Page 28 of King of Cruelty

“The only question is if this has always been a Brotherhood setup, or it’s a trap someone else set and the Brotherhood jumped in and happily sprung it.” My grip tightened on the mouse. “It makes me sick to say I’m leaning toward the latter.”

“Kenzie, I’m not following this.” Sunny grasped the chair and gently turned me around. “You’re saying someone else embezzled from Caddell House, and the Brotherhood used that to drag us and Vance into it.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” I avoided his gaze, stomach sick with shame. “And even worse... I know who it was. I know who figured out who the Johnsons really are, and used that info to scam millions from innocent suppliers. I know who did such a stupid, clumsy job of leading a fake paper trail to the Merchants, they were found out by an enemy that’s been hunting and fighting to uncover all of your weaknesses. And I know who offered you and Vance up on a silver platter all in the name of keeping his filthy money and seeing someone else go down for his crimes.”

Sunny stiffened, his lips peeling back from his teeth. I saw in his eyes... that he knew too.

GENNY

The darkness spun—twisting, entwining, crashing, and crumpling on itself. I burst out of it and vomited on the floor.

“—GH? FGH!”

Wheezing, I strained to lift my head. Voices crowded in, jangling my aching skull.What the fuck happened?

The last thing I remembered was running headfirst, Genny-style, into a mob of armed gangsters. The next, pain exploded in the back of my head and...

I cracked an eye open and immediately snapped it shut. The spinning world beyond my lids twisted my stomach, ejectingmore vomit past my lips. I didn’t need to remember what happened to connect the singing pain in my skull to the upset in my belly. Someone hit me hard enough to drop me into unconsciousness with a concussion as my going-away present.

“FGH? Can you hear me, boss?” someone cried. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I groaned. “Not okay. Definitely... not okay.”

Somehow, I forced my eyes open. Peering through my lashes, I took in the bland walls, bare floor, and the biting chill soaking into my wrists. I was chained up in the Brotherhood’s house of horrors.

“Can you get up?” Shug asked.

Every ounce of my strength channeled into my legs. I might as well have been a newborn for how much I struggled just to lift my head. With it an inch off the ground and away from my spreading vomit, I worked on my legs, getting them under me enough so that I could use the chains to pull me up into a sitting position.

Rising up, my chest heaved—pumping and rolling with my strained lungs.

Shug, Bee, and Pixie breathed sighs of relief to see me up. All except for the silently crying girl in the corner. Of course she was crying. I told her I’d save her, and all I did was end up chained to the wall right next to her.

“Please, boss, tell me your brothers and your parents are on the way,” Bee croaked. “They’re right behind you, right? With the firepower?”

I clicked my tongue, shaking my head at the three Bees spinning in my vision. “Shame on you, Bee. Do I look like a fucking damsel in distress? Think I need my mommy and my big brothers to save me?”

“Uh... yes.”

I blamed my mother for raising me so soft that I tolerated this disrespect. The woman just had to be all kind and loving and supportive, so I didn’t get my prerequisite evil-villain, mommy-issues backstory. Now all my Cardinals think they’re my fucking friends and equals, and damn me for always confirming it.

“I’m going... to let that slide, Bee, since you’ve been dealing with a traumatic... situation.” My head lolled, almost dropping me back in my sick. “I don’t need them to save me.” My chains rattled against the wall. “Everything’s going according to plan.”

Chapter Four

Kenzie

“This makes no sense.” Bane stalked in front of his wall of weapons, taking things down and concealing them within folds of his clothes to be found by no one but him. “Is Vance with the Brotherhood or not?”

“Not,” I said firmly. “He’s a pawn. A chess piece. One that they moved when the time was right, but were willing to sacrifice if the trackers were ever discovered.”

“But he didn’t frame us for the embezzling?” Bane took down a gun, examined it, rejected it, then put it back.

Sunny stretched out on the couch, holding me to his side while I dug and kneaded his bad shoulder.

“The embezzling started long before he joined the company,” Sunny spoke up. “Doesn’t make sense for him to take the job, discover someone cheated the company out of millions, and then frame us for it instead of finding and charging the person who actually fucking did it.”

Bane gave us a look. “He might’ve if the person who actually fucking did it threatened him. Forced him to pin it on us or he’d lose his job.”

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