Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
“That girl is going to get us all killed.” Dennis stared at Shane. “You’re fucking with us. It won’t work. The boss can’t leave it. I wish we could because the truth of the matter is I liked you, Shane. I wanted to bring you and Bay in, though I agree with the boss that Bay is the lesser of the two of you when it comes to being solid enough to be one of us.”
Awesome. So he was the better brother when it came to potentially being a criminal. Bay had his savant-like art skills and Shane had…blind obedience? Well, turned out he wasn’t good at that either. “I would never have joined. I wanted out a week after we hired on. I knew something was wrong.”
Now that was a better way to look at it. He had way better instincts than his brother. He had known something was wrong with the Kingman Ranch. The same way he’d taken one look at that magnificent woman and known she would complete their family.
Dennis sighed as Kingman and his mistress yelled at each other. “Well, I thought you handled seeing the guns pretty well. You didn’t run until a few weeks later. What made you do it?”
He could be honest. He was close to the knives. He couldn’t make a move yet, but it was coming. “I heard you and Andy talk about getting rid of us. I knew enough by then to think it wasn’t going to be a firing.”
Dennis chuckled. “I wondered if someone was in the barn with us that night. I thought that might have been the reason you took off but I didn’t say anything because the boss sometimes loses perspective, as Dinah is about to find out.”
Kingman slapped the shit out of her. “Shut the fuck up. You need to learn your place. Get outside and wait in the truck.”
Dinah held her hand to her cheek. “But I did good, King. I killed that asshole when he was going to leave. I killed him right in the living room.”
Dennis frowned. “Where did you move the body?”
The room seemed to stop. Dinah shook her head. “What do you mean? I didn’t move no body. That’s man’s work. I shot him. That was my job.”
“That was not your fucking job, Dinah,” Kingman said between clenched teeth. “Your job was to ID where they would keep the sketchbook. You failed at your job or we wouldn’t be here.”
“How was I supposed to know they moved?” Dinah returned.
“Well, my dear, you were supposed to get into his bed and find it for me.” Kingman’s face was a mottled red.
Dinah sniffled, the first crack in her bitch-of-the-world armor. “He didn’t want me. I don’t even think it registered that I was flirting with him.”
Dennis stood. “Look, I don’t care about y’all’s relationship drama, but we have a problem if she says she killed a man who got up and walked away. Have you thought about that?”
Noah wasn’t dead? If Noah wasn’t dead, then they had more hope. Noah would try to find a way to call in Nate.
“He’s dead. I killed him,” Dinah shouted.
“I walked through there, and while there was a lot of blood, there wasn’t a body on the floor,” Dennis replied.
Kingman’s eyes closed. “Fuck. We need to burn the whole place down. Dennis, go tell Jones to forget the barn and get the gasoline ready. We torch the place and pray for the fucking best, and while we’re at it, I should solve another of my problems.”
He turned to Dinah and calmly raised his pistol and shot.
Shane’s whole body went stiff. He certainly hadn’t liked the woman, but no one deserved to go like that. And it all fell into place. “Meli was your mistress.”
Kingman’s expression was bland. As though murdering his lover was simply another task. “Bitch said she was on birth control but then she showed up pregnant. Wanted a piece of my fortune. That night I told her we were going to my lawyer’s. I couldn’t let her stay around or my wife would find out.”
“Now see, she actually could take a big old piece of his fortune,” Dennis explained. “No prenup.”
“Why the fuck would I have a prenup? We got married in high school. We had nothing to protect,” Kingman argued. “And I love her. But she’s old and doesn’t get my dick hard anymore. Trust me. My wife would have pulled that trigger, too. Now let’s get moving. First thing to do is take care of that asshole.”
And he was out of time. Shane moved as Kingman raised his gun again. They should have tied him up. He kicked the table over to give himself some cover and reached for the knives as the first shot blasted.
Cover. He had some. All he had to do was get to the next room. Trev’s office had heavy oak doors.