees.”
My eyelids sink closed. “He said . . . he said there was something he was willing to take in trade.” I hate to voice the option, but I can’t contemplate the alternative consequences without running for the toilet again.
“What?”
I swallow another wave of rising bile before I answer. “Me.”
“Well, fuck.”
Keira
“What?” I ask, terror running rife at her whispered curse.
“I’m thinking.” Magnolia holds up a hand.
“Has he done this before? Is there a playbook for this?”
She shakes her head. “No. I mean, the man has had plenty of mistresses. He usually orders them from out of the country.”
“And?”
“After a few months, they disappear. Like they never existed to begin with.”
I think of Richelle LaFleur, the girl we knew from church that no one has seen or heard from again and was rumored to have been one of his mistresses. As far as I know, the police consider her disappearance a cold case.
My breathing speeds up again. No matter which way I look at the situation, the only ending that seems to be consistent is me dying.
Magnolia eyes me carefully, as if studying my every feature for the very first time. “After that mess with Richelle, he hasn’t been with any local girls.”
“Why deviate from his pattern now? Why me?” My words come out sounding just as frenzied as my brain.
Magnolia shakes her head. “God only knows.” Her reply doesn’t make me feel any better about the situation. She steps away, crossing to the counter to grab her cell. “I need to make a phone call.”
She leaves me on the couch as she walks out of the room, and I draw my knees up to my chest and contemplate my options. Magically come up with five hundred thousand dollars. Prostitute myself out to a man who has either killed or ordered people killed, and everyone he sleeps with disappears afterward. Or, prepare to die a horrendous death, knowing my friends and family are going to die too.
All because of Brett.
How could I have been so stupid? We’d met online, my first foray into the world of Internet dating. We’d been ridiculously compatible. Our first date had been a dream. It was effortless, the way I thought real love should be. And our chemistry? Off the charts. At least, at the very beginning. I was the one who brought up eloping, and he said it was the most romantic idea he’d ever heard. So, we did it.
And he was a con artist.
I thought he’d been so interested in the distillery because it was my passion, and after we got married, he wanted to be part of running it. We were going to be an unstoppable team, and that thrilled me. Until I spotted him and the other woman. All of a sudden, his reduced interest in sex with me became utterly apparent. He was too busy fucking someone else to want to go another round with me.
It was time to truly face the facts. Brett Hyde conned me. He never wanted to be part of a team. He wanted to use the distillery as collateral for a half-million-dollar debt to a man scarier than any villain Hollywood has yet to create.
I can’t stop picturing a woman dancing on shattered glass until the pain was so horrendous she slit her wrists.
He’s a monster.
I squeeze my arms tighter around myself, and Magnolia returns a few moments later.
“I only have a hundred liquid. I could borrow another two, maybe two an
d a half from my connections, but I can’t pull together five hundred in a week.”
