Page 68 of Broken Promises
His eyes grew wide and his jaw clenched as he brought his raging gaze to me. “That explains why he treated Rylee so badly and how that motherfucker found her.”
Lucian spun and grabbed Kelly by the hair and wrenched her head up as he yelled at her. “Tell me about Ricardo Pickens. Why is his name on the list?”
She looked confused for a moment and then tried to barter her way out of her fate. “I’ll tell you if you let me go.”
“I’ll kill you slowly if you don’t explain right now. And before you die,” he said to her as his tone turned deep and deadly, “I’ll stake your body in the forest for the wild animals to feed on, so you have to feel every bite and tear as you watch them devouryourself alive. Are we fucking clear?” he yelled louder, and she jumped back as fresh tears fell from her eyes.
“Ricardo was on Sergey’s payroll. He was the one who let me know when . . . when he d-d-died.” She wiped her face as she kept speaking through broken cries. “He helped me while Sergey was testifying and after I lost Sergey, so I promised him a seat at the table.”
She was seemingly resigned to the fact she was going to die, and how painful it would be was determined by her desire to answer our questions. Lucian released her hair with a shove and planted his hip on the edge of the table next to her.
“How many people were invited to this event you were having?” he asked in a tone that left no room for negotiation.
She shook her head before replying softly, “Three, but one couldn’t produce his offering, so he’s not coming.”
“His offering?” Devlin yelled, and she flinched at his volume. “You’re a sick fucking bitch, you know that?”
She didn’t respond as she looked up at me. “I’m . . . I’m sorry for speaking to Hannah like that.”
What a fucking martyr, I thought before leaning over and yelling, “Who the fuck are you kidding, lady? I know you’ll say whatever you have to say to get out of here, but let me tell you how this is going to end. You will be dead, and I’ll bury you right beside your precious Sergey, so you can spend eternity getting ass fucked by the devil for what you’ve done. And once I walk away, neither Hannah nor I will ever think about you again. But if you don’t tell us everything, and I mean every fucking thing about this, I swear, it will take a week for you to die, and I’ll make every fucking second of it hurt more than the last.”
She cast her eyes down and tears hit the table as she absorbed my promise. I would kill her, I would make it hurt, and I wouldn’t think about her ever again. Hannah and I are going to have an amazing future, devoid of the depraved indifference,sneaky planning, and loveless encounters that Kelly taught Hannah was normal.
“I . . . I’ll tell you everything I know,” she remarked, and Devlin jerked her up by the arm.
She brought her wounded eyes to Sergey’s lifeless body one more time, and her chin trembled as she took her final look at him. She was dragged into her office and pushed into a chair as Lucian sat on the desk in front of her and James stood to the side. Devlin took a seat in the leather chair behind the desk and kicked his feet up as Lucian began to question her.
For the next three hours, she told us of every meeting she had with Sergey while he was under the protection of the feds. She detailed the meetings she had with other families hoping to join Sergey’s new empire, and she explained how she was able to find some of the unclaimed children of former members to use as ‘offerings’. That was her word, not mine, and every time she said it, I had to physically stop myself from snapping her neck.
I received a text message from Hawk, letting me know he, Stella, and Hannah were going to feed the two young girls, and I showed James the message before pushing my phone back into my pocket. There was a recording of everything she said, and a few times, James had her clarify something as he looked in the journals.
“Who is Waylon?” Lucian asked, and I was curious about that myself.
Sergey was pampered and spoiled, but it seemed Waylon was overlooked and abused, so I was curious where he fit into everything.
“Waylon is my son with another man. He’s not Sergey’s, but I always told him he was, so he would fall in line,” she admitted, and Devlin shook his head, disgusted with her reasons for just about everything.
Whatever she told us always had a spin, making it seem as if she wasn’t benefitting from the horrible actions. It was always someone else’s idea, or she was just doing what was best for her ‘son’, when in reality she just wanted the power that came with him, but since Stella killed Sergey Senior, Kelly began to spiral, and I could only assume she’d replaced dead Sergey with the teenage boy in her sick mind.
“And what was his role in all this?” I asked, and she glanced over her shoulder.
“His only job was to get Hannah to us, and he couldn’t even do that right.”
“I’m going to give you one last chance to tell me if there’s anything you’ve left out. A person, meeting, or agreement that may arise. I want to know,” Lucian warned, and I stepped around her to stand next to him.
“Who’s Sergey’s mother? What’s her name?”
“Martina Richardson. She lived with Hannah and me while she was pregnant, and when she delivered my sweet boy, Sergey said I could do away with her, that she’d given him all he needed from her.”
“And the dead woman in north Texas with your ID planted near her? Who’s she?” I inquired, and she shook her head.
“She was some drifter Sergey noticed a few months prior, and he remarked how much she looked like me. I offered her a ride, and I had Sergey drug her. We kept her at our house for a few months, and when it was time for us to start the initiations, I had to give myself a fresh start. So, I took care of her and left her for someone to find. I . . . I never thought that would lead me here.”
“That decision, along with all the rest you’ve made, put you right here, where you’re not going to live past tonight. So, now’s the time to make peace with your maker,” I warned as Ileaned closer. She cast her resigned eyes to me and nodded her understanding.
“I . . . I really am sorry for everything I did to Hannah, but I know you’ll help her forget me,” Kelly stated, and I scoffed at her last attempt at mercy.
Lucian looked at James and lifted his eyebrows. James ran his finger over a few more pages, and when he was satisfied we’d gotten everything we needed, he nodded at Lucian. Devlin smiled from his comfy position behind the desk, and when Lucian looked back at him, Devlin drew his thumb across his throat, signaling his desire to kill her.
