Page 48 of The Impossible

“Wake this motherfucker up. I don’t have all day.” I set my suit jacket on the end of the chair, then rolled up my sleeves. “You know what, never mind. I got it.”

I sent my fist into his sternum with as much force as a brick dropped from a fifteenth-floor balcony.

He immediately began coughing before his eyes opened. Confusion lived in them because he didn’t know where he was or why he was here. That part was obvious, but I had just enough time to remind him.

“Wh…what the fuck am I⁠—”

“Shhh.” I put my finger to my lip, stepping back. “You don’t ask questions here. You answer them.”

His lips popped shut and his eyes bounced around the room, never lingering too long. He was still dressed in the attire he’d worn to the gala. Hell, he had been hanging up here like drying laundry since the morning after. The stench in the room was rancid. It was a mix between sour body fluids and rotted intestines. It smelled like death, but I made sure he was alive enough for this moment right here.

“I’m not about to give you some speech about spilling your guts and making it out of here alive because you ain’t and I don’t respect a motherfucking thing about you or your people. You’re gonna die in here, but you’ve got some control over how fast it happens. I can make this shit painful, and beat the life out of you while continuously bringing you back, or it can be quick like the snap of a finger. That’s all up to you.”

He blinked several times, tears streaming from his hazel eyes. “I swear I didn’t wanna do it, but I had no choice. He said it was either Patience or my wife. I couldn’t lose my wife.” He sobbed.

I shook my head, then looked at my brother.

Otto laughed. “That’s fucked up because you could’ve gotten married again in this lifetime. Now that shit is over. You came after a Carter, not once, but several fucking times.”

“It was my only option.”

“I’on believe that, but let’s get into it. Why?”

He looked from me to my brother, at Steve, then the ground. “There isn’t a simple answer. He has money on her. She’s worth more dead to the family than alive. Every woman is. Thirty million if she dies, enough to clear the O’Leary debt and make sure the family thrives for another ten years.”

I shook my head, disgusted.

“And your mother? And grandmother?” Otto asked.

“My mother died by mistake. She had an allergic reaction to peanuts. Her death wasn’t part of it.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Your mother was poisoned at the very fucking Bistro my wife was shot at. Cyanide slipped into her food and was found in her system but covered up by Shamus. He saw twenty-seven million off her death.” I reported the information given to me by my brother this morning.

“So what was that you were saying about a thriving family?

“That’s not true,” he countered.

“Very fucking true. Shamus’s family’s entire legacy is built off this,” Otto responded.

“You were about to knock off your own fucking sister and didn’t know the full history of your people. Stupid, blind ass.” I shook my head.

He looked pitiful and I didn’t feel bad for him because had I not questioned where my wife was when I returned to where she had been standing with Amethyst, things would have gone a different way. My wife, who I had just found out was carrying our first child, would have been dead and this entire earth would have been ablaze.

“What do you want from me?” he asked after my stare had apparently become too heavy.

Otto laughed. “Damn that was quick. I have one question though. Why go after her before the wedding?”

“Because had she died on his watch and they were not married, Shamus would have seen double, on top of what you already paid for her hand. It was in the contract.”

It all made sense when he said that. I had noticed the death before the altar clause but disregarded it because I didn’t think somebody would come after her, let alone with all the security I had already put on her.

“Slimy motherfucker. And the insurance money too, huh?” I asked, looking him over.

TJ nodded.

“You got any proof of this? Matter of fact, how much is your father part of it?”

He shook his head stupid fast, throwing me for a complete loop. Otto asked before I could though.