Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
“Take it up with my lawyer. I didn’t ask for this.”
Jedd pushes out of the chair, letting it scrape against the ground. “Alright, pack it up. I’m not interested in having any more of my time wasted.”
“What?” I gasp, stepping in closer to the table. “You’re just going to give up like that? You asked one bullshit question. You didn’t even try.”
“I don’t need to try, Aria. I have been doing this for longer than you’ve been walking this earth, and I know when I’m not going to get shit out of somebody. He’s a lost cause, and coming here has been a waste. And for the record, all of this is going to be compensated out of your paycheck the second we get back to the office.”
I scoff. “After stealing my interview out from under me, you’re delusional if you think I’m coming back to work for you. You can do your own grunt work from now on,” I say, before turning my furious stare on Stone. “As for you, you can stop wasting my time. I came here to get answers, and I’m not leaving without them.”
“Is that so, Menace?”
“Damn right, it is,” I say, my emotions going back and forth so ridiculously fast that I’m giving myself whiplash. I drop into Jedd’s empty chair and glare across the table, my hands resting on the cold metal, barely an inch away from Stone’s. “Who were you protecting?”
Stone’s brow arches, and it’s the first time anybody has gotten even a small reaction out of him. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t act dumb. It doesn’t suit you,” I tell him. “I’ve been studying up on you, and it’s clear that you’re an intelligent man. Your silence isn’t simply an act of stubbornness. It’s your way of keeping somebody else’s name out of it, and I want to know who that is.”
He leans forward, bracing his weight against his elbows and shifting the table beneath him, pushing it closer into me. “You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?”
“What really happened that night?”
“Read the articles. It’s all there.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” I say, getting more frustrated with every unanswered question. “What was your relation to the six men you killed?”
“Next.”
“Why’d you kill them?” I throw right back, not allowing him even a chance to think.
“Try again, Menace.”
“Who are you protecting?”
He slams his hands down on the table, rattling the cuffs against the metal, losing control. “That’s none of your goddamn business.”
“Ahh, so I was right. You were protecting someone,” I say, letting him see the smugness that tears from my chest. It seems someone is a loose cannon when he doesn’t have hold of that perfectly sculptured control. “Who is she? It’s a girl, right? It’s always a girl.”
“Watch yourself,” he growls.
“Or what? You might just feel something for the first time in seven years? What’s got you so scared, Stone? Why are you so goddamn terrified of standing up and defending yourself? I know you killed those men. That much was clear from your court case, but anyone with a brain could tell there’s more to the story.”
He’s stone-cold silent, waves of tension rolling off him like aftershocks from a deadly explosion, and I watch with increasing frustration as he shuts down, not willing to give me an inch, especially when I’ve been pushing for a mile.
“So, that’s it, huh? You’re just going to watch another opportunity to save yourself pass by?”
He clenches his jaw. “You done?”
I almost laugh in his face. “No, I’ll be done when I get what I came here for,” I tell him, adjusting my chair and giving him a childish smile as I hold up both of my hands. “Now, I know words are a little tricky for some, so we’re going to play a game. Hold your hands out just like this. Look, I’ll even do it with you.”
He stares at me as though he wants to pull my insides out through my asshole, but the more I screw with him, the higher chance I have of making him break. “Okay, big guy, put a finger down if you’ve ever lied while under oath?”
I slowly put a finger down and watch as he doesn’t move a muscle. “Oh, come on. I thought we were going to do this together?”
There’s a moment of silence, and I let out a sigh. “No? Okay, hit me with your favorite food?”
Silence.
“What’s the matter now? Can’t comprehend the question? Taken a few too many hits to the head?”
“I understand the question,” he hisses at me. “Why the fuck are you asking it?”
“Well, I figured if you’re just going to sit here like a jacked beached whale, then I might as well get something out of it. I’m thinking I’ll write a fluff piece. I could title it World’s Most Notorious Killer Taken Down by Homemade Lasagna. Or would you prefer we start with your favorite color? Perhaps something a little easier. Favorite corner of your cell?”