Page 90 of King of Cruelty

Her tight, designer dress hugged her voluptuous curves in all the right ways—screaming that she had money and a fine ass with the same breath. The breath that whispered against her full lips; wide, fawn eyes; pointed nose; and long, cheek-tickling lashes. I guessed she was about late-twenties.

“Why were you following her and the kid?” she demanded, half-throttling Selfie Bitch. “Answer me, or I’ll shoot you in the head.”

“Ah!” Lyla screamed. Taking Laurel, she raced to the bathroom and locked them both in.

Smart move. Laurel did not need to see the end of Selfie Bitch.

“I was f-following her b-because...” Something told me the head injury was slowing her down as much as the violent new stranger. “We were ordered to... follow her, the brother, and the girlfriend from the hangar. Make sure they all... went to the Fairfield,” she croaked. “But they split up.”

“How many of you were tailing her?” the Glamazon asked.

“Just me and—and my boyfriend, Nathaniel.”

The guy in the green car.

“Why does your boss want them at the Fairfield?”

She tried to shake her head, then thought better of it—going for slumping in the Glamazon’s hold instead. “Don’t know,” she got out. “I just... got a text from Mom last night. We never get direct texts from Mom, but when she speaks... you obey. It said to go to the hangar. Wait for the Merchants’ plane. Then make sure everyone on it made it back to the Fairfield... in time for the auction.”

“What auction?” I demanded.

“All the Merchants are being auctioned off.” Pained eyes found mine just to glare at me. “There’re even bidders for the Rat King, your thieving sister, that baby, and you.”

“Me, Kenzie, and Laurel? What the fuck? And you’re okay with that?” I cried, roaring up on her. “It never occurred to you that some anonymous creep who wants to buy two women and ababy, doesn’t have good intentions!?”

She smirked at me. “Why should I give a shit what happens to you? The Merchants didn’t care when they destroyed my father’sbusiness and took his clients, suppliers, and merchandise. We lived in a homeless shelter for two years while they got even richer, living in their mansion in the sky!

“You’re on their side, you can meet the same fate.” She shrugged even though she was bent at the waist with a gun decorating her forehead. “Not my fault you want to fuck around with scum, but won’t pay the consequences for it.”

“She could say the same thing about you,” the Glamazon mused. “But there’s more, isn’t there? You took a big risk chasing a woman and a baby through a crowded park in broad daylight. You seriously risked twenty-five to life just because someone sent you a text?”

“You don’t understand,” she hissed. “That’s your problem. You could never understand what the Brotherhood is trying to achieve! The auction is going to pull in millions of dollars. Tens of millions of dollars. Maybe even hundreds of millions! And when it does, Mom and Dad are going to split it equally among all of us.”

The Glamazon and I shared a look.

“They’re going to what?” I asked. “Among who?”

“Everyone in the Brotherhood. All the brothers and sisters,” she gasped. “While all the Merchants did was take, take, take. The Brotherhood is different. It’sbetter. Today, wealth will be redistributed on a scale the world has never seen before. And with that money, we the brothers, are going to destroy the cesspool the Merchants made of Cinco City, and build something new and beautiful in its place.”

“Right...” the Glamazon drew out, looking down at her captor like she was nuts. “And that’s why you couldn’t let these two get away. The moreproductsup for sale. The more money in your pocket.”

“You make it sound so sordid! All empires are built on blood, pain, and death! This one must be too, when we rise, we’ll create a fairer city for—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” The Glamazon twisted, wrenching Selfie Bitch’s neck with one hard jerk.

She let her body flop to the floor—dead.

“Disgusting hypocritical bitch.” Glamazon kicked her away. “Wants to rant about a better world while hunting down a baby just so she can deliver her into the hands of a trafficker. It’s insane how terrible people convince themselves they’re not. I mean it,” she said, tucking her gun into the holster concealed by her boots. “Insane.”

I gaped at her. “Uh... hi, and... thank you.”

“No problem, but if you really want to thank me, you’ll toss your phone battery into the garbage disposal. She said it was only her and her boyfriend following you, but she could’ve been lying.”

I was moving before she finished. Hurrying to the sink, I ripped out the battery, dropped it down the disposal, and stomped on my phone for good measure. “Thank you again.” I turned to her, leaning against the counter. “But who are you? I can sense that you’re not here to hurt us, but why are you here at all? Who sent you?”

She eyed me, grinning. “My name is Gianna Cross, daughter of Gianna Cross.” She rolled her eyes. “After two boys, both named after our father and grandfather, my mom made a big stink about how women should be able to name their daughters after them just like men do with their sons, so here I am. Gianna 2.0,” she said, doing a little spin. “But, that’s off the topic. The Brotherhood isn’t the only one tracking you, Sienna. Did you really think my cousins would let you fly off to New York with Uncle River without making sure someone was watching your backs?

“Of course, River can more than handle any threat, but then you guys split up, so I stayed on you and the kid, while River went off with Mackenzie.”

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