Page 21 of King of Cruelty

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Bane said. “They wound up in the ledger and ended up bribing, cheating, stealing, and killing for Keiran after Keiran. And then all of them were slapped with life sentences after the ledger went public. Their businesses were gutted and sold for parts.”

“Guys, I...” I swallowed hard. “I have to tell you—"

“What do you want to bet that’s what we’re dealing with here?” Sunny went on. “Another band of rich fucks who are hiding behind their desks while paying C-class henchmen to attack us.”

“Sunny. Bane.” I tossed my head. “We were wrong.Iwas wrong.”

“Wrong?” Bane turned to me. “Wrong about what?”

“Well... I mean, I can’t say for sure but... But what if we were wrong about Madison?” I scowled, thinking back to every part of our conversation in that park tunnel. “I didn’t realize this before, but Madison never confessed to putting the trackers in your clothes. I assumed it was her because she was working for the Brotherhood, but Madison isn’t that clever,” I dropped, thinking of Adeline. “She’s a dumbass who let herself be the face of a child-trafficking ring. Someone that stupid doesn’t suddenly come up with the plan that almost brought the Merchant family down.

“And when I think about it, she didn’t even fucking say she did! All she confessed to was working with Luca. But it wasn’t her,” I breathed. “It wasn’t her.”

“But if it wasn’t her, then who was it?” Sienna asked.

“If we have to think bigger, thinkrich, then we should think about who knew the Johnsons were really the Merchants, and who would hate that their upscale fashion house was basically a bargain basement bin for said Merchants. Who would be sopissed that every time a Merchant order came in, they had to make their top designers drop everything just to ‘sew the housekeeper’s mom jeans’ and then sell it to you guys for a steal?

“Who would desperately want a family of criminals out of their business?” I met Sunny’s eyes. “Who would sew a few trackers in their clothes to make it happen? And who told us to our faces that he personally does final checks on every Johnson order that goes out the door?”

Sunny’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“Hollywell.”

Chapter Three

Sunny whipped around the corner, sending off a blaring chorus of car horns.

We’d been speeding all over Cinco all day. Night was already beginning to beat the sun back over the horizon. My stomach screamed its hunger, my head wailed its worry, and my heart longed to just go home and hug my daughter, but no one was going anywhere and doing anything until Genny was safe from the clutches of those psychopaths.

“But I don’t understand, Angel.” Sunny jerked hard to the right. “You had Hollywell on your suspect list and then you took him off. Why did you think he was innocent before, but guilty now?”

“It wasn’t that I thought he was innocent. It was— Honestly, I thought he was too much of a pathetic bitch to side-eye your clothes, let alone put trackers in them.”

Sunny’s brows shot up. “Oh? Say more, love.”

I cringed. “Ugh, just think back to the day we talked to him in his office. He’s got at least fifteen years on you, but he was bowing and scraping at your feet with all that ‘yes, sir,’ ‘no, sir’ stuff. It was embarrassing,” I confessed. “Every other Brotherhood person we dealt with before bled with hatred for the Merchants, but this guy nearly wet himself because you yelled at him. None of that screamed evil-villain mastermind to me, so I took him off the list.”

“But now it does scream evil-villain mastermind?”

“It does if it’s all an act.” Grave eyes took him in. “It does when you think about how desperate Hollywell is to protect the reputation of Caddell House, so desperate, he dropped the punk-ass-bitch routine for a split second, and stood up to you when you tried to make him hire a supposed fraud and thief.

“It does when you think about the fact that almost everyone in Cinco knows that the Merchants are a notorious crime family, but theydon’t knowthat Caddell House only exists because of that crime family. They’re a global brand now. If the world finds out how they got their start, they’re ruined,” I said, my words rushing out in a tidal wave of certainty. “Of course they want to sever all ties and bury their dirty money, but they can’t because your father made the first owner sign a binding contract stating the Merchants would be valued VIPs for life.”

“But after Genny went all Blonde Bandit on the place, he closed our account, fired you, and banned theJohnsonsfrom Caddell,” Sunny argued. “If he always had the balls to rip up that contract, why didn’t he just do that instead of joining an actual criminal organization!”

I shook my head. “Baby, Sienna said it. The Brotherhood said it! They don’t see themselves as the criminals. They see themselves as the victims rising up against criminals and fighting back. Besides, he didn’t rip up anything. That was just more of Hollywell’s bitch-baby playacting.”

The look on Sunny’s face told me he didn’t know what I meant.

“Think about it, my love. Hollywell was onto us from day one,” I said. “Out of nowhere, Sunny Bellisario blows into Caddell House and announces that the entire family is donating their wardrobe to charity, and—surprise—we’re making you hire a new designer that’s loyal to our family. Hollywell knew in that second that the trackers were found, and that you were looking for the culprit, otherwise, you would’ve closed the accountyourself and had nothing more to do with Caddell House. You don’t crawl on the floor unless you’re looking for a rat.”

“Fucking hell,” Sunny breathed, nodding slow. “He must’ve been scrambling. Vance couldn’t give himself away to you, but he also couldn’t let the Brotherhood know that he failed. That he had one fucking job and he screwed it up. But after Genny busted in there with a gun, she gave him the out he was praying for.

“He closed our account and banned you and the Johnsons from the place both to stop you digging aroundandto give the Brotherhood a valid reason for why the tracker plan was dead. It wasn’thisfault. It wasourfault for destroying the business relationship so badly, the only thing it made sense to do was cut all ties with us. It would’ve looked hella suspicious to everyone if he didn’t. But,” Sunny cried, jumping on my thought train for the ride. “Deep down, he’s still a fucking coward, and that’s why he had you deliver the breakup note instead of telling me to my face. Because he’s exactly what you said, baby, a brother, and a little bitch.”

“Exactly.” Even in the midst of all the danger and betrayal, I couldn’t help but smile. The Brotherhood thought they had us so scared. They believed they couldn’t hide in the shadows and watch us scramble, but they weren’t as smart as they thought they were. “You told me to think big. Big money and big motives, well, Caddell House rakes in billions in revenue every year. That’s billions with a B, baby. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.”

“They’re big because of us.” Sunny pounded his chest, rage leaking into his voice. “Because my old man took a chance on a random high-school dropout with nothing to his name but a full sketchbook. He took a chance on him and gave him the money to make his dream come true, but now all of a sudden our money is dirty? They almost kill me, you, my brother, my sister, and myniece because fucking Caddell House got too good for the people who made them!”

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