Page 62 of Death's Deal

“Jazmine, I —”

“Yeah, I’m sure there's a well-oiled speech in there, Johnson, but I’m telling you now. I think you’re hiding the door number two that goes to jail. I’d rather go to jail.”

The asshole who just strip searched me grins. “Guantanamo is warm this time of year.”

Keeping up with his quip, gleefully, I snip, “Oh! I hear they have great souffles on Friday. Am I right, Murianos?”

Opening his mouth to reply, I cut him off, “Don’t speak. The adults are talking.”

Attempting to interject himself into the foray, Luci finally pipes up, “We’re all sacrificing something, J. This wasn’t something we wanted either.”

“Oh! You speak now? I was just at your house, Luci, watching your daughter, and you couldn’t tell me what was happening? I don’t even know what is going on yet, and you’re telling me you had no choice? I trusted everyone in this room, including you, implicitly, with my life, and right now... not one of you gets to speak further.” Flicking my index finger to poke Johnson in the chest hard again, I keep my focus on him. “This is between the civil servant and the heroine of the story.”

Bennett tries his hand at softening my ire. “J, we had to do this. It’s the only way.”

I don’t take my eyes from Johnson. I’m good at poker and I’m looking for his tell. His dark-brown eyes, thick bushy brows, and well-shaved face doesn’t even flinch. “What part of your soul did you sell for your sister’s freedom, Bennett?”

“They forced us.”

“Yeah, I see you all taking this like a fresh recruit in Lompoc.”

“J, they took the deeds to each of our clubhouses, our homes, even Humble. Not just Hades’s, they froze Lucius’s assets along with Cap’s, the Golden Boys’, and every other association we have. Everyone has been roped into this. They have us by the balls,” Bennett states it so matter-of-fact, that of course it could be a logical reason for whatever this is.

“I don’t believe you. They can’t do that.”

Johnson confirms, “Your brother is telling the truth. We need this to work out. We pressured them, as this was the only way.”

I cool my temper only slightly, understanding whatever this is, it is so much bigger than me. Seemingly far too content with the situation, I eye Murianos. Narrowing my gaze back to Johnson, seeing no one has that look of lying, once more I ask, “What are you telling me to do?”

Johnson doesn’t answer, he defers to Murianos. “Oh, so apparently you’ve recently become mute.”

“It’s a part of the deal, Jazmine. He has to tell you.”

Through gritted teeth and a rising heart rate, I stepped to the man I want to shove red-hot pokers in his chest. “I want to boil the skin from your body. I want to make you suffer like no one has before. Everything I can think of and anything I can think up after, then I’ll do it all again.” Seething with a desire to kill, it seems I’ll have to do the one thing I would rather kill myself for. I have to ask Murianos for the truth of the situation and hope he doesn’t lie to me, but I expect nothing less. “It seems you’re calling the shots. What have you orchestrated?”

Answering flatly with a glorious grin that could swallow the moon, Murianos replies, “You’re to be my wife.”

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