Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“You’ll tell me everything now.”
“Jess! Come on!”
“Now, Leo. Before you bleed out.”
“Jess! Now!”
I waited. I was finding that I wasn’t having a moral dilemma here. Not one bit.
“Agh! Come on! Are you serious?! Fine! Fine! I work for Dominic West. Always have. I went in undercover when I was a cop. It’s how I met your dad. How we got close. He was my target, but things got complicated.” He choked off, breathing hard. Harder. He began slumping down. “I . . . I . . .”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dominic was behind the hits tonight, wasn’t he? The ones against Trace and Ashton?”
He moaned. “Jess, I don’t have long.”
“Then tell me everything. Now!”
He raised his head, squinting at me a little before sighing. His head fell back down. “Yes. It was Dominic and Nicolai Worthing. Nicolai’s been trying to push in. He gave your uncle a proposition, but Stephano didn’t bite. But Dominic, he did. He made the call tonight that everyone was going to go. Everyone. He’d take over the family business, and he’d work with Worthing, let them in on their deals.”
Right. Okay. That was a lot to process, but I’d deal with all of that bullshit later. “Did you kill my dad?”
He nodded, frowning, eyes fluttering like he couldn’t see straight anymore. “Yeah. That was a long time ago. Stephano ordered it, but Dominic’s been holding it over my head the whole time. Said he has evidence on me. Forcing me to keep working for him, giving him information.”
“How?” That word ripped from me.
He drew in a deep breath, then began coughing. Blood was coming up. “D-d-doped up your brother, made him think he killed him. He was all broken up about it, why he didn’t fight the conviction. Said he had to go in, pay penance for you and your mom.”
“Why did he want me dead? Why tonight?”
“His kid wasn’t killed tonight. Couldn’t find him, so he gave me this order to hurt him. Trace is in love with you, but Jess, I didn’t want to do it. I wasn’t going to. I was going to figure something else out. I swear.” Other liquids were seeping down his pants, and he groaned. “Jess, I don’t have long here.”
“Then hurry the fuck up.” Cold. Ruthless. I was out of my body, not recognizing who I was, but she wasn’t fucking around.
“Aghofhygod. Please, Jess! Please.”
“Talk!”
His eyes rolled up, then around. “Oh my god. I’m dying. Everything is going black. Jess. Come on. Please . . .” He was whimpering. The life was draining out of him before my eyes.
“What was the plan?”
“Dominic was the one giving information to Worthing, who’s got cops on his payroll. Said he had to make it look like they tried for him, too, had them shoot his own house when he wasn’t there.”
“What does this have to do with Bear? Why was Bear there tonight?”
“I don’t know. I think he was there for me, knew I was coming to kill you tonight. Only thing that makes sense. He knew Dominic West too. Fact, I always thought he was being paid to keep tabs on your mom. Like I was paid to keep tabs on you. It’s why I recruited you to be a PO for me.”
I was sick, all over again.
He’d set me up. Everything.
Everything he was showing, panting, chest heaving, liquids coming out of him, was what I was feeling inside. The difference was that it wasn’t my body dying. It was my soul.
“Why were you supposed to keep tabs on me? Why was Bear supposed to watch my mom?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t.” He couldn’t lift his head up, so he rolled it to the side to see me. “Oh, God. Jess. I’m dying. Please call for help. I swear. I swear . . .”
He didn’t finish, and I didn’t care.
Maybe I would. One day.
Not today.
I turned to go and braked.
My mom was at the door, and she had her phone in hand. “Yes.” She spoke, giving them Leo’s address. “We need an ambulance to the garage. There was a shooting.” I could hear them asking more questions, but she pulled the phone back and hit the button. She ended the call.
I didn’t blink an eye. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough. Too much. You shot Bear in self-defense, but I won’t let this piece of shit’s death be on your conscience.”
I had to blink twice to make sure this was my mother in front of me. She was standing, looking calm, speaking clear. There were no hysterics like before. “Why are you suddenly so calm? You were pissing your pants ten minutes ago.”
She studied me a moment. “I think I’m in shock. Again.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
JESS
Maybe I shouldn’t have gone.
I’d been the one to pull the trigger, but Bear was still family no matter the circumstances of why he was coming into the house, wearing a ski mask. The running theory was that he knew about Leo’s involvement and was there to stop him. Leo had said it himself to me, overheard by my mother, and we’d both given that account to the authorities.