Page 13 of King of Cruelty

He sighed. “You tell them. Apparently you already know.”

“I know you pop pain pills and grimace in corners when you think no one’s looking.”

My brows rose with every word.

“But I don’t know why,” Adeline finished. “Fill in the blanks, Sunny.”

“Sunny?” Hurt laced my voice. “What’s going on? When did you hurt your shoulder? Was it when you carried me out of the theater?”

“No, love, it wasn’t you and it wasn’t today. It’s just a lingering injury from that little tumble I took off an overpass,” he said, “and it’s fine. I’m taking care of it, so let’s all worry about the member of the family whoisn’tfine.”

“Let’sallmake it through this fight in one piece,” Adeline said. “Together. As a family who has each other’s backs. You all have had run-ins with members of the Brotherhood. You know this enemy better than we do, so I’m trusting you to take charge and get your sister back.”

“It’s in hand, Mother.” Liam didn’t look up from his phone, or mine. “I’ve already got my men en route to that gas station. This’ll be over before you know it.”

“It’ll be over in twenty-four hours,” she smoothly corrected. “That’s how long you have until I expect my daughter here and in my arms. If she’s not, I’m taking over.”

With that, Adeline swept out of the room, taking her band of husbands—each as gorgeous as the last—with her.

I flicked to the door she walked out of, and the expression on my guys’ faces. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Liam said, moving to Laurel. He fixed her bunched-up blanket and gently smoothed down her curls. “It would just be best that we meet that deadline and get Genny back. Obviously, the situation was already urgent, but now it’s more so.”

“Why?” Sienna asked. “Because Adeline said she’d take over if we don’t? Is that a bad thing?”

Sunny stroked the back of his neck, drawing my eye to the shoulder he never told me was injured. “Bestie, do you remember reading about that citywide riot that left hundreds of people dead, caused billions in property damage, and caused such a breakdown in peace and government, the National Guard had to be called to restore order again, and again, and again.”

“Um, yeah...?”

Sunny flashed her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “That was our mother playing nicely. She’ll make the Night of Tears seem like a children’s tea party if we don’t get that woman her daughter back.

“There won’t be a single blade of grass in Cinco City left standing.”

“I see,” I whispered. I went over to Laurel too, reassuring myself she was still safe, whole, and perfect. “Well then, we’d better get that woman her daughter back.”

GENNY

I counted the bumps and the turns in the road, still trying to memorize our path from that freaky gas station even though I lost my way a long time ago.

After Madison dragged me through the gas station shop and into the back room, I readied to fight that bitch and put her down hard. Wherever she was bringing me, it couldn’t be good.

But then she opened a door that led down, down, down to a long hallway and a solitary door at the end of it... and that door led to Brother Abraham.

He’d only just invited me to sit in that swanky underground lair of his when he noticed the tampon sticking out of my back pocket.

I didn’t try to hide it because hidden things are automatically suspicious, but my attempt at reverse psychology didn’t work. Hepolitelyasked me to hand it over, and then I had to watch as he popped the top and got an eyeful of the tracker.

He wasn’t even angry—as long as you didn’t consider calmly getting up, opening the door, and shooting Madison James in the face as angry.

Even my jaw dropped and eyes bulged when her scream abruptly ended with her body hitting the ground. Abraham didn’t yell. He didn’t shout. He didn’t give her a chance to explain. And he didn’t lose his bland, pleasant smile.

He just killed her.

So this is the man Vito was so terrified of, he stabbed himself in the neck rather than face his wrath.

Looking at that smiling psychopath right then... I understood Vito’s final actions completely.

“Quickly, get this to the theater,” he ordered his guard. “You know what to do.”

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