Reckoning (Wolfes of Manhattan 5)

“Oh my God. What did they do to these women?”

“They hunted them. They weren’t allowed to kill them, but they could do everything but. Some visitors were true sadists, and they brought their prey to within an inch of their lives. Some just wanted to catch them to have sex with them. Whatever they did, I took care of them afterward. I made sure they were clothed, fed, healed in record time, so they could go back to the hunt.”

Zee squeezed my hand. She was pale. Pale and slightly green. My God. If she hadn’t gotten away… If Roy hadn’t been in that elevator that day… If the elevator hadn’t malfunctioned…

My poor, sweet Zee would be here. As worthy prey.

“I’m going to be sick,” I said.

“I may beat you to it, bro,” Rock said. “Not much makes me lose my lunch, but this…”

“I don’t know why we’re surprised,” I said, “after what he did to Riley.”

“As bad as that was,” Rock said, “this is on a whole other level.”

“Tell me,” I said to Diamond, “how is your son involved in all this?”

She sniffled. “Derek brought Jordan in once he turned twenty. He took him on lavish trips and waved money and women in his face. I lost my son then. Many times I’ve wondered why I didn’t try harder to escape. I stayed for my son, but Derek ended up taking him anyway.”

“So your son runs this place?”

She nodded. “But now that Derek is dead, and you have all his assets, we can close it down. We can save those women. Please. That’s why we brought Zee here. So you’d follow. So you’d—”

“Wait a fucking minute,” I said. “You’re behind this? You abducted my wife?”

“Yes, but if you’ll hear me out—”

“No.” I shook my head adamantly. “I don’t want to hear another fucking word.”

Zee squeezed my hand then. “Reid.”

“I’m sorry, Zee, but they didn’t need to take you. They could have picked up a fucking phone and called me. Called Rock. Called any of us.”

“Would you have taken the call?” Diamond asked softly.

“Of course! If you’d said who you were.”

“Really? A woman you’d never heard of calls you and claims to be your father’s only legal wife, who lives on an island you’ve never heard of. Would you have come, when your sister-in-law has already been arrested? When all of you are suspects? Would you have dropped all of that to come here?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But if you’d told us about the hunting ground…”

“I’m sorry,” Diamond said. “I couldn’t take that chance that you might not believe me. That you might not come. I had to go all in. For the girls.”

“So you kidnapped my wife.” I shook my head. “How do you expect me to forgive that?”

“Reid,” Zee said softly, grabbing my hand.

“What is it?” I said more sharply than I intended.

“Please,” she said. “We can save them. We can save the women who are here. We have to listen to Diamond.”

“She’s right, Reid,” Rock agreed. “She’s right. I don’t condone her methods, but Zee is unharmed, and now we can help these women. But I have one question before we go anywhere, Diamond.”

Diamond nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Who the fuck offed Derek Wolfe?”

46

Lacey

I’d bought myself a little time, but soon Jordan would find out I wasn’t pregnant. What did it matter, anyway? I’d either die here, at the hands of my newfound brother-in-law, or I’d die in a prison cell, having been found guilty of a murder I didn’t commit.

For the first time, I let the shit of this situation invade my mind. Rock was gone, off on some remote island where I had no idea if I’d ever see him again.

And here I was, trapped on a vacant floor of a building with Derek Wolfe Junior. He’d said he didn’t want to hurt me. He’d said he wasn’t going to let me go down for the murder.

Who exactly was he? And how were he and Fonda involved?

“Tell me,” I finally said. “What do you have to gain by doing this?”

He scoffed. “Don’t play your legal tricks on me.”

“It’s a question. You know I’m innocent. You know your brothers and sister—”

“They’re not mine. I don’t even know them.”

“Regardless, you know they’re innocent. So who’s guilty? You must know.”

No response.

“It’s a simple question,” I prodded.

“Actually,” he said, “the answer to that question is anything but simple.”

He might be right about that. Already I knew of so many people who were involved. Rock’s ex-friends Hoss and Manny. The Romero sisters. Hank Morgan. Terrence. And now Fonda. All I really needed to know, though, was who’d pulled the trigger.

And it dawned on me.

I might be looking at him.

Sure, made sense, right? Derek had completely abandoned Jordan’s mother. They might not have any money. Though he had the money to afford a pretty nice gun, from what I could tell. I didn’t know a lot about firearms, but this one looked a lot like—