Page 157 of Morally Black Betrothal

“‘What fuckin’ farm?’” he mimicked my accent poorly and almost earned himself another lost tooth. “What farm do you think? The Bishop farm. Dandelion Farm. You removed it from the contracts, and it’s right in the center of the plans.”

I frowned. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

He laughed. “You didn’t know? It was the key to the whole thing. We weren’t shorting the market, you asshole. I’m developing the whole valley, just the way your brother wanted to, but with way more shit. Fuck luxury getaways. We’re turning Vermont into the suburbs, and that dairy is the perfect site for a regional airport. You want the girl? Give me the farm. Otherwise, I don’t fucking care what you do. I’ll be dead anyway without it.”

I stared at him for a long time.

Long enough to know he wasn’t lying.

That’s the thing about logic. If you do it right, you come to the same conclusion that any bit of rhetoric would have brought you to in the first place.

I was always going to have to give him the one thing he wanted if I wanted the one thingIwanted.

I swallowed painfully. And tried to imagine what Simone would want me to do.

It was an impossible choice.

Her family’s farm or her niece’s life.

I prayed I made the right one.

“Done.” I took out my phone and punched out a message to Liam. “You have three minutes.”

Ezra spat at me as he pushed up from the floor, though it didn’t even reach my shoes.

I shook my head. “Two, then. The contracts are being drawn up now.”

With a hiss like a caged cat, he yanked his phone out again and called the same person as before. “Bring up the girl. Now.”

A few minutes later, the elevator doors at the far end of the floor opened, and a tiny blond girl leaped out, followed by a hulking bodyguard. She raced into the middle of the empty construction zone before coming to a stop as soon as she saw me standing over Ezra’s prostrate form.

I strode over to meet her, then crouched onto my heels so that we were eye to eye. “Heya, sweetheart,” I said quietly, like I was talking to a caged animal.

She had blue eyes just like her mother’s. Like Simone’s.

Like my kid might if we ever had a baby.

What the fuck? Why was I thinking about that now?

“I know you,” she said. “Mommy and I saw you on TV. With Aunt Simone.”

“That’s right, honey. And you’re Kylie, right?”

She nodded, causing her matted blond curls to bounce. She needed a brush and a bath. Yeah, Ezra Huntington was gonna pay for this.

“Your aunt and your mom sent me here to get you,” I told her. “Will you come with me? They’re at my house, waiting for you.”

She examined me with the kind of doubt I could only be proud of. “I’m not supposed to go anywhere with strangers. But I don’t wanna stay with that guy either.”

She cast a very dirty look toward Ezra, now sitting up behind me, who only held his hands up and rolled his eyes. “Hey, she came to me, man. No kidnapping involved, right, kiddo?”

She glared a bit more, then turned back to me. “Can we go now?”

I nodded, then stood and took her hand and walked her back to the elevator. Before we stepped inside, I turned back to Ezra. “My assistant will message the contracts over today. But if I see you again, it’s off.”

He nodded, looking more than satisfied. “Pleasure doing business with you, Black.”

I let the doors close without responding, then pulled out my phone for another call. “Ronan.”