“That kills you, doesn’t it, baby brother?”
“You were always jealous of me and what I had.” David spat at him. “I had everything that you wanted. I even had her.”
“You never had her.”
“That’s what she likes to say, but I fucked her in every hole she has and she loved it. She was begging me for more when I had her in the bed.”
“You sick fuck.” Jakob slapped him again and David laughed.
“She’ll never trust you, you know. Not now and not ever. Not when she finds out exactly what you did. Not when she finds out why.”
“What are you talking about?” Jakob’s voice went cold as ice. As did my face as I took a few steps closer to the TV screen.
“I’m talking about her father.”
“What?” Jakob grabbed hold of David’s shirt. “Think very carefully before you speak next, little brother.”
“I’m talking about your whore of a mother and Bianca’s father.” David laughed. “Does Bianca know that her precious father was the one cheating?”
Jakob stood there still as a statue and my hand flew to my mouth to stifle a gasp. All of a sudden my father’s grief made a lot more sense. Larry’s wife had been right. They’d all been evil.
“And not only that . . .” David’s eyes narrowed. “Does Bianca know exactly what happened to her father? I think she’d be interested in finding out more about his death. Don’t you?”
“What do you know about her father’s death?” Jakob tightened his hold on David’s shirt.
“I spoke to Larry, who spoke to Steve. I know who Steve was working for,” David spat out, and then smiled a wide, evil smile. “And all hell’s about to break loose, dear brother.”
“You spoke to Larry?” Jakob’s voice dropped. “If you want any chance of getting out of here, you better tell me what game he’s playing.”
“Death was just the beginning,” David said slowly, and I froze at the familiar words. “You’ve been a bad, bad boy, Jakob.”
“What does that mean?”
“You thought the target of everything was Bianca.” David laughed. “But you were wrong. The target has been you, all along.”
“What?”
“It’s game, set, and match, Jakob. You’re going to lose everything. Once Bianca knows the truth about what you’ve done, it will be all over for you.” David laughed. “It will be all over.”
The screen went blank and I stared at the black and gray lines, my mind buzzing. What the fuck was going on?
Beep beep. I grabbed my phone, expecting another text from Steve. I needed to see him right away. I needed to find out what he knew. I clutched my head and rubbed my temple as I felt a huge migraine hit me.
Bianca, we need to talk now. Blake’s name flashed on the screen. You and Jakob need to come and meet up with me. I think you’ve both been set up.
I was about to call Blake when I heard the door behind me closing.
“It’s me, Bianca,” said the familiar voice. “I’m here.”
I turned around and took one look at the person in front of me before the world turned as black as it had the day I learned my father had died. I fainted clean away.
Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next installment in the tantalizing, heart-stopping Swept Away series by New York Times bestselling author J.S. Cooper
Resolution
Coming Summer 2015 from Gallery Books!
prologue
“Hush, little baby, don’t say a fucking word,” he sang in an ominous voice as he twisted the lyrics to the old nursery rhyme. His voice was the only sound in the small damp space aside from a low rattling in the corner, and I didn’t want to know what or who was making that noise.
I kept my face stiff and my eyes downward as I sat there uncomfortably. The room was cold and dark and smelled of mold. I coughed as the mildew filled my lungs and my body shivered on the old rickety chair I was tied to. I didn’t even bother trying to scream—I knew no one would hear me. No one would be coming to my rescue now. It was just the two of us. After everything, it had come to this.
My head dropped forward as I grew tired. I just wanted to sleep. I wanted to sleep and forget that any of this had ever happened, not because I was scared of this moment but because my heart ached for all the moments of the last week, for the devastating truth that I’d had to accept. It wasn’t about fear of the man in front of me—but I couldn’t even look at him without feeling a gamut of emotions from heartache to guilt. This moment was poetic justice; the weaving paths of our forefathers had led us inevitably here. I knew there was nothing either of us could say or do to change the direction our paths had led us down.