Page 14 of King of Cruelty

The man stepped over Madison’s body and took off without a word.

“You killed her,” I said, voice drained of emotion. “Why? It wasn’t her fault.”

“I must disagree with you on that point, Miss Genevieve.” Abraham flicked an imaginary speck of dust off his lapel. “She brought you here even though she wasn’t given instructions to do so, and she was silly enough not to realize here was exactly where you and your tracker wanted to be.

“A foolish mistake, and I don’t abide mistakes in my Brotherhood.”

I hummed, reclining in my seat. I wasn’t afraid of him and I wasn’t going to pretend I was just to stroke his sociopathic ego. “Since you don’t want me here, I guess that means the next bullet is for me.”

“For you?” His forehead crumpled, giving the perfect resemblance of a human emotion. “Of course not. You are my guest—uninvited or not—and I wouldn’t dream of treating you so brutishly.” Abraham leveled the gun between my eyes, his own glinting with undisguised malice. “That is, of course, as long as you quickly and quietly walk out that door and into the waiting van without any trouble. Any attempt to scream or signal someone, and I shoot you and them. Understood?”

I rolled my eyes. Again with the pointless comprehension tests? I understood just fine when a psycho’s pointing a gun at my head.

Fast-forward an hour, maybe even two hours later, I was rattling around in a darkened van with a cloth sack over my head. I was trying to chart our route, but if Abraham was smart, he’d be driving around in circles to disorient me.

And I had no trouble believing he was smart.

Eventually, the van slowed and then rumbled to a stop. The next thing I knew, the back doors flew open. Abraham and two men in suits stood on a red-dirt path with a backdrop of trees spreading out behind them.

We were outside the city, that wasn’t in question, but where exactly? There were hundreds of mansions and cabins nestled in the forest surrounding Cinco City. I knew because Bane dragged me around to check out half of them when he was scoping out the perfect hermit’s retreat.

“Step out, please, Miss Genevieve.” Amazing that Abraham was still playing the wholesome gentleman act while his two goons had guns trained on me. “Walk with me.”

I eyed him, and only him. The goons didn’t worry me. They were basically oversized action figures. They’d only move by his power.

Abraham lifted his chin and gazed right back at me, his vision never wavering—his dark, fathomless pools giving nothing away.

People who just met me assumed I was loud, brash, and impulsive. I struck first and considered the consequences later. But someone like that didn’t become the ruler of the second-most dangerous borough of Cinco, and then lived to tell about it.

I had to be hard, and I had to be violent, but I also had to be smart. I needed to assess every situation and have an exit strategy—or five—for when it inevitably went wrong.

I was assessing then. Calculating my odds of getting home with no weapons, no backup, no Cardinals, miles from home, and in the presence of a trigger-happy maniac bearing a psychotic grudge against my family, even though we didn’t fucking know this prick.

Exit Strategy: Still Pending

Meeting his dead eyes, I beamed wide. “I’d love to walk with you, and after we’re finished, do you think we could take a stroll over to my Cardinals? I’d love to see how they’re doing.”

“Of course,” he replied, beaming right back. “They’re eager to see you too, but, if I may, I must gently correct you. They’re notyour Cardinalsbecause your illegal and oppressive little biker gang is hereby disbanded.”

“It’s a biker gang, not alittlebiker gang,” I corrected right back, still smiling like a loon. “I don’t know what it is with men, always having to call what a woman does... little.”

Abraham’s brows shot together, then smoothed out just as quickly. “Forgive me, Miss Genevieve, you’re absolutely right to correct me. It was rude of me to downplay your business, and the effort you spent building it. It is never my intention to treat a woman as anything less than my equal. Especially not a woman such as you. I underestimate many people, but you will never be one of them.” He bowed his head. “I apologize.”

It was everything in me not to spit on his hair. His polite routine grated on my soul like a chainsaw. Never did I think I’d miss the misogynistic bastards who called me a cunt to my face. Anything was better than hiding their true hatred behind a plastic smile.

Saying nothing, I stepped out of the van and fell in beside Abraham, with two guns pointed at my skull.

“Stay here,” Abraham ordered the goons. “She won’t try anything.”

My fist ached to punch the certainty out of him, but I didn’t make a move. He was right. I wasn’t going to try anything when there was a chance to save my Cardinals. After what they did to Laura, I wasn’t letting them spend another day in the hands of this madman.

Abraham set off into the trees, expecting me to follow. I did with a scrutinizing glance behind me, taking in the modest, but pretty two-story house tucked away in its own part of the woods.

Heavy black curtains blocked out all the windows, and every inch of it was painted in different shades of brown. Even so, there was a nice wraparound porch boasting comfy chairs for those nights sitting out among the stars and the singing cicadas. No one passing by would ever guess there was evil lurking behind that beige door.

“I’m sure you have questions, Miss Genevieve.” Abraham walked strange and stiff-backed with his hands folded behind his back and his chin pointed at the sky. I wasn’t sure what persona he was going for, but all I was getting was stuck-up butler. “Ask them.”

“It’s Genny.” I walked four feet behind him, keeping one eye on him and the other on the coming trap. And yes, I was certain it was coming.

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