Page 3 of King of Cruelty

“Whoops,” Genny sang. “Guess we dropped the innocent act.”

“I am innocent,” Madison cried. “That’s not what you think. I didn’t—”

“Save it,” I snapped. “You met with the Forbises every weekend for three months. You don’t think they remember who took fifty thousand dollars from them and then gave them the answer to their prayers? They could pick you out of a lineup with fifty of your evil clones! Admit it! You and Luca were working together! You set me up!”

Madison’s gaze darted around, looking for an escape. “Okay, I did, but—”

I punched her dead in the face. Madison dropped like a stone, laid flat out on her back. “You evil piece of shit.” My voice shook. “You picked me out and offered me and my daughter up to Luca, knowing exactly what hell he’d put us through. What went wrong with you, Madison? How did you become... this?”

She pushed herself up, clutching her bleeding nose. The fury in her eyes burned me where I stood. “Fuck you! Why should I give a shit about trash like you? You’re the spawn of some crazy murdering psycho who shot your daddy over tea and cookies. When you faked those designs and conned your way into the Phenomenal Five, it was obvious you didn’t fall far from the criminal tree.”

“Ah. Here we are,” I said. “Part four. Before you continue explaining why you’re justified, you should know I didn’t fake or steal anything. I was set up by Damien and your buddy Lyla.”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “No one buys that crap. If you’ve never done a thing wrong, why are you shacked up with her family! Another band of crazy murdering psychos! No, Kenzie. I saw you for exactly what you are. There was no saving you, but there was still a chance for your kid. Whatever Luca did to you was his business, but I knew he would give me your kid, and I’dplace her with a proper family. I would’ve been doing that kid a favor.”

I bristled. The urge to punch her again welled in me so strong, I cut my palm clenching my fists. “Who gave you the right to decide? No one asked you to be my baby’s fairy godmother.”

“Someone had to be,” she shouted. “Someone had to look out for those kids and give them a better life. You weren’t going to do it, and the Merchants sure as fuck weren’t either.”

Genny stepped forward. “What does my family have to do with any of this?”

“You have everything to do with it! My mother got involved with the Merchants. She was like you, Kenzie. A fake. A fraud! She used to run scams and cheat people out of their money. And of course, any criminal that operates in the Cinco city limits pays a tax to the Merchants.” She spat the name like it tasted foul on her tongue.

“When she was my age, she quit the life, changed her name, and met my father, Richard James. Our life was good,” she cried. Her whole body shook. “We lived in a penthouse in Leighbridge, and had two other homes overseas. I went to the best schools. My best friends were the sons and daughters of models and movie stars.

“Too bad dear old Mom missed the thrill. She started up again, but this time didn’t tell the Merchant overlords that she was back in business. Eventually, they found out and you know exactly what they did, don’t you?” Madison didn’t give me a chance to answer. “They ordered her to cut them in or they’d shut her down. Mom refused and the Merchants gave her up to the police! While she was fucking being arraigned, they hacked her secret accounts and drained them.”

I asked, though I could guess, “What happened to you?”

She lifted her shoulders, eyes dull. “Dad paid to get her off, but after the charges were dropped, he was done with her. He invoked a clause in their prenup that left her with nothing... except me. Just like that, I went from penthouses and private schools, to living in a Rockchapel dump. Unfortunately for Mom, she wasn’t running any scams after her face ended up on the news. She had no choice but to take a string of dead-end jobs just to make rent. In the end, she fell into depression and killed herself.” She jabbed a bloody finger at me. “Your precious Merchants did that to us. They destroyed my life for nothing!”

Madison stood up, lifting her chin high. “When Luca suggested we partner up, he told me about the kind of women that came through his buildings. Alone, on drugs, drunk, with more baby daddies than they can count, and just as twisted up with the Merchants as all the criminals in this city. The Sunshine Agency was his idea, but it was a good one.

“I’ve lived these kids’ lives. I know the hell of crime and poverty. The families I placed them with were the opposite in every way. These parents are wealthy, responsible, stable. They’re giving those children everything they could ever want and more. If those mothers really gave a shit about them, they’d give me an award. I did what they couldn’t do—give their kids a decent life.”

One moment I was six feet away from her. In the next breath, I tackled her to the ground. “How dare you!” My hands were around her throat, throttling her as burning corrosive hate shattered my self-control. “We weren’t trash to be thrown away because of money! Because of our pasts! The lives we’d give our children were not less because we couldn’t send them to fucking private schools or summer in St. Tropez! How dare you decide I wasn’t worthy to love and raise my daughter! How dare you! You crazy, evil bitch,” I screamed into her reddening, bulging face.

At that moment, I hated her more than Damien. More than Lyla. More than my father. She handed me the card that destroyed my life and put my daughter in the path of a beast like Luca Adams, and she didn’t have the decency to be sorry. I couldkill her!

And Genny just stood there as I knew she would, letting me deal with the demon who haunted my life from the shadows in my own way.

But not this way. Sense broke through the fog.Madison has more to answer for now. She has information that will help the men I love. And who knows, maybe after she and I make a video, she’ll stab herself in the neck.

It was an ugly, vicious thought, but I had nothing less for the woman who plotted to sell my child while she was still in my womb.

“Madison.” I released her throat and flipped her on her stomach. She sucked in deep lungfuls of air, hacking and choking. “It’s too bad you didn’t take a hint from your mother about what happens when you piss off the Merchants. Good thing for you, they’ll give you a chance to make it up by telling us everything you know about the Brotherhood.”

“Never!”

I wrangled her hands behind her back. Genny was there before I said anything, helping me secure her in the zip ties.

“You can’t do this,” she bleated. “I’m not going with you!”

“You are and so is little Poppy.” I hauled her up. “Laurel is going to be so excited when she meets her new puppy.”

“I’d die before I betray the Brotherhood.” She thrashed like a wild animal in my grip. Genny had to help me keep a hold on her. “Their cause is just. It’s right! The Merchants have bred criminals in this city like rats, so they could appoint themselves the judge, jury, and executioner. They don’t care how many innocents are ruined to keep their power.”

Madison flung her head back. I jerked to the side, nearly catching her skull on my nose. Thissisterwas not going down easily.

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