Page 110 of Pretty Lethal
Gun still pointed at her face, I bark, “Let’s take her back to the clubhouse. I have a few questions for her and then we can decide what fate she is deserving of.”
I swear I hear Hawk mutter, “a hellish one,” as he reaches out to grab my mom’s arms, wrenching them behind her back and holding them secure in his grip as he turns and marches her back down the tunnel.
The rest of us follow, alert with guns at the ready should my mother lash out or one of her followers attempt to come to her rescue.
Thankfully she goes quietly—perhaps she finally sees that she fucked up and there is no way out of here—and a few minutes later, Hawk is shoving her through the door, back into the room we entered earlier.
My eyebrows lift as I take in the dead bodies littering the floor that definitely weren’t there earlier.
“Damn, did we miss the party?” I pout; however, it quickly disappears at Hadley’s tinkling laugh, and I snap my head in her direction, happy to see she and the guys are all okay.
“Looks like you made it in time for the main event,” she says, jerking her chin in my mom’s direction as Mason helps Hawk shove her into a chair and restrain her wrists and ankles.
Give her a taste of her own medicine. See how she likes being tied to a chair and helpless.
“I think everyone who isn’t dead already, fled, but we’ll do a sweep of the rest of the house,” Beck states. His gaze flicks to Carrie’s. “Give you some privacy.”
“Thanks, man.”
He nods in my direction before heading toward the door, the others following. Hadley hesitates. “Just one thing,” she says before striding confidently toward my now-restrained mom. The second she’s within reach, Hadley slaps my mother across the face, hard.
Emilia’s gasp is barely audible over the slap that seems to reverberate around the room. “That’s for trying to kill Wilder,” she practically growls, making my dead, black heart sing.
Another loud slap on her other cheek. “That’s for having my best friend chased through the woods.”
A third slap rings in the air. “And that’s for burying her in a fucking box.”
Hadley is practically vibrating with rage as she towers over my mother. I can tell she wants to say more, but perhaps realizing it would be wasted on my mother, she instead straightens her spine and turns her back, dismissing her.
“Make her suffer,” she hisses.
Smirking, I twist Marie in my grip. “I plan on it, Sunshine.”
With a nod, West drapes his arm across Hadley’s shoulders and the five of them leave us alone to do what needs to be done.
Chapter35
EMILIA
“Was grandfather in on this hair-brained scheme of yours?”
Wilder dived into the questioning as soon as Hadley and the guys left, needing to understand the full extent of his mom’s plans. Perhaps sensing that it’s in her best interests to tell Wilder everything, or maybe she wants to prove how complex and incredible her plan was, Carrie has happily answered all of Wilder’s questions.
The woman herself scoffs. “That old fart? He doesn’t have the vision. Too obsessed with his own power and wealth and status to give a shit about changing the world.”
I fail to see how that differs massively from her own deluded ideals but whatever.
“So, what, you took advantage of a doddering old man’s failing memory to seize control of his secret society?”
“I wish. That would have been far too convenient. Edward always dismissed my ideas. Couldn’t wrap his head around the fact a woman had a grander vision of the Elite’s future than he did. Lucky for me, Robbie did.”
Her features slacken, grief flashing across her face so quickly that I almost swear I imagined it. Almost.
“He hated how Edward treated me after your father was cast out of the family. As if it was somehowmy fault,” she sneers. “I’m not the one who bore a son with a predilection for children. I’m not the one who couldn’t keep him under control, who allowed him to nearly disgrace the family.”
I’d heard about Wilder’s father’s… tastes. However, Wilder never knew why his father was kicked out of the family. It kinda makes sense now, given what we already knew about him.
Wilder shows no signs of surprise, so I assume he’d already figured that was likely the reason.
