Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Legend stepped forward. “Are you saying Steven Ellis reformed the Men of Honor? That’s how he started this.”
“I can’t be sure it was him who reformed it. It could’ve been his father who did the legwork, and tracked down the remaining descendants of the Men of Honor, but Steven is the one who tried to use Scott Cavendish to do his dirty work here,” she said. “He used the trust he had as people’s accountants to push them into selling their properties to Steven’s shell companies.”
I knew even before she said it.
“One of them was AgriProspects.”
“Hold on. Stop.” Legend put up a hand. “Ellis was behind AgriProspects? He sent them after your grandmother? Then, why in the fuck did Cavendish approach you after she died? Why whip you up for revenge?”
“Haven’t you realized by now? Scott Cavendish is no one’s lackey. Steven was setting everything up so that everything—the land, the town, the diamonds—would be owned by him, and the other Men of Honor would have to trust he’d keep his word about splitting the profits.
“What kind of sociopathic monster trusts another sociopathic monster? He saw through Ellis from the beginning, but he used the society he was reforming to build his own loyal group of psychopaths. Scott broke from him,” she explained. “That’s why Ellis sent his sons here in the end. Scott took over the Men of Honor, and what was an out-of-towner who was fighting to keep a low profile to do about it?”
“Approaching you was a fuck-you to Ellis,” Legend confirmed. “But then why did it go so wrong?”
“They were on opposite sides, but they want the same thing. Bedlam.” She folded back onto the sheets. “Thanks to Ellis, Scott’s people know the true history, what your mothers do, and what Cairo’s father does for them. They believed the drunk, depressed sheriff was the weakest link—”
I stiffened.
“—but he wouldn’t give in. Whatever Scott said or did, the sheriff told him to fuck off. So... he and Zoey ordered me to kill the last person he cares about.” She met my eyes. “A man who has nothing has no reason to fight.”
Her eyes glazed. For a moment, I thought the imposter vanished and Rainey came back. “They taught me that lesson too.”
“But why?” I gritted. “What could they possibly have wanted from my father? They already knew about the Society. Otherwise, his job is to make sure outsiders don’t have a reason to look twice at Bedlam. How the fuck does that help them take over?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know.” My voice was nothing more than a growl. “You’ve had a whole bunch to fucking say about Cavendish and Ellis—too fucking late after the fact. But now you don’t know? How convenient.”
Rain— Ivy’s gaze darkened. “Oh yes. My sister getting murdered and me losing my fucking mind was convenient. Convenient that the beasts who took her, ran around unchecked and laughing at me all this time. So convenient for me, Cairo. The real tragedy is what it did to you. The guy I lost her to save!”
“Don’t turn this around. How is it you know everything else except that? More than we fucking know.”
“Simple,” she rasped. “Scott told me when he thought he had me under his thumb. Naturally, the manipulative shit spun everything to make himself the victim. Ellis tricked him into believing they were restoring the town to its former glory, when he really just wanted to level the place and dig it up.
“Ellis said they were giving back what was stolen, but actually he was stealing from innocents like Gran. Ellis recruited him to save Bedlam, when the truth is he purposely chose descendants from the Men of Honor so that he’d have a handy scapegoat if the truth ever came out. And the person who’d make sure all of his cheating, lying, stealing, and killing would lead back to Cavendish is—”
“My father,” I dropped tonelessly.
“Cavendish convinced me your dad helped AgriProspects and Clein get away with killing Gran. The investigation was botched. I had no reason not to believe him about that or anything else. But the problem was it wasn’t Sheriff Jack he wanted me to go after. It was you.
“I refused, of course. I wasn’t going to kill some random guy. Gran didn’t raise someone who hurt innocent people. I was gone but I hadn’t lost myself that completely. I wouldn’t give in to him. When Zoey and the others came and...” She cleared her throat. “She had a lot of fun telling me how stupid and gullible I was. She was almost impressed with me for finally waking the hell up and pushing back against Cavendish, but I had to suffer for getting in their way all the same. She told me everything. Like she already knew I wouldn’t get the chance to tell anyone else.”