Page 200 of Brutal Savage

Nausea returns to my gut, swirling and crawling up my throat until all I want is to dig a hole and die in it.

My heart…how much more can it break? I want to scream. Want to tear everything apart, the way my whole life has been torn into pieces.

Jerry snickers. “You don’t know what really happened to your mother, do you?”

Gran jumps from her seat. “Shut up, Jerry!”

“Why the hell would I do that? I thought we were all being open and honest, Gran. So tell her. Go ahead.”

“Tell me what?” My heartbeats rap wildly against my ribs, the room spinning faster and faster with every second I wait for an answer.

“Don’t you dare!” Gran flares him with a venomous glare, but he’s too busy leering at me to care.

“Your grandmother. She ordered the hit.”

CHAPTER 41

ELARA

“You’re lying!” I shout at Jerry. “Gran, please tell him!”

I stare at her.

Waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting for her to deny it.

But it never comes.

And my world? It comes barreling down, and there’s no way to come back from that.

No way at all.

“No! No! Why!”

She couldn’t have done that. She loved Mom!

I can’t be here. I…I need to get away.

My snivels wrack me and my fingers curl at my back, wanting to rip through the zip ties and run from here. From her. From him.

I just want Tynan. I want my husband. I just want to crawl into his arms where it’s safe. Where I’ve always been safe. The people I trusted were the ones who were lying to me. He’s the only one who was actually honest with me. He never hid his intentions. He told me who he was. While my own family kept their true identities hidden my entire damn life!

“How?” I sob. “How could you do that to her? Why?” I shout with a deafening cry. “Tell me what she could’ve done to make you hate her this much!”

“Elara…”

She tries to reach for my face, but I flinch, anger radiating from my every pore.

“Very well.” She sighs dramatically, returning to her seat. “Your mother was going to turn us in to the feds when she found out that your father sold you to the Eights. She was a mess.” She tsks. “I tried to reason with her. I told her I would get you out of it, but she wouldn’t listen.” She stares absently, as though remembering, before she looks back at me. “I had no choice,. I ordered your father to do it. And once I found out you killed him in retribution, that was when I realized that one day you’d be ready to take over for me.”

I laugh wildly. Like one of those insane laughs, because what she just said was the craziest thing I’ve heard. Or maybe not the craziest. Maybe tied with everything else she’s told me.

I swallow the bitter taste in my mouth. “You’re insane, Gran. If you think that I’d ever run your gang or want anything to do with you after this, you’re crazy.”

“Elara, sweetheart, your grandpa and I love you. This is just who we are.”

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