AllFreeNovel
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Lex has been through a lot of shit in her life, more than she’s shared with me and probably ever will share with anyone, but most of the best flowers start in the dirt. Some just need more tending than others.
“But I’ve upgraded from razorblades and I’m promising you if you pull that trigger, I pull mine.”
“Lex, don’t,” I plead through a tight throat.
My eyes trained on Lex with Cyrus in my periphery, I can see him sizing me up. He’s weighing his options, calculating his chances.
Across the mattress’s surface, I slowly reach out to touch Lex’s hip, rubbing her smooth skin with the back of my fingers, silently begging her not to do it. I don’t care if he kills me, she can’t shoot herself. She fucking can’t.
After a few more seconds that feel like hours, Cyrus finally lowers his gun. Lex waits until it’s holstered to drop mine by her side again.
“You’re fucking dead,” Cyrus spits at me. “Your sisters will—”
“What’s the number?”
“Number?” he asks Lex.
“The one you’re planning on going to Kordin with.”
“I don’t want his money. I want his wife.”
“You plan for every scenario, including Kordin refusing to give me up, so what was the number you were willing to settle for in case he did?”
Cyrus swings his gaze back and forth between the two of us.
“Five million.”
Lex closes her eyes, breathing through her nose, and for a moment I think she’s going to risk the counterattack waiting for us outside and just kill Cyrus now.
If she does, at least one of us is getting shot.
I prepare my body to tackle hers, so it’s me. It canonlybe me.
Her eyes open again. “I’ll get you your five million dollars.”
“You have until midnight tonight otherwise the deal’s off and you’re mine.”
“I need more time. Banks are closed on Sundays.”
“I might be persuaded to extending my patience and generosity another day.”
“How much?”
“Double.”
Ten million dollars. Ten million motherfucking dollars. There’s no way she can—
“Done,” Lex says.
What?How the fuck does she have access to ten million dollars?
“But if you so much as go near Reece or anyone in his family between now and Monday night, I’ll blow my brains out, leaving you with nothing.”
“Nothing?” A humorless laugh leaves Cyrus’s lips. “I’d be front row at your funeral, squeezing Kordin Debrosse for every penny he’s worth before the first scoop of dirt hits your casket.”
“Now who’s naïve? How could Kordin possibly attend my funeral if he’s in prison for my murder? It’d be his gun after all, and I knowexactlyhow to make it look believable.” At Cyrus’s stunned silence, she adds, “Thanks to your tutelage.”
Cyrus’s expression hardens as he looks from her to me. “If you let anything happen to her before Monday—”
